Dubai: Union Properties has received "negotiable" offers for its Ritz Carlton hotel in Dubai, which the firm is hoping to sell for about Dh1.5 billion, its chairman said Wednesday.
The third-largest developer in Dubai has been hit by the global downturn, which has sent prices falling some 50 per cent from their peaks in 2008.
"There are different groups of people we are talking to ... Westerners, Qataris, Saudis and local companies with regards to selling the Ritz Carlton," chairman Khalid Bin Kalban told Reuters by tele-phone.
"We are waiting to get the right price ... one or two have given a negotiable price."
In February, the firm said several investors were interested in the hotel located at a prime site in the Dubai International Financial Centre.
The developer has Dh6.5 billion dirhams of outstanding debt, of which Dh2.8 billion had been rescheduled for payment to 2011 from 2009, with the remainder maturing in the long-term.
Union Properties is aiming for a soft opening in May for the 15-storey Ritz Carlton, Kalban said.
Union Properties ended flat at Dh0.45 Wednesday, just above Sunday's seven-year low.
Earlier yesterday a local daily reported two investors from Qatar and a non-resident Indian based in the United States were in talks for the hotel.
Lender Emirates NBD has a 48 per cent stake in Union Properties.
