Wednesday, Apr 04, 2012

--DIC's $2.4 billion debt restructuring seen completed by the end of April

--DIC is the private equity arm of government-owned Dubai Holding

--Dubai Holding also agreed to subordinate a small amount of debt owed to it by DIC

(Adds details, background throughout.)

By Asa Fitch and Nicolas Parasie

Of ZAWYA DOW JONES

DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Dubai International Capital has received full support from creditors for its $2.4 billion debt restructuring, which is expected to be signed by the end of the month, three people involved in the talks said Wednesday.

DIC, a private equity arm of Dubai Holding, agreed with creditors on the terms of the restructuring late last year, but encountered an obstacle in the early months of this year when the Dubai Government suddenly withdrew a $150 million line of credit.

Since then, however, Dubai Holding has agreed to subordinate a small amount of debt owed to it by DIC in favor of the company's external creditors, helping smooth along a final agreement, one of the people said.

"Everyone pretty much signed up or at least agreed," a second person said. "It's a matter of formalities now."

One of the people involved in the discussions said that the deal was likely to be in place by the end of April, but that there have been "so many twists and turns along the way that I hesitate to put my finger on the calendar."

As debt restructuring talks progressed, DIC has sold down a significant slice of a private equity portfolio built up during the boom years preceding the global financial crisis. Last year it sold a 45% stake in KEF Holdings, a valve manufacture based in the United Arab Emirates, and offloaded Ishraq Dubai, a local hotel company.

DIC still has investments in U.K. discount hotel company Travelodge and German alumina company Almatis, among a range of other foreign and domestic stakes.

A third person involved in the talks said all the bank creditors were on board and that only the "conditions precedent," or formalities of documentation and registration, needed to be completed before it was final.

A panel of six lenders--HSBC Holdings PLC, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, Emirates NBD PJSC and Mashreq Bank--have been representing banks in the debt talks.

-By Asa Fitch and Nicolas Parasie, Dow Jones Newswires, +971 4 446-1685, asa.fitch@dowjones.com

Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Co.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-04-12 1344GMT