United Arab Emirates

A creditor of Dubai-based Abraaj has started legal proceedings in the Cayman Islands seeking the restructuring of the private equity firm’s liabilities, Reuters reported. Auctus is the second creditor, after Kuwait’s Public Institution for Social Security (PIFSS), to start legal action in the Cayman Islands, where Abraaj Holdings is registered. In a statement to Reuters from its representatives, legal firm Kobre & Kim, Auctus Fund Ltd. said it has filed an application that seeks the appointment of “court-approved professionals in the Cayman Islands” to manage the restructuring process.

A large creditor of Abraaj Group wants a Cayman Islands court to oversee the debt restructuring of the private-equity firm, adding more legal pressure on a once-rising star of the Middle East investment world, The Wall Street Journal reported. In documents filed Friday in the Cayman Islands court system, private-debt specialist Auctus Fund Ltd. said Abraaj’s holding company and its private-equity unit owes it about $300 million.

Abraaj dipped into investor funds because of cash shortages at the group, but there is no evidence of embezzlement, a forensic review of two funds at the struggling private equity firm by Deloitte has found, the Financial Times reported. The emerging-markets specialist suffered from a “lack of adequate governance, including segregation of duties, and the overall weakness in the control framework,” according to briefing notes prepared last week for creditors and seen by the Financial Times.

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.