Dubai’s Nakheel Makes Dhs218m Sukuk Profit Payment

Dubai developer Nakheel confirmed that it has made a sukuk profit payment of Dhs218 million to its trade creditors.

“Instructions have been sent to Deutsche Bank, the registrar and paying agent for the sukuk, to make the profit payment to all sukuk holders on the due date of December 15, 2013 against the sukuk issued amount of Dhs4.4 billion to date,” a statement said.

State-owned Nakheel, badly hit by debts during the financial crisis and the subsequent property crash in Dubai in 2008/2009, was forced to undergo a restructuring process in 2010.

But in line with Dubai’s reviving property market, Nakheel has also recovered losses and is in the process of repaying all its trade creditors.

A Nakheel spokesman said: “We continue to honour our financial commitments and to implement our revised business plan, further helping the recovery of the real estate sector in Dubai. In turn, investor and contractor trust in Nakheel continues to grow.”

Announcing its nine-month profits earlier this year, Nakheel said it had repaid around Dhs12 billion to trade creditors and almost Dhs1.5 billion to creditors in the form of loan interest and sukuk profit payments since August 2011.

The developer’s net profit between January to September 2013 grew 58 per cent year-on-year, it said.

Nakheel chairman Ali Rashid Lootah also told reporters earlier this year that the firm was holding “serious discussions” with three local and international banks to refinance its Dhs8 billion ($2.2 billion) debt maturing in 2015.

The developer, whose current portfolio in Dubai includes Palm Jumeirah and The World Islands, has launched a slew of new projects this year. Last week, Nakheel also awarded contracts worth Dhs174 million for the construction of two new beachfront projects on Palm Jumeirah.