Dubai 50 per cent of property projects cancelled

source Arabian Business
Dubai’s government cancelled almost half of the real estate projects planned in the emirate after the credit crisis caused demand to collapse and a housing glut drove down home prices.

Out of 980 registered projects, 495 were scrapped or are in the process of being cancelled by the emirate’s Real Estate Regulatory Agency the government said in a bond prospectus posted on the London Stock Exchange website on Monday.

Dubai Properties Chairman released from jail after repaying 130 Million

source The National
DUBAI , June 16. 2010// The former chairman of Dubai Properties, a unit of Dubai Holding, has been released from jail after repaying Dh130 million in state funds.

Hashim al Dabal was freed after eight months in custody, the Dubai Attorney General, Essam Issa al Humaidan, said yesterday. Mr al Dabal had been held since being taken in for questioning in October on suspicion of taking illegal profits from property transactions.

The funds have been deposited in the Public Prosecution’s treasury and will be returned to the Dubai Government, which owns Dubai Holding. “Mr al Dabal was granted his freedom after he repaid the amounts he acquired through abusing his position and power,” said Mr al Humaidan.

The former Dubai Holding board member was the second executive to be released under similar circumstances under an amnesty law issued last December.

Omar bin Sulaiman, the former governor of the Dubai International Financial Centre, was freed on May 20 after repaying Dh51.5m obtained during his tenure.

While free for now, Mr al Dabal could soon find himself behind bars again. He may face charges with regard to more than 15 separate investigations being conducted by the recently formed Monetary and Public Funds prosecution, which is headed by Ismail Ali Madani.

Dubai Property disputes - Omniyat Properties and others

source The National original reported by Bradley Hope
Kasim Hammami says he was making a speculative investment when he put a 20 per cent down payment of Dh4.8 million (US$1.3m) on an entire floor of the planned Beachfront Living tower in Dubai’s Waterfront development in 2007.

“It was pure buying and selling of properties,” the Syrian businessman said of the strategy for the company he co-founded, New Wave Investments. “We would trade three or four properties a year.”

But, almost three years later, that investment is at the centre of a dispute between Mr Hammami and the developer, Omniyat Properties, which has sent him a cancellation notice after he defaulted on further payments.

In a property economy that, towards the end of the boom, was dominated by both speculative developers and buyers, many disputes similar to that involving Mr Hammami have ended up in the courts and the halls of the Land Department and Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA). Hundreds of cancellation notices have recently been sent out by developers and the Land Department to buyers who have default.

“Everyone in Dubai is pointing the finger at what’s called speculators,” Mr Hammami said. “We all share some responsibilities, including the regulator and the developer. What I would like is fair treatment.”

Property laws in Dubai have created a standoff between buyers and developers. Developers are allowed to collect 30 per cent of the value of a property before connecting the remaining payments to construction milestones.

Mr Hammami would have to pay another 10 per cent of the Dh24m he has committed to pay for four apartments, or Dh2.4m, to meet his obligations.

Meanwhile, Omniyat has only recently started construction of the tower after hiring of a contractor to install piling. RERA classifies the project as not having reached the first of five construction milestones. A report on its website from February 23 said the “enabling contractor has started mobilising on site” and “shoring works have started”.

According to an official review of the project’s escrow account by Caliber Middle East, a consultancy that advises RERA, earlier this year, Omniyat sold more than 200 apartments and collected Dh314.7m.

Of that money and other funds Omniyat invested in the project, Caliber’s review shows, the company spent Dh237m on land payments and Dh101.6m on marketing expenses. Just Dh738,866 was spent on construction. Omniyat declined to comment last week.

Nakheel, the developer behind the entire 130-square km Waterfront project, has stopped work on it and has not yet announced a plan for future building.

“How can I invest more money when the project has barely started,” Mr Hammami said.

The two sides have failed to reach an agreement during the past year.

A group of investors applied to RERA to cancel the project last year but did not receive a response, lawyers said. Then, earlier this year the Land Department acted as an intermediary with an offer to lower the price per square foot, but increase the size of the apartments by 20 per cent.

