United Arab Emirates

Kuwait’s Public Institution for Social Security is seeking the liquidation of Abraaj Holdings as creditors step up pressure on the Dubai-based buyout firm that’s facing allegations of misused funds, Bloomberg News reported. The fund filed a petition in the Cayman Islands for the liquidation and winding up of Abraaj Holdings after the firm defaulted on a $100 million loan that was due on June 3, the Public Institution for Social Security said in a statement. The fund holds a stake in Abraaj Holdings and had provided $731.8 million in loans and investments by 2013, it said.

Abraaj Group, which has been roiled by allegations of misused funds, will meet shareholders and lenders on Monday to discuss the restructuring of the Dubai-based asset manager, Bloomberg News reported. Chief Executive Officer and founder Arif Naqvi and other senior managers will update stakeholders on the talks with potential acquirers of its asset-management business, ongoing deals and media speculation, Abraaj said in a statement. The Middle East’s biggest buyout firm is facing growing concern about its viability amid impending loan repayments and greater regulator scrutiny.

Abraaj is meeting with creditors next week as the Dubai-based private equity company attempts to avoid potential liquidation proceedings that have complicated talks to sell to a strategic investor, the Financial Times reported. Kuwait’s Public Institution for Social Security (Pifss), one of its creditors, has filed a petition to liquidate Abraaj’s assets over its inability to repay a $100m loan due Sunday. Abraaj has been rocked since investors complained that it had mishandled money in its $1bn healthcare fund.

Deutsche Bank has cut eight positions within its equities research team in Dubai as it moves to close the unit as part of a global scaling back of equities business, sources familiar with the matter said. The research analysts covered dozens of companies from Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Turkey, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

By most accounts, Dubai’s biggest bank got a good deal when it agreed to buy Turkey’s Denizbank AS for $3.2 billion. The question is whether that’s enough to make up for entering a market under pressure from all sides, Bloomberg News reported. Emirates NBD PJSC is buying the lender from Russia’s Sberbank at a time when the country is struggling with a plunging currency, a wave of debt restructurings, looming elections and political meddling in the finance industry. The purchase is both Turkey’s largest M&A deal since 2012 and the Dubai bank’s biggest acquisition.

Almost a year of claims, counterclaims and litigation is beginning to wind down for Dana Gas PJSC bondholders, including BlackRock Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The Sharjah, United Arab Emirates-based energy company reached a deal with its key bondholders on restructuring $700 million of sukuk, avoiding protracted litigation in two jurisdictions and ending a dispute that fixated the Islamic finance industry, Bloomberg News reported. A committee representing bondholders agreed on terms that offer two options to creditors, including one involving full repayment, the company said Sunday.

Dana Gas PJSC has reached an agreement with key holders of $700 million of its Islamic bonds to restructure the securities, two people with knowledge of the matter said, possibly ending a legal battle that has unnerved the Islamic finance industry, Bloomberg News reported. A committee representing sukukholders, which include BlackRock Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., agreed to accept an immediate cash payout of 20 cents to the dollar and to roll the rest into a three-year security, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

Etihad Airways PJSC intends to remain a major global carrier as it works on re-sizing its global business following record losses, according to new Chief Executive Officer Tony Douglas. The Persian Gulf company, which has built up a vast inter-continental route network and spent billions of dollars on plane purchases, has no intention of becoming a “boutique” operator and still aspires to being an “airline of choice,” Douglas said Monday in Abu Dhabi, where Etihad is based.

One of Noble Group’s largest shareholders is suing the troubled commodity trader in a last-ditch bid to stop its chairman pushing through a controversial restructuring, the Financial Times reported. Abu Dhabi-based Goldilocks Investment, which took a 8.1 per cent stake in the company last year, said on Wednesday it had filed two lawsuits in Singapore to block Noble from progressing the restructuring — which would see existing shareholders retain just 15 per cent of the company — as well as seeking an injunction against its April 30 annual general meeting.

United Arab Emirates energy firm Dana Gas said on Sunday it had received a new injunction from the English High Court restricting its ability to pay dividends or increase its debt, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The injunction is the latest salvo in a complex legal battle in the UAE and Britain which began last year when Dana halted payments on its $700 million of Islamic bonds, arguing the sukuk had become unlawful because of changes in Islamic finance. Since then, sukuk holders have been trying to force the company to redeem the sukuk.