Dubai's Nakheel in talks to extend $2.2 billion loan: report

Developer Nakheel is in talks to extend 8 billion dirhams ($2.18 billion) in loans due in 2015, according to its chairman Ali Rashid Lootah. The bank loans under consideration include 6.76 billion dirhams in secured facilities provided by, among others, Dubai's biggest bank Emirates NBD as well as 470 million dirhams in unsecured facilities, all due in 2016. Nakheel reported a 57-percent rise in annual profit in January. It also made interest and profit payments of around 800 million dirhams to lenders last year and has paid around 10 billion dirhams to various trade creditors and contractors since the start of its debt restructuring.