Aldar to Convert Mubadala-Held Bonds to Shares at Lower End of Price Range - Bloomberg

Aldar Properties PJSC (ALDAR) will convert bonds into shares at the lower end of their price range as Abu Dhabi’s biggest real-estate company grapples with tumbling property prices and declining market value. The shares dropped.

Aldar will today convert 2.1 billion dirhams worth of bonds held by Mubadala Development Co., an investor with stakes in Carlyle Group and General Electric Co., into shares of 1.75 dirhams each, the company said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi bourse today. The original conversion terms stipulated that the bonds would be converted at not higher than 2.30 dirhams and not lower than 1.75 dirhams.

Property values and rents slumped in the United Arab Emirates after banks curtailed lending and speculators pulled out due to the global credit crunch. Home prices in Abu Dhabi, the U.A.E. capital, may drop 30 percent more after declining as much as 55 percent from the market’s peak in mid-2008, according to Dubai-based Rasmala Investment Bank Ltd.

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