United Arab Emirates

The reform of the UAE's insolvency framework is at the centre of government plans to address vulnerabilities in the country's financial system, a top official said on Sunday, ArabianBusiness.com reported. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of the Supreme Fiscal Committee and chairman of Emirates Group, said "urgent steps" were being taken to address gaps in the UAE's legal and regulatory infrastructure.

Dubai World's agreement with its core bank creditors to extend maturities on loan repayments and pay back debt at likely lower interest rates sets an example of how Dubai and Greece could manage their debt problems, Deutsche Bank's (DB) chief executive in the Middle East and North Africa said Friday. "They started a process, the market is favourable, it's an indication of how things should be done," Henry Azzam told Zawya Dow Jones on the sidelines of an economic forum in Lebanon.

Dubai World has agreed economic terms with its main creditors over the most controversial aspect of the state-owned company’s $23.5 billion debt restructuring, providing hope that the major drag on the emirate’s economy can be removed quickly, the Financial Times reported. The troubled conglomerate said on Thursday that the holding company’s co-ordinating committee of financial creditors, representing 60 per cent of the debt owed to lenders, had agreed in principle terms on the $14.4bn owed by the holding company in a proposal presented at the end of March.

Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group and Dubai Group, both part of the Dubai Holding conglomerate controlled by the emirate's ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, have appointed financial advisers ahead of a potential debt restructuring, people familiar with the matter said Monday, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported.

Dubai International Capital Wednesday sent a letter to senior lenders of German aluminum company Almatis, urging them to vote against a restructuring plan from distressed-debt investor Oaktree Capital, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The letter comes on the eve of Almatis' management filing to place the company in U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings as part of Oaktree's restructuring plan to more than halve Almatis' $1 billion debt to around $422 million.

Dubai World could see a response this month from banks to a proposed restructuring offer for about $23 billion of debt, according to the chief executive of one of its largest lenders, Dow Jones reported. "There's a set deadline in weeks," Alaa Eraiqat of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, one of seven lenders that form a creditor committee for Dubai World, told reporters Monday. Other banks on the committee that represents more than 90 Dubai World creditors include HSBC Holding PLC, Standard Chartered PLC, Lloyds Banking Group PLC and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC.

Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester has joined other creditors in lending his support to the $9.5 billion (£6.3 billion) restructuring of Dubai World, The Scotsman reported. Hester told regional newspaper Gulf News that the plan has sent out the "right signals". RBS was among the seven-member panel which held negotiations between the conglomerate and its other creditors, which total more than 90. Hester's comments come a day after two other creditors, HSBC and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, lent their approval to the plan.

STX Group, one of the nation's leading shipbuilders, has joined the competition to take over Daehan Shipbuilding, The Korea Times reported. The company said Wednesday it had submitted a bid to buy the cash-strapped firm the previous day, the closing day for the tender. Daehan Shipbuilding, now under a debt rescheduling program, has a 140,000 square-meter dock in Haenam, South Jeolla Province.

Dubai World will present a proposal to creditors in March to restructure about $22 billion of debt after its advisers complete valuing the assets of the state- owned company, a person close to the Dubai government said, BusinessWeek reported. The final proposal will be made after consultations with the Abu Dhabi government and the United Arab Emirates’ central bank, said the official today, who declined to be identified because the process is private.

Dubai's $10 billion aid from Abu Dhabi in December, which helped the emirate avoid default on a state-linked developer's bond, included $5 billion previously lent by two Abu Dhabi banks, a Dubai government spokeswoman said on Monday, Reuters reported. It had been unclear whether Abu Dhabi's $10 billion lifeline on December 14 -- which enabled Dubai World to repay a $4.1 billion Islamic bond, or sukuk by developer Nakheel -- was entirely new money or included the bond to Abu Dhabi-controlled banks.