UAE's Dana Gas shuffles board amid debt talks

UAE’s Dana Gas shuffles board amid debt talks

Sharjah-based Dana Gas, the energy firm which has a $1 billion Islamic bond, or sukuk, due in October, has appointed a new chairman, it said in a bourse filing on Sunday.

June 10, 2012 5:50 by Reuters

Sharjah-based Dana Gas, the energy firm which has a $1 billion Islamic bond, or sukuk, due in October, has appointed a new chairman, it said in a bourse filing on Sunday.

Adel Khalid Al Sabeeh, previously deputy chairman, replaces Hamid Jafar as chairman, according to the results of an annual general meeting held on June 7. Jafar remains a board member, the company said.

Dana also named Tawfeeq Abdulrahman al Moayed as its new deputy chairman. No reason for the changes to the company’s board were given in the bourse filing.

The natural gas producer appointed Blackstone Group and Deutsche Bank as advisers to help it weigh options for repayment of the outstanding $920 million on the convertible sukuk and said it was committed to finding a consensual solution.

Depending on the outcome of discussions, the company could become the first in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to restructure a bond.

Limited communication from the company on the matter has worried investors; Dana shares were trading 2.6 percent lower on Sunday at 0842 GMT and are down over 13 percent this year.

The 7.5 percent sukuk was bid at 69 cents on the dollar on Friday, according to Thomson Reuters data, having fallen from around 75 cents at the beginning of May.

(Reporting by Rachna Uppal; Editing by Dinesh Nair)