Dubai World unit nears $2.2bn loan deal
Dubai, March 15, 2011
Drydocks World (DDW), a unit of debt-ridden Dubai World, expects to complete the restructuring of a $2.2 billion loan by April 30, its chairman said on Tuesday.
"We are in the final stages of restructuring for the Dubai Drydocks World. The headline terms have been agreed upon," Khamis Juma Buamin told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Dubai.
Dubai Drydocks signed a $2.2 billion loan involving 15 lenders in October 2008, according to Thomson Reuters LPC. The shipbuilding arm of Dubai World has a $1.7 billion loan maturing in November 2011.
"The $2.2 billion is the only major syndicated loan facility we are restructuring. The rest are smaller bilateral loans which are being dealt with according to business needs separately," he said.
The Dubai-based ship and rig builder is not in need of any government aid from a support fund that was created during the financial crisis to back debt-laden state-owned companies, the chairman said.
"We are not in talks for support from Dubai," the chairman said.
Dubai World, the Gulf emirate's flagship conglomerate, which has itself restructured $25 billion in debt, has said Drydocks World was not part of its own restructuring as it had sufficient financial capacity to service its own debt.
Drydocks World signed a new $200 million credit facility in January and said it expected talks on terms of its core debt to be concluded within months.
Demand for oil rigs and ships plunged during the financial crisis as tumbling oil prices forced oil and gas explorers to delay or cancel orders placed in the boom years.
The company was targeting total revenues of $2 billion in 2010, with Southeast Asia and the Middle East to generate around $850 million each, its chief executive said in an interview last year. - Reuters