| Kippreport.com

HSBC ‘ready to sign’ Dubai World debt plan

March 30, 2010 3:03 by Ben Flanagan

HSBC’s chairman for the Middle East and Europe, Stuart Gulliver, says the bank is ready to sign Dubai World’s debt restructuring proposal, according to a report by The National.

“Yes, we would sign today if they put it in front of [us],” Gulliver told the newspaper, emphasizing that HSBC was speaking as a major private creditor and not as a member of the seven-member Coordinating Committee (CoCom), which is coordinating Dubai World’s restructuring among 97 creditors.

Dubai World last week offered its creditor banks, who were owed a total of $14.2 billion at the end of 2009, to agree to a delay in repayment of between five and eight years, yet did not clarify the interest rates in a statement.

This step is part of Dubai World’s $23.5 billion (AED86 billion) restructuring plans.

Tags: bailout, Dubai debt, Dubai World, HSBC, Stuart Gulliver