United Arab Emirates

Sentiments on the UAE stock markets have turned completely negative – as a mix of global events and local concerns fuel investor fears, Gulf News reported. Within the first two hours of Monday. The index shed more than 100 points, with 28 stocks in the red. (Al Salam Group Holding is the only one as of 11.30am to break the down trend.) By 12pm, the drop was brought down below 4 points. But it still looks like being a long day for UAE investors. The real estate stocks, which had been showing signs of strong recovery through the first two months, are particularly hit.

Payments company Finablr is selling its entire business and operations to an Israeli-United Arab Emirates consortium for a nominal $1 after running into financial difficulties, the company said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Global Fintech Investments Holding (GFIH), an affiliate of Prism Group AG, has partnered with Abu Dhabi’s Royal Strategic Partners to buy the business, Finablr said in a statement. GFIH will provide working capital to support Finablr so it can continue to operate and support various stakeholders, including its employees and creditors, the statement said.

Investment Corp. of Dubai is gaining a larger footprint in the emirate’s property market by asserting control over state-owned developer Meydan’s real estate projects, Bloomberg News reported. “We have embarked on a review of Meydan’s business strategy,” Mohammed Al Shaibani, ICD’s chief executive officer, said in an emailed reply to questions.

Administrators of troubled hospital operator NMC Health are sounding out potential buyer interest for its flagship business in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), three sources familiar with the matter said, Reuters reported. The potential sale of its biggest assets which would also include Oman, could generate around $1 billion, one of the sources said. It follows administrators Alvarez & Marsal’s launch in August of a process to sell NMC’s international business including its international fertility units.

Dubai-listed contractor Arabtec has terminated thousands of workers again in recent weeks, sources said, as the construction firm prepares for liquidation after the coronavirus pandemic deepened its financial woes, Reuters reported. Arabtec Holding shareholders in September authorised the board to file for liquidation due to its untenable financial position. The company, which helped build the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, suffered a first-half loss of $216.18 million, piling up accumulated losses of nearly $400 million.

Abu Dhabi’s government has stumped up around $22 billion for Etihad Airways since it began flying in 2003, underscoring the ambition of the oil-rich emirate to turn its national carrier into a global player before the effort faltered in recent years, Bloomberg News reported. The heavy investments, made before Covid-19 lockdowns strangled demand for air travel, were likely a prelude to support for the carrier this year, given the sector’s dire need for cash during the pandemic.

Dubai real estate developer Union Properties has completed a payment of 70 million dirhams ($19.06 million) towards its largest lender as part of a debt restructuring plan, it said on Monday, Reuters reported. The restructuring plan, reached in August with its main lender Emirates NBD to restructure its outstanding debt of 946 million dirhams, aims to "improve the Group's cash-flow and restore its standing with the banking sector," the company said in a statement. Dubai’s real estate market, which has been slowing for most of the past decade, was further hurt by the coronavirus crisis.

Union Properties PJSC is restructuring debt and trimming costs to weather a slump in Dubai’s real estate market, Bloomberg News reported. “We are focusing on restructuring our balance sheet, and all our efforts will be directed to reduce our accumulated losses in the past,” Vice Chairman Fathi Ben Grira said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. The company restructured 946 million dirhams ($258 million) of debt in August. Chronic oversupply has battered property values and rents over the past six years in Dubai.

The English High Court appointed Ben Cairns and Richard Fleming of Alvarez & Marsal as joint administrators of NMC Health on 9 April 2020, but NMC Health’s operating subsidiaries in the Middle East, including its 36 UAE-incorporated subsidiaries (the NMC Companies), are not within the jurisdiction of the English courts and are not part of the English administration process, JD Supra reported. On 27 September 2020, however, the Courts of Abu Dhabi Global Market (the ADGM Courts) placed the NMC Companies into administration and appointed Ben Cairns and Richard Fleming as administrators.

United Arab Emirates energy firm Dana Gas has raised a $90 million loan allowing it to redeem $309 million in bonds due at the end of October and avoid a third debt restructuring, Reuters reported. The company whose main assets are in Egypt and in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq said on Thursday it had obtained a one-year $90 million loan from Mashreq Bank. “In conjunction with the company’s cash reserves, the facility will allow full redemption of the sukuk at the maturity date of 31 October 2020,” it said.