Dubai...It's difficult to pop a really good bubble...

[GRG55]

They're still at it...:p

[Note: Arabtec in partnership with Samsung and Belgium construction firm Besix built the Tower Formerly Known as the Burj Dubai.]

Arabtec wins $193m Dubai tower contract

Sunday, 31 January 2010

Arabtec Holding, the biggest construction company in the UAE, said on Sunday it had won a building contract valued at AED710 million ($193 million) to build the first stage of an 80-storey tower comprising a five-star hotel.

The Dubai-based company’s Arabtec Construction unit received a “letter of award” from Tasameem Real Estate Co, of Abu Dhabi to build “P17 Tower” on Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, according to an company statement posted on the Dubai Financial Market website.

It said the project would take 38 months to complete, adding that the tower had been designed by Atkins and comprised 80 floors, including a luxury hotel, furnished apartments, offices and a health club.

[jiimbergin]

Re: Dubai...It's difficult to pop a really good bubble...

My wife and I really love cruising. It is amazing how many cruises start and or end in Dubai. More than 50. Each of those ships will have a large number of guests that will stay at least 1 night in Dubai. A few years ago Dubai was not even on cruise ships itinerary.

jim

[dummass]

Re: Dubai...It's difficult to pop a really good bubble...

They're still at it...:p

It said the project would take 38 months to complete
[/INDENT][/INDENT]

Good timing; they will have it completed just in time for the next recession.

[GRG55]

Re: Dubai...It's difficult to pop a really good bubble...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...wvVClK50&pos=3
newest spending from Dubai

Debt-Laden Dubai May Spend ‘Billions’ on Airport Expansion Work By Chan Sue Ling and Vivian Salama




Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Dubai Airports, the government-owned airfield operator, plans to seek approval for expansion plans costing “billions of dirham,” undeterred by the emirate’s need for a $20 billion bailout last year.
The company will make a recommendation on boosting capacity within the next few months, Chief Executive Officer Paul Griffiths said today in an interview in Singapore. He declined to elaborate further on the costs.

LOL. During my trip in December, one of the comments I heard from a [non-Dubai] bank CEO I know in the Gulf was that too many of the heads of the various Dubai state-owned companies had lost their grip on reality well before everything fell apart for them.

Seems in some notable instances that's still the case.

Dubai has neither the funds, nor the sufficient credit to execute anything like this. It would appear they've no better idea than to pretend Dubai World was a minor inconvenience, and nothing else has changed

At the moment a major preoccupation in that region is debt rescheduling. This includes the sovereign wealth funds such as Abu Dhabi's Mubadala and Bahrain's Mumtalakat, who are refinancing, down to an increasing number of smaller, non-sovereign finance houses some of whom are looking for outright debt repayment deferrals. The latter isn't going over well with lenders already spooked by Dubai World and the Saudi Algosaibi/Saad Group defaults. The latest I've heard from the Gulf is that Abu Dhabi is now so concerned about the fallout damage from the Dubai default on the Emirates as a whole that there's a sense of resignation about having to potentially bail out some US$100 B of Dubai debt [sound familiar :rolleyes:].

[jiimbergin]

Re: Dubai...It's difficult to pop a really good bubble...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...wvVClK50&pos=3
newest spending from Dubai

Debt-Laden Dubai May Spend ‘Billions’ on Airport Expansion Work By Chan Sue Ling and Vivian Salama




Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Dubai Airports, the government-owned airfield operator, plans to seek approval for expansion plans costing “billions of dirham,” undeterred by the emirate’s need for a $20 billion bailout last year.
The company will make a recommendation on boosting capacity within the next few months, Chief Executive Officer Paul Griffiths said today in an interview in Singapore. He declined to elaborate further on the costs.

[GRG55]

Re: Dubai...It's difficult to pop a really good bubble...

LOL. During my trip in December, one of the comments I heard from a [non-Dubai] bank CEO I know in the Gulf was that too many of the heads of the various Dubai state-owned companies had lost their grip on reality well before everything fell apart for them.

Seems in some notable instances that's still the case.

Dubai has neither the funds, nor the sufficient credit to execute anything like this. It would appear they've no better idea than to pretend Dubai World was a minor inconvenience, and nothing else has changed

At the moment a major preoccupation in that region is debt rescheduling. This includes the sovereign wealth funds such as Abu Dhabi's Mubadala and Bahrain's Mumtalakat, who are refinancing, down to an increasing number of smaller, non-sovereign finance houses some of whom are looking for outright debt repayment deferrals. The latter isn't going over well with lenders already spooked by Dubai World and the Saudi Algosaibi/Saad Group defaults. The latest I've heard from the Gulf is that Abu Dhabi is now so concerned about the fallout damage from the Dubai default on the Emirates as a whole that there's a sense of resignation about having to potentially bail out some US$100 B of Dubai debt [sound familiar :rolleyes:].

