Dubai Determined to Repair Reputation After Dubai World Fallout

* username: rupertbu

Dubai wants to repair the damage to its reputation after it roiled world markets with a request to delay debt payments late last year, said Nick Anstee, the 682nd lord mayor of the City of London.

“They are absolutely determined to mitigate that reputational damage by arriving at a solution because they want to continue to deal and trade with people who have been part of building Dubai to what it’s today,” Anstee said in an interview in Dubai today after meeting government officials.

Dubai World announced Dec. 1 it was seeking to alter terms on about $26 billion of debt. Property unit Nakheel PJSC, which is building palm-tree shaped islands off the emirate’s coast, paid back $4.1 billion on Dec. 14 for a maturing Islamic bond after Abu Dhabi bailed out Dubai. Dubai World has so far failed to present a restructuring offer to lenders and declined to say when a deal could be struck.