Dubai: Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group yesterday dropped Standard & Poor's as its rating company because of a "lack of understanding of the business, its operations and relationship with the Government of Dubai".
"Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group (DHCOG) drops Standard and Poor's (S&P) as rating agency due to its lack of understanding of the business, its operations and relationship with the Government of Dubai. Although DHCOG has been engaging with S&P and sharing adequate information frequently and in a transparent manner, S&P has nevertheless issued inaccurate statements coupled with factual errors that are misleading. Therefore, DHCOG discredits and disagrees with the content of the latest S&P report dated January 25, 2010," Dubai Holding Commercial said in a statement to Nasdaq Dubai yesterday.
Earlier during the day, S&P downgraded Dubai Holding's rating to "B" before withdrawing the rating citing a "lack of information".
Dubai Holding Commercial made scheduled coupon payments totalling nearly $100 million (Dh367 million) due for three medium-term note programmes. In a statement posted on Nasdaq Dubai, the company said it made a $828,650 payment on a $500 million floating rate medium term note due on February 1, 2012; a 35.6 million euro (Dh184.6 million) payment on a 750 million euro medium term note due January 30, 2014; and a £30 million (Dh177.2 million) payment for a £500 million note due February 1, 2017.
