Four days before Dubai World sought to delay $26 billion of debt repayments last month, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum set out to race his horse, Al Ayed, across 120 kilometers (75 miles) of Persian Gulf desert. He had to withdraw when the mount became fatigued.
Now Sheikh Mohammed must prove that the transformation of Dubai from fishing village to global business hub isn’t also running out of steam. He has to find a way for oil-poor Dubai to cover at least $80 billion in debts and liabilities, a sign of the gap between his ambitions and the resources to fund them.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, who threw the state holding company a $10-billion lifeline yesterday, has no such concerns. He controls 8 percent of the world’s oil and one of its biggest sovereign wealth funds. He’s also Sheikh Mohammed’s kinsman and, as president of the United Arab Emirates, his boss. Abu Dhabi’s support may come with a price that undermines Sheikh Mohammed’s go-it-alone vision for Dubai.
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