Nakheel chair sees restructuring done by year-end

Nakheel chair sees restructuring done by year-end

Nakheel in early talks to list sukuk on NASDAQ Dubai; Nakheel repaid trade creditors $925.9 million.

October 3, 2010 4:23 by Reuters

Nakheel Development Ltd, the property arm of state-owned conglomerate Dubai World, is confident that it will complete its debt restructuring by the end of the year, the company’s chairman said on Sunday.

Nakheel Chairman Ali Rashid Lootah told reporters that a “good percentage” of banks have agreed to the restructuring.

The comments affirmed the time-frame for completion of the deal that Nakheel chief executive Chris O’Donnell gave in late September.

Nakheel has said it has about 85 percent of acceptances, by value, for its debt restructuring and was “well on target to achieve its 95 percent acceptance of all payables and claims within the near future”.

Lootah added that the developer is in preliminary talks for listing an Islamic bond, or sukuk, on NASDAQ Dubai. Under Nakheel’s restructuring plan, trade creditors have been offered 40 percent of what they are owed in cash and the remaining 60 percent through a sukuk Islamic bond.

Nakheel plans to issue a 6 billion dirham ($1.63 billion) Islamic bond as part of its debt repayment plan as it restarts several key projects.

Nakheel has already repaid trade creditors 3.4 billion dirhams ($925.9 million) as part of the plan, the company reported on Thursday.

($1=3.672 Uae Dirham) (Reporting by Jason Benham; Writing by Shaheen Pasha; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)