Word: dubai
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Dubai and Dubai World, one of the flagship state-owned conglomerates, have lots of good assets, including a state-of-the-art multiterminal international airport, an airline and port facilities with vast container capacity. However, under Dubai law and the regulations of the U.A.E., banks cannot seize control and ownership of the buildings they have financed. And there are more buildings on the way. There are scads of unfinished buildings in Dubai, including high-priced residential properties. About 100,000 new dwellings were scheduled to hit the market in 2010. (Read about how hard times have come for Dubai...
...much of Dubai has been built on short-term loans, based on the idea that income from the projects would buoy liquidity and help roll forward debt payments. For example, Dubai's driverless metro system, one of the most advanced in the world, is financed through three-year notes, which the city-state believed they could renew as ticket fees helped pay the interest. Now, the international consortium that is building the system - including the Japanese construction giants Mitsubishi and Obayashi as well as the Turkish company Yapi Merkezi - are probably left with huge fees unpaid...
Creditors, therefore, had to go to the negotiating table to be able to wring out payment. Dubai's on-balance-sheet debt seems to be about $80 billion (and some observers believer there could be a substantial amount of off-balance-sheet debt as well). About 40% of the official debt is held by British banks, 30% by E.U. firms, about 9% by U.S. institutions and 7% by Japanese ones. According to a source close to Dubai World, the city-state's representatives now wants to write off some $30 billion of its debt...
...banks, not surprisingly given their current condition, have resisted, and are now in negotiations in with Dubai World. The banks may have limited options. It does little good to go after Dubai's overseas holdings because those have largely been into the troubled real estate market as well. Those holdings and joint ventures involve the Essex House hotel in New York City, the W Hotel group, MGM Mirage in Las Vegas as well as smaller interests in such properties as Raimon island in Thailand...
...years ago, an adviser went to Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum with a plan for a tall office building. "Only 90 stories?" the ruler of Dubai asked. The aide was sent back to the drawing board, with instructions to design the highest structure not just in Dubai, not just in the Middle East, but in the world. When the Burj Dubai has its grand opening in January, it will be an 818-meter monument to the visionary autocrat who dreamed the Dubai dream - and, as it turns out, a conspicuous symbol of the hyper-ambition that now threatens...