Dubai’s Nakheel In Talks To Refinance $2.2bn Loan

Dubai’s state-owned property firm Nakheel, is in talks with banks to refinance loans worth Dhs8 billion ($2.2 billion) that are due in 2015, the chairman of the company said on Wednesday.

Ali Rashid Lootah said the company was in discussions with local and international banks but declined to give any further details.

Nakheel agreed to a $16 billion debt restructuring in 2011 and has scaled back grandiose plans such as building a one-kilometre high tower after becoming a high profile corporate casualty of the Dubai property crash in 2009.

The loans being refinanced was part of the agreement reached with about 30 banks.

“We are looking to refinance this debt and are talking to banks,” Lootah said in a telephone conversation.

Lootah had said in February that the company would look to extend the loans as the original tenure was very short.

Debts held by Nakheel, owned at the time by flagship conglomerate Dubai World, helped trigger the emirate’s 2009 debt crisis. A last-minute bailout by Abu Dhabi helped Dubai avert a bond default on a Nakheel bond in December 2009.