Middle Eastern aircraft leasing company Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) has won a $1.4bn investment mandate from an unidentified investor.

Details about the investor remain undisclosed. However, DAE noted that the investor is one of the world’s largest fund managers.

Under the multi-year mandate, DAE will source the aircraft and its Aircraft Investor Services (AIS) unit will manage them.

According to DAE, used narrow-body and wide-body aircraft will be sourced through its ties in the secondary market trading and sale-leaseback networks.

In addition, the investment mandate will involve providing the investor with capital structure support for the assets.

This mandate will take the managed portfolio of DAE to more than $2.7bn in assets under management.

DAE said that the company’s managed portfolio, along with other ongoing projects, is expected to reach its $5bn target.

DAE chief executive officer Firoz Tarapore said: “DAE is thrilled to have the opportunity to grow its managed aircraft business by sourcing and managing aircraft for a world-class financial institution. We are off to a flying start and have already sourced 25% of the portfolio.

“We own more than 300 aircraft and will manage more than 100 aircraft. We maintain an active dialogue with 250 airline customers. This scale and relevance combined with our 150-person full-service platform and our industry-leading AIS offering is a very compelling value proposition for investors in the managed aircraft space.”