Wednesday, Jul 06, 2011

DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Dubai World said Wednesday it had appointed two new senior managers to help run the government-owned conglomerate's day-to-day business and had signed agreements towards transferring ownership of real-estate units Nakheel and Limitless to the government.

Dubai World said, in an emailed statement, that it had appointed Andy Watson, who is also chief executive officer of its Istithmar World unit, as managing director, while Junaid Rahimullah was appointed to the post of chief financial officer.

The conglomerate said in the same statement that agreements "setting out the terms for the separation of real-estate development companies Nakheel and Limitless operationally and financially from the company had been signed."

"Legal ownership will transfer to the Government of Dubai upon completion of Nakheel and Limitless's financial restructuring," it added.

Dubai World said the appointments and the final documentation of the financial restructuring arrangements, which was completed June 29, conclude its restructuring process begun early in 2010.

"The formal completion of financial restructuring is a great achievement for Dubai World ... and we continue to be grateful for the support of the various stakeholders throughout the process," Ahmed Humaid Al Tayer, Dubai World board member and chairman of the management committee said.

"The company is now on a solid financial footing and is focused on strengthening and increasing the value of its assets, which have seen steady overall improvement this year," he said.

In March, Dubai World signed a final deal with its creditors to restructure nearly $25 billion worth of debt, bringing to an end a lengthy process of negotiations. The group shocked the financial community in November 2009 when it announced that it would seek to delay payments on its debt pile worth $23.8 billion at the time.

Dubai World's real-estate arm Nakheel got into financial trouble in late 2009 after being hit hard by the fallout from the global financial crisis, which saw housing prices in Dubai slump and a real-estate bubble burst. Nakheel is in the process of restructuring its debt pile.

-By Leila Hatoum, Dow Jones Newswires; +971-4-446-1686; leila.hatoum@dowjones.com

Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Co.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-07-11 1220GMT