IslamicFinance.de

Meraas Holding, a real estate developer in Dubai owned by the UEA government, issued a $400 million sukuk last week. It was sold privately to a select group of investors, according to sources. The Islamic bond has a five-year maturity and is at par with a 5.112 % yield on May the 26th and traded at one to 1.5 points above par shortly after that. Emirates NBD, Noor Bank and Standard Chartered jointly coordinated the transaction and served as bookrunners along with Dubai Islamic Bank, Sharjah Islamic Bank and Warba Bank.
Meraas is the parent company of the leisure and entertainment company DXB Entertainment, which owns 4 theme parks and a water park in UAE capital. It has been said, that a new entity has been set up which will manage billions of dollars of development projects for Meraas Holding and Dubai Holding. Dubai Holding is the investment vehicle of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. Raed Kajoor Al Nuaimi, formerly chief executive of DXB Entertainment, has been appointed to lead the new management company.

Dubai Holding, a conglomerate owned by the emirate's ruler, and Kuwait's Al Fajer Re plan to launch a Emirates Retakafulfirm with $500m of authorised capital in January to tap unserved demand in retakaful. The new firm, Emirates Retakaful, will be set up in the Dubai International Financial Centre, said Fareed Lutfi, director of insurance services at Dubai Holding. There will be scope to add more investors to the firm, he added. Emirates Retakaful will focus on covering general takaful business, such as oil- and aviation-related risks, and later explore family takaful risk.

Bankers have an optimistic attitude towards a full-scale restructuring of the US$10 billion (Dh36.72bn) debts of Dubai Holding. They consider such a move to be imminent following the settlement of a legal action against a unit of the conglomerate. Four banks, one of which Royal Bank of Scotland, have reached an agreement on the terms of restructuring debts of Dubai Group, the financial arm of the holding company. This will include their dropping a controversial legal action against the Dubai company.

It is now official that the Dubai government, acting under directions from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE, Ruler of Dubai, has taken over Dubai Bank with no delay.
It seems that the government will put an unspecified amount of cash into DB, completely weakening the holdings of Dubai Holding and Emaar Properties.