Dubai’s Amlak Says Debt Restructuring Proposal Approved

Dubai’s Amlak Finance said on Thursday that a proposal to restructure its debt had been approved by all its creditors, and that shares in the mortgage lender would therefore resume trading on the emirate’s stock market next year.

“The Committee expects the restructuring to be completed and fully implemented in 2014, allowing Amlak’s shares to be re-admitted for trading on the DFM in early 2015,” the company said in a statement.

Amlak had made a new proposal to creditors to restructure and extend about $2.7 billion of debt. Its shares have been suspended since November 2008, when a credit crunch and a real estate market slump in Dubai hit its finances.

The company said on Thursday that it would shortly make an initial payment to creditors of approximately Dhs2 billion ($545 million), with the remaining debt to be paid over a 12- year period.

As part of the deal, creditors will swap approximately Dhs1.4 billion of their original debt into a “convertible instrument” which is to be fully redeemed over the next few years from monetising expected rises in the value of Amlak’s real estate assets, the statement added.

It would also repay over a six-year period liquidity support funds provided by the United Arab Emirates government.