United Arab Emirates

Dubai-based real estate agency S&K Estate Agents said a deteriorating property market in the emirate contributed to its decision to file for bankruptcy and be liquidated, Reuters reported. "Simply put, the revenue being generated by the business drastically reduced over the first half of 2015, without enough income to cover operational costs," S&K said in an emailed statement released through a public relations firm. The company said its reputation had suffered from client complaints and a recruitment drive did not yield results quickly enough to save the business.

Drydocks World has called in the American financial group Citibank to help it refinance its US$2.3 billion of debt, The National reported. DDW, under the chairmanship of Abdulrahman Al Saleh, the director general of the Dubai Department of Finance, has hired the restructuring advisers at Citi’s Middle East unit, which is based in the emirate, to seek a better deal from its creditors. The marine engineering group, part of the Dubai World conglomerate, sealed a deal in 2012 to push back maturities on $2.3bn in two tranches.

The long-awaited new insolvency law has taken a big step towards becoming a reality after being approved by the Cabinet, The National reported. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, said on his website that the proposed draft law includes flexible strategies to bail out businesses that have encountered financial troubles that might lead to bankruptcy. “The draft law aims to regulate accumulated debts, eases restructuring of companies as well as support troubled businesses,” he said.

Bank creditors to Drydocks World (DDW), Dubai’s maritime engineering business, are expecting to receive proposals from the government-owned company to restructure some of the US$2.3 billion debt it refinanced in 2012, The National reported. Recent talks with creditors have left them convinced that the company, owned by the Dubai World conglomerate, will seek to change the terms of its agreement to repay some $800 million of bank loans in the summer of 2017.

Liquidators for ES Bankers (Dubai) Ltd (ESBD) have estimated they will pay out 82.7 percent of the $93.5 million owed to depositors in the stricken bank, advisory firm Deloitte said on its website, Reuters reported. However, unsecured creditors of the Dubai arm of the Espirito Santo empire, which stumbled after accounting irregularities were identified at one of its holding companies earlier last year, will get none of the $14 million they are owed, the document added.

At the start of a new year, the UAE’s lawyers, bankers, small business owners and, indeed, government officials, are still waiting for the country’s new insolvency bus – sorry, law –to arrive. But the signs are that after many years of standing at the bus stop and waiting, the legislation is getting closer to becoming a reality, The National reported in a commentary.

Towards the end of last year, it was announced that the UAE’s long anticipated reform of the insolvency reform bill was reaching its final stages prior to implementation, Emirates 24/7 reported. The legal framework was drawn up following the establishment of the Dubai World Tribunal that resulted from its inability to pay its creditors in November 2009. The case cast spotlight on the UAE, which until today does not have an officially passed insolvency bill that helps local businesses as well as international investors.

Dubai government-owned property developer Limitless has secured the agreement of 85 percent of its creditors for a three-month extension to a debt repayment due at the end of 2014 and for a proposed restructuring plan, its chairman said, Reuters reported. Limitless is looking to obtain the support of 100 percent of creditors to the extension and restructuring plan for its $1.2 billion debt, Ali Rashid Lootah told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday.

State-owned conglomerate Dubai World edged closer to a second major restructuring in four years on Monday after announcing it had reached agreement with a "substantial majority" of creditors to back its $14.6 billion debt deal, Reuters reported. However, despite having enough backing to effectively prevent challenges to its new deal, a relatively untested court process to impose it will mean formal completion is still months away.

Limitless, a Dubai government-related real estate developer, has asked for a three-month extension to talks with creditors after failing to secure a new restructuring deal on its $1.2 billion debt pile, four banking sources told Reuters on Thursday. The company, which has already restructured the debt once before after falling victim to the emirate's property crash at the end of the last decade, has been in talks with creditors for nearly a year on a new deal. It had hoped to secure new terms before a $400 million payment came due on Dec. 31 but no deal was reached.