Dubai: The Dubai government-owned developer Nakheel on Monday said it became debt-free as of Sunday, August 21.
The company said it had cleared all of the Sukuk-related payments it had on its books. With this, it draws a line under the restructuring programme that was launched in 2010.
The Suluk payments, which totalled Dh4.4 billion and carried an interest rate of 10 per cent, and were routed through Deutsche Bank.
The bank will now start disbursals to all the Sukuk holders. Nakheel had earlier cleared all its other payments due to banks in 2014, which was four years ahead of the original schedule.
New projects
Nakheel said it is in talks with lenders to raise funds for the current and new projects on its books. It added that a lot of potential lenders were interested and that it was hopeful of getting the funds at competitive rates.
In February, the master developer behind Dubai's iconic Palm Islands and Dragon Mart announced a 19 per cent increase in 2015 net profits, to total Dh4.38 billion against the previous year’s Dh3.68 billion.
Analysts said then that the company's strong performance wsa a result of both core development activities and the move towards creating long-term income generating assets have shown results.
The latter includes multiple hotel assets, starting with the first one — the Ibis Styles at Dragon Mart — which opened earlier this week. Plus, the cash coming in from its already substantial retail portfolio is another bulwark.
In 2015, Nakheel handed over 847 properties to owners at its Palm Jumeirah, Al Furjan, International City, Jumeirah Village, Jumeirah Park and Jumeirah Heights communities. This takes the overall tally of deliveries to around 9,700 units between 2010 and end 2015.
More details to follow.
