Nakheel in talks with bankers over IPO - report

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MULLING IPO: Nakheel is reportedly in talks with investment bankers over a possible IPO in 2009. (ITP Images)

Dubai master developer Nakheel is reportedly in talks with investment bankers about plans to float the company in 2009.

The company behind projects such as the Palm Jumeirah and the proposed Nakheel Tower, the tallest in the world, is said to be considering a stock market listing to raise as much as $15 billion, reported the UK's Sunday Telegraph.

Bankers at JP Morgan have been working on various ideas for the initial public offering (IPO), including a dual-listing for Nakheel on its home exchange, Nasdaq Dubai, and also in London, although the timing of the move has not yet been decided, the paper said on Sunday.

A spokesman for Nakheel, which is state-backed, told the paper: "Nakheel is always looking into capital-raising options and an initial private offering is one of them."

Companies worldwide raised about $86 billion in IPOs in 2008, down 66 per cent from 2007. IPOs in six Gulf Arab countries raised $11.7 billion in the first nine months of 2008, according to a report by private equity investor Gulf Capital in October.

Reports of a possible IPO were previously published in Dec. 2008 when newswire Bloomberg quoted unnamed bankers that the developer, the UAE's biggest developer by project value with nearly $80 billion worth of schemes in the pipeline, was looking for IPO managers.

Nakheel announced late last year that it was delaying several of its flagship projects, including the Trump International Hotel and Tower, in addition to axing 500 jobs amid the global financial crisis.

The developer said the Frond N villas, Gateway Towers and the Trump tower on the Palm Jumeirah, one of three palm-shaped islands the developer is building off Dubai's coast, would all be delayed.

The company said much of its Waterfront project, a series of man-made islands set to be twice the size of Hong Kong, would also be pushed back.

Nakheel said work would continue on Madinat Al Arab, Venetto, Badra and the Canal District, but areas of the project, including construction of six man-made islands, would be put on hold.

The Universe, a series of man-made islands in the shape of the sun, the moon and the planets that wraps around Nakheel's The World project, has been delayed, the company said, with work restricted to preliminary engineering studies.

On the Palm Jebel Ali, the second largest of the three Palm islands, Nakheel said work on the fond villas and infrastructure for the crescent would continue, while other phases would be delayed.

It did not give details of how long any of its projects would be delayed for.

Nakheel said work on all other projects - which include The World man-made archipelago and Palm Deira, the largest of the Palm islands - would continue as planned.

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