Local banks in Dubai have sufficient liquidity to weather a global downturn, the chairman of the Gulf Arab's largest bank and a key figure in its recovery from a 2009 debt crisis said on Monday, Reuters reported. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, who is also chairman of Dubai's Supreme Fiscal Committee, also said some local firms still had a way to go to rebound from Dubai's debt crunch. A deepening debt crisis in Europe as well as a slowdown in the United States have increased odds for another global recession this year.

Dubai has completed the "major bulk" of its debt restructuring and is comfortable in its ability to tap bond markets when it deems it necessary, a top Dubai official said Thursday, Dow Jones reported.

Kuwait's Global Investment House requested its creditors Thursday to delay repayment of debt due in December citing ongoing challenges in the financial markets, Agence France-Presse reported. "Global requested the lending banks’ support for the near-term deferral of principal repayments due in December 2011 and deferral of any increase in rate of interest from December 2011 onwards," the company said following a meeting with creditors. Under a restructuring plan signed in December 2009, Global was expected to repay more than $340 million of debt plus interest.

Dubai developer Nakheel , which completed a complex debt restructuring last month, wrote off up to 78.6 billion dirhams ($21.4 billion) of its real estate assets due to a property crisis in the emirate, according to a bond prospectus, Reuters reported. Nakheel, which overstretched itself building islands in the shape of palms and other ambitious projects, incurred impairments of 73.8 billion dirhams in 2009, primarily related to the carrying value of assets and capital work in progress.

Al Jaber Group yesterday held talks with its banks over a debt standstill agreement as the family conglomerate, based in Abu Dhabi, seeks to delay repayments as part of a wider restructuring of the group, The National reported. At a meeting in Abu Dhabi, Al Jaber Group, which has interests in property, manufacturing and aviation, submitted a draft standstill agreement and a business proposal to banks involved in its debt restructuring talks, said one person close to the company who asked not to be identified. "We're at a very early stage," the source said.

Dubai World will transfer two of the emirate's biggest property developers to the Government as it completes a debt restructuring in the wake of the financial crisis, The National reported. Agreements have been signed on the terms for the separation of Nakheel and Limitless "operationally and financially" from Dubai World, the board of directors said in a statement. In addition, Nakheel said it had secured unanimous approval from banks for its US$10.9 billion (Dh40.03bn) debt restructuring, which will trigger the issuance of a Dh6bn Islamic bond.

Nakheel PJSC, the builder of man-made islands off Dubai’s coast, said the company got the approval of all its bank creditors to restructure debt, Bloomberg reported. Nakheel “received acceptance from 100 percent of the banks and the required majority of its trade creditors giving their consent to the Nakheel restructuring plan,” it said today in an e-mailed statement. Nakheel also signed agreements on its operational and financial separation from Dubai World, it said. The legal separation will happen upon completion of Nakheel’s restructuring, the real-estate company said.

A restructuring of billions of dollars of debt at a leading Saudi Arabian steel manufacturer has set a new precedent for complex financial restructurings in the kingdom, lawyers say. Last week, Al-Ittefaq Steel Products Company and 18 banks reached an out-of-court agreement to refinance about SR7.5bn ($2bn), the Financial Times reported. Under the arrangements, none of the banks will take write-offs and the company will be able to continue some of its expansion plans.

Kuwait Finance House, the country's biggest Islamic lender, said on Sunday it has signed a deal with Gulf Investment House to restructure the KD49.5 million ($180 million) it owes in debts, TradeArabia reported. The agreement 'includes converting the current debts from short term to medium term for a period of five years. The agreement was signed in collaboration with Boubyan Bank and Burgan Bank,' KFH said in a statement.

One has to hand it to Adnan Al-Musallam, chairman of The Investment Dar (TID), the Kuwait-based Islamic investment company, which owes its creditors over $3.5 billion. Over the last two years, he has fought off any attempt from some creditors to put TID under administration or declare it bankrupt, ArabNews.com reported. He has successfully persuaded the court in Kuwait to give his debt-restructuring plan a chance to the chagrin of a few of TID’s creditors.