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Tamweel, Amlak revamp decision due 'in weeks'
A decision on how to restructure Islamic mortgage firms Amlak and Tamweel will be made in "weeks" with the federal government pumping money into the firms, Tamweel's chairman said.
- Reuters
- Published: 22:59 April 28, 2009
Abu Dhabi: A decision on how to restructure Islamic mortgage firms Amlak and Tamweel will be made in "weeks" with the federal government pumping money into the firms, Tamweel's chairman said.
The fate of merger of the two firms has been under review by a federal government committee this year since the UAE government announced in November it was merging them with two state-controlled banks.
Trading in shares of both companies has been halted since. "It's going to be within weeks ... we are waiting for the final proposal," Shaikh Khalid Bin Zayed Bin Saqr Al Nahyan told reporters yesterday, adding that the new proposal would see the entities recapitalised by the federal government.
"Share trading in Tamweel will begin once [the] issue of Amlak, Tamweel is resolved," he said.
The Islamic home financing companies developed their businesses during an economic boom in Dubai that was kicked off by the emirate's decision in 2002 to allow foreigners to invest in properties on a freehold basis.
The government said in November it would merge Tamweel and Amlak with two state banks to form Emirates Development Bank.
Dubai's real estate sector has eased off in recent months as developers slow projects and property prices correct.
Prices in the emirate have fallen 34 per cent on average from their peaks in 2008, EFG-Hermes said in a report last month.
Analysts in a Reuters poll last month said they expected prices would fall almost 40 per cent this year.
Dubai's finance chief, Nasser Al Shaikh, last week said both firms will resume mortgage lending within weeks as separate entities before moving ahead with a likely merger.
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