Mohammed Gamal, an investor who signed up to buy a floor of Beachfront Living for Dh35m in 2008, said: “Investment entails by its sheer nature the possibility of loss. But, there are principles. It cannot be acceptable under any circumstances than when an external factor like the financial crisis comes that one party wins all and other party loses all.”

Technorati-Tags: Dubai property disputes, Omniyat Properties dubai

Another property case filed at DIFC Court - Union Properties Dubai

source EmiratesBusiness24-7

Investors have filed a breach of contract case against Union
Properties (UP) for the non-delivery of units of the Index Tower.

The 328-metre property, currently under construction at the DIFC,
should have been completed two years ago, the suit claims.

Union Properties sold some units of the Index Tower to the claimants
and although the forms did not provide any specific date of delivery, it
was the common intention of both parties that the developer would
deliver the units in late 2008, according to court papers filed at DIFC
Courts.

The delivery date, which was to be recorded in a sale and purchase
agreement (SPA), has also not been issued. "The respondents' continuing
failure to deliver the units and the failure of the respondent to issue
SPA in a timely manner is a breach of its contractual obligations,"
claim the document seen by Emirates Business.

continue reading...

Dubai World`s Debt - If banks and contractors are not properly dealt with, engaged and given comfort, then I think we will be facing a further crisis

original source The National

Top officials from the US and British governments are calling for
transparency in the settlement of Dubai World’s US$22 billion (Dh80.8bn)
debt restructuring, intensifying diplomatic pressure to conclude a deal
with creditors.

Neal Wolin, the deputy secretary of the US
Treasury, said he would call on officials during his visit to Dubai
today to ensure openness in the restructuring of the emirate’s
companies.

“I think it’s important that, as they work through these
restructurings and these issues, that it be done in a way that is
transparent so that we can all understand what’s going on,” Mr Wolin
said.
continue reading...

The big next question in Dubai - Layoff at Limitless and Nakheel

Dubai, February 14, 2010
original source  Blog Crane Country The National by Bradley Hope

Dubai World property developers have undergone a new round of lay-offs, as chief restructuring advisor Aiden Birkett cuts the companies down to size and reduces costs.

Limitless has laid off about 20 per cent, or 55, of its staff. It currently has 220 employees, according to former staff. The company had about 500 staff at its peak.

"Limitless has reorganised and streamlined its operations as part of its ongoing strategy to reduce costs while continuing to maximise productivity," a spokeswoman said. "Regrettably, this has impacted jobs."

A Nakheel spokesperson said the company "continues to readjust its current business objectives and the resources to match as part of the restructuring process". The company has previously let go of more than 1,000 people. It had 3,500 people at its peak.

The fate of these two property developers is the next big question in Dubai. They owe billions of dirhams in debt to banks and contractors. And they have giant, unfinished projects that need new capital to ever be complete. Nakheel's Palm Jebel Ali - which is even larger than the finished Palm Jumeirah - comes to mind.

As does the Arabian Canal, which was a planned 75km waterway through the desert outside Dubai. A short visit to the site this weekend found it completely abandoned, although the company did impressively dig several kilometres of it. (Check out the original multimedia package The National did on the canal here.) More pictures of the current state of the canal here.

Some analysts believe they will be merged together after selling off some assets to become a new Dubai developer with a new brand. Others believe that at least one of them will simply be liquidated. Another optimistic camp believes they will be restructured and continue operating. Either way, there are major changes afoot.

Dubai Apartment prices will fall 20 per cent this year

10 February 2010 DUBAI

original source Khaleej Times UAE

Sale prices and rents for villas, apartments and offices in Dubai will continue to decline through the first quarter of 2010 because of supply glut, with apartment prices likely to take the biggest hit and falling as much as 20 per cent in the next 18 months, property consultants Landmark Advisory said on Tuesday.

Landmark said that Abu Dhabi’s residential property prices, in the first quarter of the year, are likely to remain stable on average, with some upticks in select localities. But rents are likely to maintain a downtrend.

High-end units in Abu Dhabi saw their rents fall up to 15 per cent, but it was low-end units that fared the worst, Landmark said in its Q1 
Real Estate Report.

The report said that after increasing in the third quarter last year, villa prices in Dubai stagnated with a marginal increase of 0.2 per cent in the fourth quarter. A price bifurcation is emerging with coastal villa communities (along Sheikh Zayed Road) stabilising, while inland villa communities experience further declines, it said.

continue reading...

