Aircraft lessor Dubai Aerospace Enterprise Ltd. (DAE; unrated) announced that it has agreed to acquire aircraft lessor Nordic Aviation Capital DAC (NAC). Based on publicly available information, we view DAE's credit quality as much stronger than that of NAC. Therefore, we placed our 'B' ratings on NAC and its core subsidiary NAC 29, including its debt, on CreditWatch with positive implications. We plan to resolve the CreditWatch placement after the transaction closes, and we have reviewed the combined entity's capital structure and financial policy. We think that NAC will likely have a higher than nonstrategic group status after the acquisition. This, combined with DAE's potentially several notches stronger credit profile, would likely translate to an at least one notch-uplift, potentially
