Tuesday 22 December 2009

Austrian developer bets on Dubai turnround

Josef Kleindienst is a rare breed of investor in Dubai. Rather than trying to recover money from an emirate groaning under a debt mountain, he is trying to lure buyers to its battered property sector.

As bank creditors met on Monday to kick off the restructuring of indebted holding company Dubai World, the Austrian developer launched a resort on one of Dubai’s more outlandish offshore developments, hoping to prove that The World has not come to an end – even if Nakheel, the master developer of its 300 man-made islands, is at the heart of the debt crisis.

Dubai World, Nakheel’s government-owned parent, triggered panic last month when it bungled an announcement that it may not be able to meet payments on distressed debts of $26bn (€18bn, £16bn), forcing the emirate to take another $10bn bail-out loan for Dubai World from the United Arab Emirates.

No comments:

Post a Comment