Technorati-Tags: Dubai Apartment Prices 2010, Dubai Real Estate Crisis

More than fith of construction projects in Dubai have been put on hold or canceled

original source The National

DUBAI // As an amateur photographer and property investor, Imre Solt found himself visiting construction sites throughout Dubai to document the progress of the rising skyline of Dubai on a daily basis. Now he is lucky to find a significant change at a project once a month.

“Sometimes I don’t take any photos at all because there is no progress,” says the Hungarian-born Mr Solt, who has captured the city’s growth in what he estimates are 100,000 pictures taken from the tops of tall buildings, helicopters and even a biplane. “There are a few buildings that have made very good progress, but I think more projects are on hold than before. Sometimes, there are just a few workers there.”

The numbers bear him out. More than a fifth of construction projects in Dubai have been put on hold or cancelled in the past year, with the remainder severely delayed, said Proleads, a construction information provider. Proleads also estimates that the number of construction workers in Dubai has declined 45 per cent from the peak of the property boom in 2008 to last month, a further sign of the city’s post-boom state.The problems are not isolated to Dubai, with projects in Abu Dhabi, Ras al Khaimah and Ajman similarly stalled.

“You have this stalemate,” says Andrew Charlesworth, the head of capital markets at the property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle. “We are not seeing any distressed sales come through. Banks are reluctant to foreclose. Buyers can’t make payments and developers can’t build.”

continue reading.....

Protection for Dubai Property Investors - New Law

New Dubai Land Law - Property refunds
original source The National / by Bradley Hope

Property investors in Dubai will be eligible for refunds or replacement property if they fall victim to unscrupulous or failing developers, under laws planned for this year.

And developers will face new financial penalties if the buildings they promise are not delivered on time, or to agreed specifications.

Details of the proposed laws were revealed in a newsletter from the law firm Al Tamimi and Company, which ran a dialogue between Lisa Dale, the head of the firm’s property practice, and Emad Eldin Farouq, a senior legal adviser at the Dubai Land Department.

“There are lessons to be learnt from the crisis and we are emerging with a new legal regime,” said Mr Farouq. “Loopholes in laws are being dealt with and things will become more organised in 2010.”

As more buyers default on their payment plans and developers fail to deliver buildings on time, legal disputes are expected to remain a dominant theme in the UAE this year, lawyers say.

“2010 is still the year of fighting,” said Michael Lunjevich, the head of the property practice at Hadef and Partners. “It will be about consolidations, legal claims, liquidations and insolvencies. The market needs to clean itself out.”

The most significant elements of the proposed legislation in Dubai relate to the protection of property investors, including the refund or replacement property for buyers where the developer delivers a defective property, and financial penalties for late delivery.

The laws would also establish the grounds on which a purchaser can demand cancellation of the contract if, for instance, the developer refuses to link payment plans with construction milestones.

“The investor protection law is being proposed to deal with some specific issues identified last year, where investors needed further assistance in dealing with errant developers,” Ms Dale said.

Another element of the legislation would allow Emiratis with land granted to them by the Government to convert it to a freehold title, allowing them to sell it to another Emirati or GCC national, or mortgage the property, she said.

“The granted land system is a tradition in the UAE, enabling nationals to have access to lands for the purpose of building their home or business premises,” Ms Dale said.

“However, the system is quite limiting, as there are restrictions on transacting with such land. If you upgrade your title from granted to freehold, you can sell the property to other UAE or GCC nationals, or you can put it into a property fund or mortgage it. It becomes a much more flexible asset.”

The Dubai Land Department also plans to begin regulating property valuers and conveyancers by requiring them to obtain licences, and to create a law to oversee property brokers who handle trust accounts for property deals, Ms Dale said.

The department has created a draft law that would provide a regulated structure for establishing and managing property funds, which would “potentially provide a boost to the Dubai real estate market by generating an increased level of collective investment activity”, she said.

Mr Farouq said in an interview yesterday that the Dubai Land Department was seeking to raise its number of lawyers to 15 from 10, and bring on board more property experts to help deal with the overflow of cases that have arisen from the slowdown in the property sector.

