Dubai bank CEO says market ripe for buyouts

The United Arab Emirates may have passed through the worst of the global financial crisis and now is a good time to make acquisitions, the head of Mashreq bank said on Saturday.

"I feel we have reached the bottom and the worst is behind us," Mashreq Chief Executive Abdul Aziz Al-Ghurair told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Jordan. "How long this will last we still don't know, but at least we have stabilized."

Mashreq is based in Dubai, where real estate prices have crashed since hitting peaks late last year following a multi-year building boom.