Dubai Holding extends repayment on $1.16bn loan

Dubai Holding, a conglomerate owned by the emirate's ruler, has reached an agreement with lenders to extend a $1.16bn syndicated loan due August18. "We already have full lender support to extend this loan until December 2016 and are currently in the documentation process", a Dubai Holding spokeswoman said in an email. The loan includes an $840m conventional tranche and a $300m sharia-compliant tranche and was originally due to mature next week, Thomson Reuters data showed. The Islamic tranche was arranged by Standard Chartered and Noor Islamic Bank, while Mashreq, Morgan Stanley, BofA Merrill Lynch, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, Credit Agricole, Emirates NBD and Union National Bank Dubai, the tiny Gulf Arab city state which has been in the spotlight for its debt woes since late 2009, has struggled to rebuild investor confidence since state-owned Dubai World announced a $26bn restructuring.But a string of positive news on debt repayments or successful rescheduling of maturities, combined with Dubai's perception as a safe-haven amid regional political strife has lifted sentiment.Earlier this week, Dubai's sovereign wealth arm, Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) announced it would repay in full a $4bn loan instead of the expected part-repayment and part- refinancing.In July, Dubai Holding's main unit, DH Commercial Operations Group repaid a 250 million Swiss franc bond, and said the group was committed to meeting its financial obligations. DHCOG's assets include the Jumeirah hotel group and business parks and hospitality units. Dubai Holding's private equity arm, Dubai International Capital (DIC) reached a $2.5bn restructuring deal with lenders in December, and Dubai Group, the unit mainly comprising financial services assets, is currently in talks to restructure about $10bn in debt. From / Arabian Business News