Dubai raises more than 840 mln dollars from asset sales

Dubai's two government-owned conglomerates have raised at least 3.1 billion dirhams (843.9 million U.S. dollars) in asset sales over the past year, an English daily of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reported Sunday.

Dubai Holding and Dubai World are expected to raise more funds to repay debts resulted from spending on stakes of a wide range of companies and property assets in 2006 and 2007, The National said.

According to the newspaper, Dubai World is nearing an agreement on a 23.5 billion dollars debt restructuring and is considering the sale of prize assets, including the global ports operator DP World and stakes owned by the private equity arm Istithmar World, to repay 14.1 billion dollars of bank debt.

Major asset sales to date include Dubai International Capital's sale of its 17 percent stake in British company Merlin Entertainments, Dubai Financial Group's offloading of its holding in Egyptian investment bank EFG-Hermes, and Istithmar's sale of One Trafalgar Square in London to a private Russian investor, the report said.

Dubai International Capital and Dubai Financial Group are subsidiaries of Dubai Holding.

The Investment Corporation of Dubai, another government holding company of the sheikhdom, has assets including Emirates Airline and the UAE's largest bank Emirates NBD, but is not thought to be pursuing any sales, The National said.

Source:Xinhua