Wednesday, Jun 02, 2010
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By Mirna Sleiman
Of ZAWYA DOW JONES
DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--In an effort to ease investor concern about the health of Dubai's economy finance officials from the emirate will hold a non-deal roadshow in Europe starting from the end of this week.
The Dubai Department of Finance "confirms that it is conducting a series of fixed income investor meetings in Europe as part of a non-deal investor update in line with its strategy of regular ongoing investor communications as set out last year," a spokesperson told Zawya Dow Jones.
The roadshow kicks off on June 4.
Dubai needs to rebuild its reputation as a financial center for the Middle East in the eyes of international investor after a sharp downturn in its real estate industry exposed its estimated $100 billion debt pile.
The roadshow comes a week after state-owned conglomerate Dubai World reached agreement "in principle" with its seven main lenders to restructure $23.5 billion of debts.
Dubai World, which has been at the heart of Dubai's recent debt crisis, managed to secure the approval of the lenders committee holding more than 60% of the total $14.4 billion debt.
HSBC Holding PLC (HBC), Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS.LN), Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LLOY.LN), Standard Chartered PLC (STAN.LN), Emirates NBD (EMIRATES.DFM) and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB.AD), as well as Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi have been leading negotiations on behalf of the company's 97 lenders.
Earlier this week, Dubai Holding which is owned by the ruler Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, said that its investment arm, Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group, had losses of $6.2 billion in 2009.
The group said it is currently considering various means to manage its cash flows, including the roll over of maturing loans, the sale of certain assets and renegotiating of trade and contractors balances.
-By Mirna Sleiman, Dow Jones Newswires; +9714 446-1698; mirna.sleiman@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
02-06-10 1117GMT
