United Arab Emirates

Dubai-based property lender Amlak Finance is in talks with creditors to restructure debts of around AED7bn (US$1.9bn), in the latest attempt to resurrect a victim of Dubai's property crash, ArabianBusiness.com reported. The sharia-compliant mortgage lender is negotiating with a creditor committee of six members, which includes two government-owned funds as well as Dubai's largest lender and its biggest Islamic bank, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. They spoke on condition of anonymity as the information is not public.

Property buyers using mortgages will have to stump up more than twice as much out of their own pocket to make a down payment as a result of the Central Bank’s new mortgage rules, new research found yesterday, The National reported. Buyers’ self-funding requirements will rise by 100 per cent for nationals and 150 per cent for expatriates, said Chiradeep Ghosh, an analyst at Securities and Investment Company (Sico), a Bahrain-based investment bank. Bankers are to meet tomorrow to formulate a response to the government circular.

The United Arab Emirates plans to restrict mortgages for foreigners to 50 percent of the property’s value, threatening to derail a nascent recovery in Dubai home prices after more than three years of declines, Bloomberg News reported today. U.A.E. citizens can get as much 70 percent of the value of a first house and 60 percent for a second, according to guidelines issued by the central bank and obtained by Bloomberg News. Foreigners can get mortgages of as much as 40 percent of the value of a second property, according to the document.

Dana Gas PJSC, whose bondholders include BlackRock Inc and Ashmore Group Plc, completed the restructuring of $920 million of Islamic bonds after agreeing to pay twice the average yield on emerging markets corporate sukuk, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. Dana Gas, which missed sukuk payments in October, will pay bondholders $70 million in cash and split the remaining Shariah- compliant debt into $425 million of convertible bonds and an ordinary sukuk of equal value, the United Arab Emirates fuel producer said in a statement.

Netoil Inc., a Dubai-based company, has submitted a revised offer for insolvent Petroplus Holdings AG’s Petit-Couronne refinery in Normandy, France, teaming up with BP Plc., Bloomberg Businessweek reported. “We didn’t have a supplier before, now, we have a letter of intent from BP to supply 120,000 barrels of crude a day to the refinery for a three-year period,” Roger Tamraz, Netoil’s chairman, said today in a telephone interview from Paris.

Dana Gas, a Sharjah-based energy company with operations in the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Egypt, said Thursday it failed to pay back a $920 million Islamic bond, or sukuk, that came due on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company is in discussions with holders of the debt to amend the terms of the sukuk and extend its maturity, according to a statement posted on the Abu Dhabi bourse website. Dana has a three-day grace period before it can officially be declared in default, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Limitless, a Dubai-based property developer, has received full agreement from its bank lenders to restructure a $1.2 billion Islamic loan, the company said on Thursday. The company has made all profit payments on the loan since signing it in 2008, Limitless said in an emailed statement, and would continue to do so under the new agreement. Limitless, which had received several maturity extensions from banks as the restructuring talks continued, didn’t say how long it was given to pay back the loan under the deal or what rates it would pay.

Plans agreed between Zabeel Investments and its creditors to restructure individual loans included in around USD 1.6bn of liabilities have been overturned as Wasl Asset Management tries to renegotiate terms, according to two creditors, the Financial Times reported on a dealReporter story. The move has led one lender, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), to begin legal action, they claimed. ADCB was expected to file its case in mid-September, the creditors said, without providing details of the nature of the action.

Three international banks that backed out of $10 billion debt restructuring talks with an investment company controlled by Dubai's ruler said Thursday they are now pursuing legal action against the firm, dashing hopes of a consensual deal, The Seattle Times reported on an Associated Press story. The move by Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland, Commerzbank of Germany and South African lender Standard Bank will likely further complicate Dubai Group's efforts to move beyond its debt troubles after more than a year and a half of negotiations with creditors.

A Dubai court sanctioned the $2.2 billion debt restructuring of Drydocks World LLC, the Middle East’s biggest shipyard, after creditors approved the plan, Bloomberg reported. The ruling by the special tribunal said 97.8 percent of Drydocks’s creditors agreed to the terms. A government decree allows the tribunal to enforce a restructuring proposal if at least two-thirds of the creditors agree to it. Drydocks World, part of the state-controlled Dubai World group, filed an application to the Dubai tribunal in April to block lawsuits after failing to win support from all lenders.