Planned laws welcomed, b4

But the wider problem for clearing the system of legal disputes is the relatively uncertain nature of property legislation in Dubai.

Last year, the authorities announced Law No. 9 as a definitive system for determining what happens in the event of a buyer default, but the regulations spelling out the specifics of the law have yet to come out.

Alexis Waller, the head of the property practice at Clyde and Company, said developers and investors in Dubai faced a “change-of-law risk”.

“You could do something today that could be impacted by a new law later,” Ms Waller said. “We are operating in a jurisdiction where there are a lot of grey areas.”

House prices in Dubai could fall a further 30 percent

original source Arabian Business


House prices in Dubai could fall a further 30 percent from current levels and up to 150,000 homes could be lying empty by the end of 2011, UBS has said.

"We reiterate our view that by end of 2011 Dubai property oversupply on residential and commercial properties may reach roughly 40-50 percent and house prices may decline another 30 percent from current levels," analyst Saud Masud said in a research note.

"We estimate total Dubai housing supply by end of 2011 to be roughly 360,000 with oversupply potentially at 150,000 residential units," he added.
read more....

Who is carrying the risk - Dubai’s unfinished construction projects is in the hundreds of billions of dollars

extract of original TheDailyMarverick

Some say the sum for Dubai’s unfinished construction projects is 400 billions of dollars , so who is carrying the risk?

Multiple reports state that Abu Dhabi will "pick and choose" how to assist Dubai.

As capital of the United Arab Emirates and home to the central bank that feeds the cluster of seven emirates, everybody is exposed to everyone else. Abu Dhabi pumps 90% of UAE oil, so that’s a big hedge. But just as Dubai World has subsidiary upon subsidiary, and extends its tentacles into state enterprises, parastatals, and listed firms, it’s hard to track where the fault lines lie in the patchwork that is UAE finances, and beyond into the markets of the Middle East proper.

Abu Dhabi’s own cost of insuring its debt against default has soared, from just less than $100,000 per $10 million, to more than $177,000. And while this number fluctuates with the desert winds, there’s no guarantee that Abu Dhabi will keep forking out money to save its emirate cousin. For now, though, the prospect of rising costs on its own borrowings appears to have galvanised Abu Dhabi into providing more cash to Dubai. Stock markets swelled after Abu Dhabi’s payment of $10 billion to its neighbour, with Abu Dhabi's stock market clambering 7.9%, while Dubai’s benchmark index rallied 10%, the biggest single-day gain in more than a year. But this remains far below its level before Dubai World announced it wanted a hold on debt.

Reuters quotes Abu Dhabi people who say most of the über-emirate’s credit flow was too big, government-backed entities in Dubai, which helped collateralise Abu Dhabi's own late entry into the wedding-cake architectural stakes.

"During those years, the property market was still in its infancy in Abu Dhabi, so like other banks here, we, too, diverted our credit to Dubai," one Abu Dhabi bank executive said. "We have to face the stress that will be caused to our balance sheet and profit and loss account due to this exposure to Dubai World and associated companies because it is a default. Yes, we will have to take more provisions."

No one yet knows where the debt really resides.

Western banks appear to have some $12 billion of exposure to Dubai’s unfinished building frenzy.

There’s a sprinkling of Islamic sukuk bonds, such as the one that funded Nakheel’s $4.1 billion of due debt.

But the market wants to know if Abu Dhabi’s latest $10 billion was a gift, or a loan, or came from the proceeds of a veiled asset sale.

Abu Dhabi recently launched a push to improve transparency and raise money overseas, to help fund its own 20-year development programme. And so far, the emirate has raised about $8 billion this year on international credit markets.

But last week, ratings agency Moody's placed the credit ratings of several big Abu Dhabi companies on review for a possible downgrade, citing uncertainty over government support. And in the meantime, rival agency Fitch downgraded Dubai Bank, and also Tamweel – the largest provider of UAE real estate financing. It also downgraded Bahrain's TAIB Bank.

Another motivation for Abu Dhabi helping out Dubai World is the company's Dubai port operations, which it needs to market as a dependable global transport hub.

Dubai has got off lightly to date. But if the property market doesn’t return soon, hundreds of billions of dollars worth of skyscrapers and palm-shaped islands will remain unfinished hulks amid the dunes and warm waters off Dubai’s coastline.

more.

