North Africa/Middle East

Dubai, one of seven principalities that make up the United Arab Emirates, has only minimal oil reserves. Instead, the city-state has positioned itself as the hinge connecting Asia to the rest of the world, the gateway city for the fast-growing frontier markets of Africa and a safe haven for investors shunning an arc of conflict that stretches from Libya to Afghanistan, Bloomberg News reported.

The chairman of Dubai’s biggest developer has welcomed a softening in real estate prices in the emirate after two years of hyperbolic growth, the Financial Times reported. In a rare public acknowledgment of the slowdown in the emirate’s property market, Mohammed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar, said he was optimistic about longer-term demand despite a cooling off in market activity. “2013 was crazy as supply was limited,” he said.

Saudi contractor Mohammad Al-Mojil Group's (MMG) board had approved a recovery plan that use most of its existing capital base to pay off debts and new cash raised through a share issue, it said on Sunday, Reuters reported. The firm, which got into difficulty after over-extending itself trying to take advantage of a boom in construction in the kingdom, has not traded on the Saudi bourse since July 2012, when its shares were suspended by the regulator after breaching rules relating to accumulated losses. MMG said in September its accumulated losses for the period ending Aug.

Dubai World has secured agreement from more than 60 percent of its creditors to reschedule its debt repayments, a top government executive told Reuters, putting it close to the two-thirds assent needed to change the existing terms. Dubai borrowed heavily during a boom period in the middle of the last decade, but then the global financial crisis and a local real estate crash in 2008 precipitated a number of restructurings at state-linked companies. These included Dubai World.

Shareholders of Dubai's Amlak Finance met for the first time in more than six years on Sunday and backed a key component of the mortgage provider's $2.7 billion debt restructuring deal, Reuters reported. Amlak's future has been in the balance for years. Its shares have not traded since November 2008 when they were suspended in the wake of the global financial crisis and a local real estate crash, and a number of attempts to revive the firm since then have failed.

State-owned Dubai World is set to reach a deal with creditors to extend repayments on its $25 billion (Dh91.8 billion) debt, according to one of Dubai’s top government officials, Gulfnews.com reported. “I can say for sure we will reach it. It is there and I’m sure you will hear about it soon,” said Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai’s Supreme Fiscal Committee and President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman and CEO of Emirates airline and Group. Shaikh Ahmad declined to divulge further details aside from assuring reporters that there will be an announcement soon.

Dubai government-owned property firm Limitless has held positive talks with creditors as it seeks to re-negotiate the terms of a $1.2 billion debt facility which has already been restructured once before, its chief executive told Reuters on Sunday, Gulf Business reported. “We have a revised business plan which we are discussing with creditors. The discussions have been positive and we hope we can announce the outcome of these talks soon,” Mohammed Rashed told Reuters on the sidelines of a real estate event.

A steering committee of creditors of Saudi Arabian conglomerate Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi and Brothers (AHAB) has been formed to negotiate its debt restructuring, Algosaibi said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The family group, which collapsed in 2009 during the global financial crisis, said in May this year that it had direct liabilities to financial institutions worth around $6 billion, and proposed a restructuring plan that would repay creditors a minimum of 20 cents on the dollar.

Dubai mortgage lender Amlak Finance said on Wednesday that it would hold a shareholder meeting on September 21 to discuss its restructuring plan and a proposed issue of equity-linked bonds, Arabian Business reported. Creditors of the company, whose shares have been suspended since late 2008 after it was hit by a local real estate crash and the global financial crisis, last month approved a plan to restructure debts worth around $2.7 billion.

Spurred by a rapidly deteriorating economy, the International Monetary Fund has approved a three-year extended credit facility worth $552 million with Yemen, the impoverished Arab nation that has become a breeding ground for the terrorist group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, The Wall Street Journal Middle East RealTime blog reported. The lifeline will provide some relief for Yemeni authorities who face a myriad of political and security challenges that continue to drag on the economy.