United Arab Emirates

A Dubai-based venture half-owned by commodities trader Vitol SA has hired more than 10 ex-OW Bunker employees in China, showing how swiftly merchants are filling the vacuum left by the former top marine fuel supplier, China-based traders said on Friday, Reuters reported. The hiring spree by Cockett Marine Oil follows a similar move by Swiss trader, Mercuria, who has scooped up close to 20 ex-OW Bunker employees in South Korea and Japan.

Dubai World, the government-owned conglomerate, is set to use provisions of the emirate’s special bankruptcy law to ensure an orderly process in the restructuring of US$15 billion of debts, The National reported. A meeting of international bank creditors in London this week gave majority approval to the new refinancing scheme, which has been under discussion since April. Voters representing two-thirds of the total value of loans supported the plan.

Dubai's Limitless will pledge its future revenues to service debt repayments as it attempts a second restructuring of a $1.2 billion Islamic loan which banking sources said should be completed ahead of a December deadline, Reuters reported. The state-owned property firm is on track to restructure the debt by the end of the year, when a payment worth a third of the total comes due, two sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

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.

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.

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.