Read more: Barrons, Reuters, Guardian, The Wall Street Journal

Dubai is down, but fighting for its place in the sun

original source Wall Street Journal

Dubai 2 December 2009

Finally, a chink of light. Dubai World has belatedly provided some of details on its planned debt restructuring.

But for investors the situation still resembles a darkened room, where the outlines of the furniture are now visible but little else. And for Dubai itself, there is more than just the future of $26 billion of debt at stake. The emirate's credibility as a financial center and its ability to continue financing good businesses, such as ports operator DP World, will hinge on its handling of the crisis.

Tuesday brought some good news. The $26 billion of debt affected is less than the $60 billion feared last week. Even so, questions linger. The restructuring process will include Dubai World itself and property developers Nakheel World and Limitless World. Analysts at Barclays Capital have identified $8.5 billion of debt at Nakheel, $5.5 billion at Dubai World and $1.2 billion at Limitless. That still leaves $10 billion unaccounted for. It may be in bilateral bank loans where there is no public disclosure. But it still leaves creditors unsure of their position.

It is also encouraging that Dubai World intends to adopt a policy of regular communication, though again the process lacks detail. For example, it is unclear whether the six-month standstill requested from creditors is voluntary or enforced. Given the looming Nakheel maturity -- just two weeks away -- it will be a challenge to secure creditor agreement in advance. If some lenders reject a stand-still it could trigger another bout of uncertainty and bondholders are organizing themselves for battle: a group holding 25% of the Nakheel bonds has hired Ashurst as a legal adviser.

Dubai's strategy relies on ringfencing certain key businesses from the general restructuring -- possible because of the lack of cross guarantees in the Dubai World group. For example, Ports & Free Zone World, which includes port operator DP World and P&O Ferries, is now clearly excluded from the process. But the initial lack of clarity on this issue has already cost Dubai Inc. a swathe of ratings downgrades. Of Moody's six ratings on Dubai companies, four are now junk.

The history of debt restructurings suggests that investors will not be scared off Dubai forever. Russia, for example, returned as an oil-fuelled darling of international investors even after its sovereign default in 1998 and amid continuing corporate governance and transparency problems.

If Dubai handles the painful process sensibly, it will emerge chastened from the experience, but not necessarily a spent force. The infrastructure built during the bubble will not vanish. The emirate now has to prove its status as one of the most western-friendly places to do business in a region still attractive for its massive oil wealth. If it can do so, Dubai will be down, not out.

Write to Richard Barley at richard.barley@dowjones.com

Dubai Stock Market Slumps Monday 30 November 2009

Gambles Dubai with its financial reputation ?

original source Zawya

When you start building a third island shaped like a palm tree, intending it to be as big and crowded as Manhattan, you are crying out for a sober voice to bark: "Stop!"

But when that island is just one atoll in an artificial archipelago that would reconfigure the Persian Gulf coast into a thicket of trees, a map of the world, a whirling galaxy, a scythe and a sun that looks like a spider, what you need is some corporate restructuring. That, we learnt on Wednesday, was exactly what holding company Dubai World, the parent of Dubai's chief coastal developer Nakheel, would get.

Last year, Robert Lee, one of Nakheel's executives, showed me a map of the future Dubai Waterfront as his company put the finishing touches on the more modest Palm Jumeirah, the skyscraper- and villa-crammed island that started the trend.
"That's crazy!" I said.  "Bold," countered Mr Lee.
Bold is probably not the word that the number-crunchers at Deloitte are muttering as they pore over the company's books.

The Dubai government's decision to postpone repayments on $3.5bn in Dubai World debts - seen by investors as the litmus test of the emirate's creditworthiness - is the clearest sign yet of the dire state of its economy. Dubai's fanciful island reclamation, a doubtful investment in an era of rising sea levels, was just one of the gambits that ushered this tiny emirate into the world's consciousness.

Thankfully, many of these ideas wound up on the scrapheap. There is the cancelled Snowdome (although the city's indoor ski slope lives on), part of a gargantuan amusement district that was to be larger than the city of Orlando it intended to rival. Also scrubbed is the $11bn Arabian Canal, a 75km moat that would have ringed the city. Enough of these sorts of schemes were built to make Dubai and the United Arab Emirates the holder of the world's largest percapita environmental footprint.