60 cents on the dollar after 7 years...hmmm...:p

Dubai World Said to Present Loan Restructuring Plan in March

Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Dubai World will present a proposal to creditors in March to restructure about $22 billion of debt after its advisers complete valuing the assets of the state- owned company, a person close to the Dubai government said.

The final proposal will be made after consultations with the Abu Dhabi government and the United Arab Emirates’ central bank, said the official today, who declined to be identified because the process is private. The central bank, Abu Dhabi’s government and two lenders of the emirate lent $20 billion last year to Dubai’s support fund to help state-owned companies during the credit crisis...

...All restructuring options are being considered, including swapping Nakheel’s $1.73 billion bonds with new securities, the person said. A graded loan recovery system is also an option, which will allow banks wishing earlier repayment lower recovery on their loans than those who are prepared to wait.

No decision has yet been made on which restructuring option to use, the person said. No proposal on a so-called haircut for banks, which involves lenders accepting less money than what they are owed, or a decision on asset sales can be made until the valuation is completed, the person said.

Dubai World may offer its creditors 60 cents on the dollar after seven years, Zawya Dow Jones reported Feb. 14, citing unidentified people familiar with the plan. A spokeswoman for the emirate that day said neither the government nor Dubai World had made such an offer...

...Dubai World and its advisers will attempt to agree on a restructuring plan with its more than 90 creditors by April 15 so that Nakheel’s bondholders have time to execute a possible exchange of their debt, the person said.

Nakheel has two outstanding Islamic bonds, a 3.6 billion- dirham ($980 million) floating-rate note due May 13 and a 2.75 percent, $750 million sukuk maturing in January 2011...

...Nakheel bondholders are likely to get 40 percent to 50 percent of their holdings as a result of debt renegotiations, Barclays Capital’s London-based analysts Alia Moubayed and Milena Ianeva wrote in a report in January.

[GRG55]

Re: Dubai...It's difficult to pop a really good bubble...

And you thought it was just Dubai expatriates with car loans and mortgages that needed Allah's mercy...

Islamic finance needs clearer rules


GENEVA (Reuters) - Sharia-compliant financial products need a clearer legal framework to attract non-Islamic investors, after the Dubai World debt crisis battered perceptions of limited and prudently-managed risk, said one legal expert.

The crisis, sparked when Dubai's Nakheel asked for three listed Islamic bonds worth $5.25 billion to be suspended pending restructuring, was made worse because it was not clear who the legally competent authorities were, said Sonya van de Graaff, a partner at law firm Brown Rudnick.

"While Nakheel 2009 was governed by English law, the entity is in Dubai and so are the assets, so to the extent an English judgment is delivered, investors would need to get it recognized and enforced in Dubai," van de Graaff said at the Reuters Islamic Banking and Finance Summit.

"There is no guarantee the local or DIFC courts would do so. If it is regulated as a government entity, investors may not be able to sue, as Dubai law may give the entity immunity."

Investors in the Dubai projects include several large western banks. They have been both spooked by the crisis and disgruntled by Dubai's proposals to date on how to repay them...

..."Nobody has ever had to sue over a sukuk before, the legal framework had never been put to the test," said van de Graaff.

"It seems buyers were not taking sufficient stock of the details of the transaction, and in particular, the income stream and the commitment and wherewithal to complete the project. There was no real plan detailed anywhere in the prospectus."...

...Sharia law is a series of concepts which hover above a transaction's governing laws, said van de Graaff, so if a loan agreement is governed by English law, it may be necessary to change its structure to comply with Sharia principles...

...The notion that Islamic Finance was immune to the excesses of the financial crisis was scuppered by Dubai World.

"There was sometimes the impression during the crisis that hit western economies from 2007 that the stretched loans-to-value at the root of the problem could never happen in Sharia finance because of restrictions on leverage limits," said van de Graaff.

"Well, they did."

[jk]

Re: Dubai...It's difficult to pop a really good bubble...

wasn't it walter wriston who said countries don't go bankrupt? haven't we seen this movie [or at least this scene] before?

[touchring]

Re: Dubai...It's difficult to pop a really good bubble...

wasn't it walter wriston who said countries don't go bankrupt? haven't we seen this movie [or at least this scene] before?

i think he has not seen north korea.

