North Africa/Middle East

Three Israeli banks asked a court Wednesday to break up Eurocom Communications Ltd., saying it’s insolvent, Bloomberg News reported. The company is part of Shaul Elovitch’s Eurocom Group Ltd., the controlling shareholder of Israel’s largest telecommunications firm. Bank Hapoalim Ltd., Israel Discount Bank Ltd. and First International Bank of Israel Ltd. told Tel Aviv District Court that Eurocom Communications owes them 961 million shekels ($275 million), and asked the court to appoint lawyers to oversee the sale of assets pledged against the loans.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government will do its utmost to blunt the impact of job cuts at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. as the debt-saddled company carries out its restructuring plan, Bloomberg News reported. Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon will meet this week with Teva Chief Executive Officer Kare Schultz to try to “minimize the blow to workers,” according to an e-mailed statement from the prime minister’s office.

Qatari phone carrier Ooredoo QSC decided to bid for the insolvent owner of Turkey’s biggest telecommunications company to rival an offer from Saudi Telecom Co., three people with knowledge of the matter said. Ooredoo will seek to acquire Ojer Telekomunikasyon AS, or Otas, a special purpose vehicle that owns 55 percent of Turk Telekomunikasyon AS, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private, Bloomberg News reported. The Saudi proposal remains on the table, they said.

Baghdad’s talks with Turkey about ramping up oil exports from northern Iraq, including the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, is complicated by a $4 billion debt that the Kurds owe to Turkey, according to Iraq’s oil minister, Bloomberg News reported. Iraq is seeking an agreement with Turkey for all exports from the north, including the Kurdish region and the disputed province of Kirkuk, through a pipeline currently operated by the Kurds, Jabbar al-Luaibi told reporters in Baghdad. Iraq’s state-run Oil Marketing Co., known as SOMO, would control all exports under the agreement, he said.

Bahrain has asked Gulf Arab allies for financial assistance as it seeks to replenish its foreign-exchange reserves and avert a currency devaluation that could reverberate across the region, according to people with knowledge of the talks. The request was made to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two of the people said. A third person said Kuwait was also asked.

A Middle Eastern energy company that has questioned the lawfulness of its own sukuk won’t settle the $700 million worth of debt owed to investors, according to people familiar with the matter. Dana Gas PJSC, the Sharjah, United Arab Emirates-based energy producer, has no plans to repay the two mudaraba sukuk of $350 million in size each due Oct. 31, and the company is confident it will win a court case with bondholders, the two people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private, Bloomberg News reported.

Dubai’s Drydocks World has returned to the courts to push through a $2.1bn debt restructuring, clearing the path for the troubled ship-repair business’ sale to a sister company, DP World, the emirate’s port operator, the Financial Times reported. The maritime engineering business, a unit of the government-owned Dubai World conglomerate, in 2012 had to use bespoke insolvency legislation to finalise its first restructuring after a hedge fund won a judgment against the firm for defaulting.

Saudi Arabia will begin implementing a new bankruptcy law early next year as part of efforts to attract foreign investment and encourage private sector activity, Saudi-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya reported citing the kingdom’s commerce minister. Under current legislation there is no easy way to wind up the activities of indebted companies in Saudi Arabia and the new law could help with government plans to restructure the economy and make it more attractive to outside investors, Reuters reported.

A London lawsuit over $700 million in Shariah-compliant bonds issued by Dana Gas PJSC will go ahead despite a last-minute United Arab Emirates court order that attempted to stop the company from taking part in the trial, Bloomberg News reported. Dana Gas stunned investors and the Islamic finance community when it announced in June that it had reviewed its own bonds and found they were not Shariah compliant. Bondholders, led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and BlackRock Inc., hired investment bankers and then lawyers when it became clear they were facing losses of 90 percent or more.

Dubai’s DP World has agreed to buy Drydocks World and a maritime business park in the emirate for $405m. Ports operator DP World, majority owned by government conglomerate Dubai World, agreed to buy Dubai World’s Drydocks World ship repair unit via a cash injection of $225m. DP World also said it would buy another Dubai World unit, Dubai Maritime City, for $180m. DP World said the Drydocks transaction, expected to close before the end of the first quarter of 2018, was contingent on a successful completion of Drydock’s restructuring process, the Financial Times reported.