Dubai: Dubai’s continuing growth is key to its helping its various entities — government, government-related entities and the private sector — raise additional funding necessary for expansion plans linked to the hosting of the Expo in 2020, a senior official of ratings agency Moody’s said on Wednesday.
Responding to a question on whether from a credit worthiness point of view, there existed a serious limitation to Dubai’s capacity to raise funds internationally, Khalid Howladar, vice-president and senior credit officer at Dubai’s office in Moody’s, said that it would be a mixture of refinancing existing sukuk and bonds, injecting equity, some federal help asset sales and bank funding that would see the emirate successfully finance its projects and plans.
He made these remarks during a session on Islamic finance at Wednesday’s Meed conference on Destination 2020.
Howladar said that the growth drivers of trade, logistics, transport and hospitality help the market see that it is indeed generating a lot of cash.
He also said the property market is also doing the same and added that Dubai’s last issuance of a 30-year bond at five-and-a-half per cent is a reflection of confidence in the Dubai story.
