Dubai bought 2 aircraft companies from Carlyle

Sheik Ahmad bin Saeed al Maktoum, head of the Dubai ruling family

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, a company controlled by the government of Dubai, has purchased two aviation companies from the Carlyle Group, the Washington-based private investment consortium with close financial ties to the Bush family and former officials of the administrations of President George H.W. Bush and President Reagan, including former Secretary of State James Baker.

According to Bloomberg and Reuters, the buyout transaction last month, valued at $1.5 billion, involved Dubai Aerospace acquiring the Arizona-based Landmark Aviation, a company that repairs jet engines, and the Canadian company Standard Aero Holdings, Inc., which repairs military and private jet engines.

Earlier this year, Dubai Aerospace also moved to acquire factories put up for sale by European airplane maker Airbus.

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According to Aviation World, Dubai Aerospace was launched in February 2006 with plans to invest $20 billion to establish over the next few years wholly owned investments in airplane manufacturing and engineering, as well as airport operations and services.

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise is chaired by Sheik Ahmad bin Saeed al Maktoum, head of the Dubai ruling family.

As WND reported yesterday, Dubai, one of the seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates, has announced a complex transaction resulting in Borse Dubai, another government-controlled entity, owning 20 percent of the U.S. Nasdaq stock exchange and 28 percent of the London Stock Exchange.

WND reported today Mubadala, a wholly owned investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government, bought a 7.5 percent share of the Carlyle Group in a transaction in which the deal price was struck at a 10 percent discount to a valuation of $20 billion for all of the Carlyle Group.

Abu Dhabi is the largest of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates and the capital.

WND also reported Dubai International Capital, a private equity investment capital firm that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dubai Holdings, has commonly participated in co-investments with the Carlyle Group.

In reports filed with the federal government, Landmark Aviation acknowledged making a $400,000 payment in the first half of this year to the Washington-based law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld for lobbying activities on behalf of the firm.

Robert S. Strauss, a co-founder of the firm, was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1973 to 1976. In 1977, he entered the Cabinet of President Jimmy Carter, serving as special trade representative.

According to the Carlyle Group website, Landmark is also the second largest general aviation facility operator in North America, with a premier network of 35 fixed-based operations that provide refueling, hangar rental, parking, aircraft cleaning, catering and other services for business aircraft operators.

According to Bloomberg, Dubai Aerospace earlier this month abandoned an offer to buy a controlling 51 percent stake in New Zealand's Auckland International Airport for a $1.8 billion investment, after political objections by two city council groups that owned a 23 percent interest in the airport.

Auckland Airport handles an estimated 70 percent of all international arrivals in New Zealand.

On Sept. 18, Carlyle announced the appointment of David Marchick, a partner at the Washington-based law firm Covington & Burling, to head its regulatory dealings with politicians around the globe.

In the Clinton administration, Marchick worked as deputy assistant secretary of state for transportation affairs and deputy assistant for trade policy at the State Department. He also worked in the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

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