[GRG55]

Re: Dubai...It's difficult to pop a really good bubble...

60 cents on the dollar after 7 years...hmmm...:p

Dubai World Said to Present Loan Restructuring Plan in March

Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Dubai World will present a proposal to creditors in March to restructure about $22 billion of debt after its advisers complete valuing the assets of the state- owned company, a person close to the Dubai government said.

The final proposal will be made after consultations with the Abu Dhabi government and the United Arab Emirates’ central bank, said the official today, who declined to be identified because the process is private. The central bank, Abu Dhabi’s government and two lenders of the emirate lent $20 billion last year to Dubai’s support fund to help state-owned companies during the credit crisis...

...All restructuring options are being considered, including swapping Nakheel’s $1.73 billion bonds with new securities, the person said. A graded loan recovery system is also an option, which will allow banks wishing earlier repayment lower recovery on their loans than those who are prepared to wait.

No decision has yet been made on which restructuring option to use, the person said. No proposal on a so-called haircut for banks, which involves lenders accepting less money than what they are owed, or a decision on asset sales can be made until the valuation is completed, the person said.

Dubai World may offer its creditors 60 cents on the dollar after seven years, Zawya Dow Jones reported Feb. 14, citing unidentified people familiar with the plan. A spokeswoman for the emirate that day said neither the government nor Dubai World had made such an offer...

...Dubai World and its advisers will attempt to agree on a restructuring plan with its more than 90 creditors by April 15 so that Nakheel’s bondholders have time to execute a possible exchange of their debt, the person said.

Nakheel has two outstanding Islamic bonds, a 3.6 billion- dirham ($980 million) floating-rate note due May 13 and a 2.75 percent, $750 million sukuk maturing in January 2011...

...Nakheel bondholders are likely to get 40 percent to 50 percent of their holdings as a result of debt renegotiations, Barclays Capital’s London-based analysts Alia Moubayed and Milena Ianeva wrote in a report in January.

While we were all munching on Greek salad, back in the sandbox...

Dubai Offers Dubai World $9.5 Billion in New Funds

March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Dubai will support Dubai World’s debt restructuring with $9.5 billion as the state-owned holding company asks creditors to wait up to eight years to get all their money back.

The additional funds double to $20 billion the amount the government paid to the emirate’s holding company. Dubai World said in November it would seek to delay repaying debt until May, sparking a plunge in developing-nation stocks and doubling the cost to protect against a default by Dubai...

...The “eventual impact on the Dubai economy is going to be positive as contractors are paid and incomplete projects get back on track,” Taqi said.

Dubai’s benchmark index surged 4.3 percent, the most since Dec. 14, to 1,845.21 at the close. Emaar Properties PJSC, developer of the world’s tallest skyscraper, increased 8.8 percent, and Emirates NBD PJSC, the U.A.E.’s biggest bank by assets and one of Dubai World’s biggest lenders, closed at the highest this year.

Nakheel’s $750 million Islamic bond maturing in January gained 29.5 cents to 94.375 cents on the dollar at 2:40 p.m. in Dubai, according to prices on Bloomberg.

Credit default swaps linked to Dubai fell 53.8 basis points to 368.9 basis points, the lowest level since November.

Creditors of Dubai World will be fully repaid through new securities maturing in five to eight years, the company said. The interest rate on the new debt is still under discussion, Chief Restructuring Officer Aidan Birkett said today.

Dubai won’t guarantee the repayment of debt being rolled over and the amount of government support provided should be sufficient, Birkett told reporters. Dubai World is “under no pressure to sell assets,” which will be disposed off “at the right value and at the right time,” he said...

************************************************** ************************************************** ************************************************** **

"...as contractors are paid and incomplete projects get back on track..."

"Creditors...will be fully repaid..."

"...under no pressure to sell assets..."

What a complete crock.

The best thing about Dubai was that nowhere else on the face of the earth was there anybody that could sell a mirage-like fantasy as well as "Dubai Inc." It's the only thing they know how to do...so I suppose it should be no surprise they are still trying to do it with the creditors...:rolleyes:

[touchring]

Re: Dubai...It's difficult to pop a really good bubble...

The Gulf Arabs got plenty of oil money to waste.

[D-Mack]

Re: Dubai...It's difficult to pop a really good bubble...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8591795.stm

The world's richest horse race, the $10m Dubai World Cup, takes place in a new venue this year, the Meydan racecourse.
The facility cost more than $1bn to build and will also be used as a concert and conference venue.
With a racing season of only three months, the venue's other uses may be vital if the Dubai Racing Club is to stay afloat.