Emaar To Redeem $237m Convertible Bond On Feb 6

Dubai’s Emaar Properties will redeem the outstanding amount of its $500 million convertible bond issue on February 6, the developer said in a bourse filing on Monday.

Paper worth $237.5 million was still outstanding following an earlier conversion of the bonds into stock late last year. Board members of Emaar had approved conversion of the instrument in December.

The conversion price for the bond would be Dhs4.38 per share, significantly below its closing share price of Dhs7.98 on January 5, it said in a statement to the Luxembourg stock exchange, where the bond is listed.

Shares of Emaar climbed 103.7 per cent last year, helped by returning confidence in Dubai’s real estate sector and the wider economy following a local property market crash and huge debt problems at state-linked firms at the end of the last decade.

Emaar, Dubai’s largest property firm, announced a series of new projects in 2013 as property prices rose by around 22 per cent. They had slumped by more than 50 per cent from their 2008 peak in the wake of the crash.

The convertible bond was originally sold in 2010 in a rare example of the instrument being issued by a Gulf Arab company.

The last date for bondholders to exercise the conversion of the notes was set at January 22, the statement added.