United Arab Emirates

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.

Gulf General Investment Company (GGICO) is in talks with lenders to restructure loan and credit facilities after defaulting on a payment linked to 2.15 billion dirhams ($585.5 million) of debt at the end of last year, the Sharjah-based firm said on Sunday. The company, which has investments spanning financial services, property, hospitality, manufacturing and retailing, previously restructured its debt in September 2017 and before that in July 2012, Reuters reported. It said in December 2017 it defaulted on a principal payment of 24.4 million dirhams related to the restructured debt.

A troubled Luxembourg brokerage has sought outside help to fulfil a crucial role in the restructuring of $1.2bn of structured bonds backed by defaulted airlines such as Air Berlin and Alitalia, the Financial Times reported. The fate of the $1.2bn of debt at two special-purpose vehicles tied to Etihad has been in the balance since last summer, after the collapse of Italian airline Alitalia and Germany’s Air Berlin. The Abu Dhabi carrier had snapped up stakes in the two airlines as part of an ill-fated push into Europe.

Some holders of $1.2 billion in bonds linked to Etihad Airways are seeking to appoint legal advisers to evaluate their options with respect to a potential default of the notes, sources familiar with the matter said. Etihad issued the bonds in 2015 and 2016 through an Amsterdam-based special purpose vehicle, called Equity Alliance Partners (EAP).

Dubai International Capital LLC reached an agreement with banks to roll over a loan of about $1 billion, Bloomberg News reported. The private-equity firm owned by the emirate’s ruler plans to extend the loan for three years and sign the agreement in the next few weeks. It’s the second time the firm is restructuring the loan. Banks are also asking DIC’s parent Dubai Holding LLC to pay $150 million under a payment guarantee as part of the first restructuring in 2012.

A Middle Eastern energy company that has questioned the lawfulness of its own sukuk won’t settle the $700 million worth of debt owed to investors, according to people familiar with the matter. Dana Gas PJSC, the Sharjah, United Arab Emirates-based energy producer, has no plans to repay the two mudaraba sukuk of $350 million in size each due Oct. 31, and the company is confident it will win a court case with bondholders, the two people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private, Bloomberg News reported.

Dubai’s Drydocks World has returned to the courts to push through a $2.1bn debt restructuring, clearing the path for the troubled ship-repair business’ sale to a sister company, DP World, the emirate’s port operator, the Financial Times reported. The maritime engineering business, a unit of the government-owned Dubai World conglomerate, in 2012 had to use bespoke insolvency legislation to finalise its first restructuring after a hedge fund won a judgment against the firm for defaulting.

A London lawsuit over $700 million in Shariah-compliant bonds issued by Dana Gas PJSC will go ahead despite a last-minute United Arab Emirates court order that attempted to stop the company from taking part in the trial, Bloomberg News reported. Dana Gas stunned investors and the Islamic finance community when it announced in June that it had reviewed its own bonds and found they were not Shariah compliant. Bondholders, led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and BlackRock Inc., hired investment bankers and then lawyers when it became clear they were facing losses of 90 percent or more.