Abu Dhabi-based Gulf Marine Services (GMS) said on Tuesday it had reached an agreement with its syndicate of banks to restructure its debt that will help it weather the coronavirus crisis, gCaptain reported. London-listed GMS provides support vessels for offshore oil and gas and other energy installations. It has been hurt by a downturn in the oil and gas services industry triggered by a prolonged slide in oil prices that has turned into a deep slump since the coronavirus crisis destroyed demand and a production cut agreement between OPEC and its allies collapsed.

A decade after the global financial crisis pushed Dubai’s real estate sector -- known for its outlandish projects such as man-made palm-shaped islands -- to the brink of collapse, the deadly coronavirus pandemic threatens to send it back there again, Bloomberg News reported. S&P Global Ratings is warning that home prices could slump to 2010 levels as unemployment across key sectors such as tourism and retail eviscerates demand. Prices are currently about 5% to 10% above what they reached a year after the debt crisis in 2009, according to data from real estate services firm Asteco.

Lebanon kicked off talks to restructure its $90 billion debt pile on Friday with a promise to present a comprehensive recovery plan for its “broken” economy before the end of this year, Bloomberg News reported. In a video presentation to bondholders, Lebanon’s top finance officials said the economic overhaul would require external funding, but did not set concrete targets for cutting the deficit or restoring growth and spoke only in general terms about the steps required.

Limitless World LLC is close to hiring financial and legal advisers for the Dubai-based developer’s third restructuring as the emirate’s on-going property slump is set to worsen, Bloomberg News reported. The company told creditors that it’s in the “final stages” of engaging advisers to work on a restructuring plan as it’s “unable to pay accrued profit at the end of March,” according to a letter sent to banks and seen by Bloomberg. Limitless’ board has recently been reorganized to comprise three members, who are being advised “on all matters” by a team from Dubai World, the letter said.

Chairman of the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL) Salim Sfeir announced plans to donate $6 million to government hospitals battling coronavirus, in a press conference yesterday, the Middle East Monitor reported. The money from the ABL will be used to purchase 120 respirators for treatment of coronavirus patients across Lebanon, according to a statement from Sfeir’s office. During a meeting between Sfeir and Lebanon’s Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Tuesday, ABL’s chairman handed the government a cheque for the $6 million and said that “today Lebanon is enduring a great national trial.

Troubled UAE hospital operator NMC Health said on Tuesday its debt pile now stood at $6.6 billion, much higher than earlier estimates, and that it has appointed a former PwC partner as chief restructuring officer to tackle the problem, Reuters reported. The company, which has been in crisis since U.S. firm Muddy Waters' short attack, revised its debt position from $5 billion earlier in March, and named Matthew J.

Lebanon faces a complex and difficult debt restructuring that could take up to two years, Morgan Stanley has estimated, though the recent slump in its bonds has left them looking cheap even if the harshest scenarios play out, Reuters reported. Lebanon, one of the most indebted countries in the world, suspended payments on all $31.3 billion of its international ‘eurobonds’ this month, declaring that it could no longer repay them.

Lebanon will begin the process of restructuring its roughly $30 billion of Eurobonds with an investor presentation on March 27, despite the coronavirus outbreak roiling global markets and paralyzing travel, Bloomberg News reported. The government, which defaulted this month, asked its financial adviser, Lazard Ltd., to initiate talks with investors, the Finance Ministry said in a statement Monday. The government “is developing a sustainable macroeconomic plan to redress the Lebanese economy,” the ministry said.

The bonds of emerging-market nations are entering distressed territory at an alarming rate as the soaring dollar raises the prospect of government defaults, Bloomberg News reported. Fifteen nations with more than $100 billion of Eurobonds outstanding now have average spreads of at least 1,000 basis points over U.S. Treasuries, which many investors consider to be the threshold for debt to be classed as distressed. And that doesn’t even include Lebanon, which defaulted this month, and Argentina, which has begun restructuring talks with bondholders.

Banks from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and India risk losing millions of dollars due to their exposure to Finablr Plc, the foreign-exchange operator that’s preparing for potential insolvency, according to people with knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg News reported. Qatar National Bank, Doha Bank, National Bank of Fujairah, Commercial Bank International and Bank of Baroda are still owed about $300 million by Finablr’s parent BRS Ventures, which is owned by Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, some of the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.