Until Wednesday, investors were largely content to give Dubai the benefit of the doubt, given that ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum had assured the world that his emirate was good for its debts.

In a region where a man's word already carries outsized weight, the blunt-spoken sheikh's charisma had been built on the credibility of his pronouncements. It must be painful indeed for him to be seen as backtracking.

Sheikh Mohammed, whose family has run the emirate with astonishing stability since 1833, faces an acute test of his leadership and the clearest threat yet to his dreams for the city.
The ambitious sheikh wants Dubai to become the financial centre for a quarter of the globe, the under-served and fast-growing markets between Singapore and Frankfurt.

Wednesday's announcement makes that goal less likely, damaging Dubai's reputation among the investors and financiers it has worked so assiduously to court. "Naturally they are not amused," says Eckart Woertz, chief economist at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre. "It will be a case of once bitten, twice shy should Dubai try to tap international markets again."

In the longer term, the news could make Dubai's rivals more attractive, persuading international companies to decamp to, say, Doha or Abu Dhabi. Unlike Dubai, those cities have sound, energy-based economies.
But for now they do not offer the same level of western lifestyle, nor can they match Dubai's services in shipping, logistics, banking and air travel.

The emirate's inability to repay also casts a shadow on the Maktoum family's vital relations with its cousins who rule Abu Dhabi, the al-Nahyans, who seem to be letting their poorer kin sweat it out in public.
One wondered what price Abu Dhabi might demand for a full bail-out.

One plausible option was a tighter union among the seven UAE states, with maverick Dubai forced to trim its embarrassing ties with Iran and Israel. Dubai might also have been asked to merge its independent customs service into the federal bureaucracy.

Sheikh Mohammed may be calculating that Dubai's foreign policy freedom is more valuable than its financial reputation.

There is logic in this.

The bankers in London and New York have been important in nurturing Dubai's growth.

But the emirate's ties with the region - Karachi, Mumbai, Riyadh and Tehran - are those that will make or break this city.

The writer is the author of City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism
By Jim Krane

Dubai debt tops global headlines

Dubai property market set to see further price falls 
Arabian Business 29 November 2009 

Dubai's property market is likely to face further price falls and increased concerns over the availability of finance after the emirate said it would delay debt payment issued by two of its flagship firms, analysts said.
... read the full article

Dubai World refuses assets sale - paper

Dubai World has refused to offload assets at fire-sale prices to repay obligations, forcing it to seek a debt standstill, a newspaper report on Sunday quoted an unnamed source at the government-controlled firm as saying.   read the full article..

The National

Central Bank to back country`s lenders

The UAE Central Bank has pledged support for lenders in the UAE and made emergency funds available to avert any liquidity shortage that might occur as a result of the proposed restructuring of Dubai World.

Banks in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are expected to disclose their exposure to Dubai World’s estimated US$24.27 billion (Dh89.14bn) bonds and bank debt amid a global search for creditors.    read the full story

Reuters

UAE moves to counter Dubai fallout but markets wary

DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates offered banks emergency support on Sunday, the first steps to ease fears that a looming debt default by two of Dubai's flagship firms could derail the global economic recovery.

But the move to inject liquidity into Dubai's banks by the central bank of the Gulf Arab state, together with promises by neighboring city-state Abu Dhabi to provide selective support to Dubai companies was seen as by analysts as the bare minimum.

Dubai markets, which are set to open on Monday morning after a four-day holiday, are expected to fall by the maximum daily limit of 10 percent as banks, property and construction firms face investor ire over moves to restructure the Dubai economy.
more...

WallStreetJournal
The panic over Dubai`s debt problem tells us more about investors than it does about the emirate.
full story......

Dubai Financial Crisis - Actual News Dubai Debt Problems

Telegraph UK 29 November 2009

Abu Dhabi will not race to Dubai`s rescue

Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai is under mounting pressure to explain the emirate’s debt problems, after Abu Dhabi indicated that it will not write a blank cheque to bail out its neighbour.
read more

From Bloomberg 29. November 2009
Samsung C & T stops Dubai Bridge Work as Nakheel halts payments

Wall Street Journal 29.November 2009
DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Debt-laden Dubai World's unit Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority, or Jafza, faces on Monday a coupon payment on a 7.5 billion U.A.E dirham ($2.04 billion) Islamic bond in the first key test of whether it will default.

