DUBAI: Indebted Zabeel Investments, which is owned by Dubai's crown prince, has reached a $956-million debt deal with lenders, according to al-Khaleej newspaper on Thursday.
The Arabic-language daily, citing an unnamed senior banking source, did not give further details on the agreement which it said was for more than 3.5 billion UAE dirhams ($952.90 million) in bank debt.
"Zabeel Investments has succeeded in settling its debt," the newspaper quoted the source as saying.
Zabeel, which has hospitality, property and private equity assets, owes approximately 6 billion dirhams to mostly local banks. Talks on restructuring the debt had ground to a halt in January.
A Dubai government official confirmed this week that the management of Zabeel had been taken over by state-owned Dubai Real Estate Corp.
Last month, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank filed a legal claim for $107.13 million against Zabeel, saying it failed to meet repayment obligations.
Zabeel, owned by Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed al-Maktoum, once had stakes in Sony Corp and planemaker EADS. Formed in 2006, the company also owns the lavish ZabeelSaray hotel on Dubai's man-made Palm Jumeirahisland. ($1 = 3.6730 UAE dirhams) ($1 = 3.6730 UAE dirhams) (Reuters)
