Firesale in Bankrupt Dubai Including QE2
Dubai World sale puts QE2 on the block
Debt-laden Middle Eastern conglomerate Dubai World is preparing a firesale of some of its most prestigious assets including the cruise liner QE2 and circus troupe Cirque du Soleil.
By Jonathan Russell
Published: 7:29PM GMT 07 Feb 2010
The disposals are part of an effort to pay down some of Dubai World's $22bn (£14bn) of debts.
Last week Istithmar, the investment arm of Dubai World, started the process by selling a 13pc stake in Indian domestic airline SpiceJet. It has also entered into talks to sell Inchcape Shipping Services, the UK port agent, with a mooted $700m price tag.
Istithmar either owns or has stakes in companies including Standard Chartered Bank, Gulf Stream Asset Management and EMPG, the publishing house that owns Harcourt Education. Standard Chartered is also one of the Dubai World's main creditors.
State-backed Dubai World has been building up a worldwide portfolio of assets including a large property holding over the last decade, investing in part with its own equity, but also using large tranches of debt from international banks. In November, however, the company said it was seeking to delay debt-servicing payments as it looked to undertake a capital refinancing.
Since then Dubai World has received about $6.2bn in emergency funding from the Dubai Financial Support Fund (DFSF), to help it finance its debt.
Continued:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/recession/7...
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sect...