The Islamic bond, or sukuk, was issued in November 2007 through a Cayman Islands-registered company called JAFZ Sukuk Limited and pays 130 basis points over the six-month Emirates Interbank Offered Rate, according to Zawya.com.

The coming coupon payment is estimated to be between AED125 million and AED135 million, according to analyst calculations.

Spokespersons for Dubai World declined to comment on the payment Saturday, a holiday in the U.A.E. The Jafza sukuk is the first payment due for a Dubai government-related entity since the restructuring announcement Wednesday, which sent global markets and banks into a panic before the weekend.

Dubai World's request for a standstill will include a key $3.52 billion bond owned by Nakheel, the developer behind Dubai's palm-shaped islands, that matures on Dec. 14.

Payments on the sukuk are made semi-annually, on May 27 and Nov. 27. Bankers said that payment is due on Monday, since Nov. 27 fell on a weekend in the U.A.E.

Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, and Lehman Brothers acted as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners, according to the bond prospectus. The sukuk is due November 2012.

Jafza operates a free trade zone and industrial parks in the port town of Jebel Ali, outside of the city of Dubai, and is a unit of Economic Zones World, or EZW. EZW is operated by Dubai World.

S&P and Moody's downgraded Jafza and other Dubai government related-entities Wednesday, after Dubai World said it would restructure and ask for a standstill on all debts until at least May 2010. S&P placed Jafza on creditwatch with negative implications. Moody's downgraded its issuer and debt ratings to Ba1 from Baa1.

Seoul officials meet to cope with Dubai debt crisis 29. November 2009

South Korea's financial authorities were to convene a meeting later on Sunday to gauge the fallout from the Dubai debt crisis and discuss countermeasures to stave off any possible impact on the nation's financial markets, officials said...... read more

Telegraph UK 29. November 2009

Tim Clark, president of Emirates Group, has said the Dubai business community is "shocked" by the financial crisis.

read more...


Telegraph UK 29. November 2009

Dubai an Emirate in crisis

.....Dubai is in trouble. We already knew that, long before the announcement last week that it wanted to delay payments on billions of dollars of debts owed by its Dubai World (DW) state holding company. But the trouble caused by a collapse in the property market put the city on a par with other states around the globe. This announcement was of a different order. It damaged the credibility of the city's government and, by extension, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a whole. ....
read more


Technorati-Tags: Debt Problems Dubai

Shocking - Dubai`s main investment fund seeks debt payment delay

original source BBC

The government-owned investment company behind Dubai's rapid development drive has asked its creditors for a six-month delay on repaying its debts.

Dubai World, which has total debts of $59bn (£35bn), is asking creditors if it can postpone its forthcoming payments until May next year.

Dubai World has also appointed global accountancy group Deloitte to help with its financial restructuring.

The company has been hit hard by the global credit crunch and recession.

'Shocking'

The Dubai government said in a statement that the request to delay debt repayments also applied to property developer Nakheel, a Dubai World subsidiary.

"It's shocking because for the past few months the news coming out has given investors comfort that Dubai would most probably be able to meet its debt obligations," said analyst Shakeel Sarwar, of SICO Investment Bank.

Dubai is one of the seven self-governing emirates or states that make up the United Arab Emirates.

Analysts say the Dubai government has paid the price for a flamboyant economic model centred on foreign capital and giant construction projects.

Some have speculated it is likely to turn to the more economically conservative Abu Dhabi emirate to bail it out.

The Dubai World announcement was made on the eve of the Eid al-Adha Muslim festival, which will see many government agencies and companies close in Dubai until 6 December.

see also: Bloomberg Reuters WallStreetJournal

Dubai property prices may drop as much as 30 percent more

original source Bloomberg

Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Dubai home prices may take at least a decade to recover and increasing supply and a shrinking population will leave 25 percent of the sheikdom’s houses empty next year, according to UBS.

