Nakheel completes payoff of $980m sukuk

16 May 2010

State-owned developer owns trade creditors more than $3bn

State-owned developer Nakheel has confirmed that it has repaid a $980m Islamic bond (sukuk) that matured on 13 May.

The repayment was made despite the company having yet to come to an agreement with its creditors on the restructuring of $9.3bn of debt.

Nakheel has said that so far it has received agreement from trade creditors representing around 50 per cent of total claims, or about AED6bn ($1.6bn), for its plan to pay off its debts to them. That makes the total trade creditors claim on Nakheel more than $3bn.

Once 65 per cent of trade creditors by value have agreed to the repayment offer they will receive 40 per cent of their outstanding bills in a cash payment. The rest of the debt will paid off in the form of a bond, although this will not be issued until 95 per cent of trade creditors have agreed to the terms.

Nakheel also has a $1.2bn sukuk maturing in January 2011.

Dubai Holding, another indebted Dubai-based conglomerate, is also in the process of restructuring some of its debt. It said on 16 May, it was delaying the publication of its annual results for the second time. It blamed the delay on the “complexities of consolidating the financial results of its various operating businesses across multiple geographies”.

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