Prices may drop as much as 30 percent more, UBS analyst Saud Masud said in a note today. They have already fallen by more than 50 percent from the peak last year, making Dubai the worst-hit market in the global real estate slump.

Dubai’s construction boom petered out in the third quarter of last year after banks tightened lending and speculators left the market. UBS’s research contrasts with a Deutsche Bank report this month that said the market is “bottoming out” with slowing price declines and an increase in transactions. Masud said the market will probably reach its bottom in 2011.

Consolidation in the industry will result in asset writedowns, limiting the benefits of a possible merger of Emaar Properties LLC and three state-owned companies, UBS said. Emaar, the United Arab Emirates biggest real-estate developer, is in talks to join with state-controlled competitors Dubai Properties LLC, Sama Dubai LLC and Tatweer LLC.

Dubai’s population, which is 90 percent expatriate, may drop by 8 percent this year and another 2 percent in 2010, Masud said. Nearly half the workforce is employed in real estate or construction.

Banks in the United Arab Emirates have understated their non-performing loans and the total may grow to around five times the 27.8 billion dirhams ($7.57 billion) reported by the central bank in September, the Dubai-based analyst wrote.

Bank lending tied to real estate may be 35 to 40 percent of the total when including personal loans used for property investment. Central bank regulations cap real estate lending at 20 percent of a bank’s total. The loans could be 350 billion dirhams to 400 billion dirhams, almost double the stated 204 billion dirhams, UBS said.

Provisions for bad loans may grow to more than five times their current levels over the next 12 to 18 months, Masud wrote. Net provisions stood at 29 billion dirhams by the end of October, central bank data shows.

“We expect to see greater consolidation, higher provisions for non-performing loans, an increase in investor delinquencies and relatively lower end user demand for residential and commercial property,” Masud wrote.

Banks will face pressure to provide liquidity and late payments will probably present a continuing risk for contractors and subcontractors, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zainab Fattah in Dubai on zfattah@bloomberg.net

Japanese construction companies are facing very serious debt problems as Dubai can’t pay

original source The National

Japanese builders are owed billions of dollars on projects that include the Dubai Metro and Palm Island, according to a top diplomat and leading contractors from the country,
Japanese builders have played a pivotal role in Dubai’s construction boom, spearheading work on the Dh28 billion (US$7.6bn) Metro and helping to build Nakheel’s palm-shaped islands off the emirate’s coast.






But as the global financial crisis brought many projects to a standstill, an increasing number of foreign companies, especially builders, have reported payment problems mainly linked to Dubai developers.

“Some Japanese construction companies are facing very serious debt problems as Dubai can’t pay,” said Seiichi Otsuka, the Japanese consul general in Dubai. “Some companies engaged with the construction of the Metro are facing some payment issues.” He said companies were also owed money by Nakheel.
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Dubai Nakheel Palm Jebel Ali Home Buyers stay united

People who bought waterfront villas on Palm Jebel Ali, where prices have tumbled by about 45 per cent from their peak in the third quarter of last year, are now being asked to transfer their investments to projects that include Al Furjan and Jumeirah Heights, which are both under construction.

But the move has been criticised by investors, who expected to move into their new homes last year.

“Nakheel has called investors and given them this option,” said Saqib Iqbal, who bought a villa in the development in 2006.

“But most investors would like them to complete Palm Jebel Ali. People have paid premiums on top of what they paid originally, it’s a disaster to be asked to move somewhere else.”

Palm Jebel Ali was the second artificial island project to be launched by Nakheel and was designed to accommodate up to 250,000 people and add 70km of beachfront to the emirate.
“Further work on Palm Jebel Ali has been delayed until market conditions allow recommencement of these phases of the development, and customers are being given a range of options within the wider Nakheel portfolio to transfer their investment,” said Nakheel.

In an letter sent to Marwan bin Ghalita, the chief executive of the Dubai Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), investors said: “This is not what was sold to us. The apartments being offered are much smaller, with no beachfront or private pool, and are at a much higher price.”

The investors, most of whom have paid 30 per cent towards their purchase, have called on Nakheel to instead resume construction of Palm Jebel Ali, register their plots with the Dubai Land Department and officially agree to link further payments with construction milestones.

original source The National read the full article.......