Dubai's Amlak to restructure staff as crisis bites

MONEY MERGER: Amlak will merge with fellow mortgage firm Tamweel under newly-created Emirates Development bank. (Getty Images)

Dubai's troubled Islamic mortgage lender Amlak, which is due to merge with fellow mortgage firm Tamweel, said on Sunday it plans to restructure its workforce as the global crisis bites.

Last week, Tamweel said it would cut 57 jobs as part of restructuring to mitigate the effects of the financial crisis, which prompted the government of the United Arab Emirates federation to rescue the two mortgage firms last year.

The two firms are due to merge under the newly-created Emirates Development bank in which the UAE's federal government will hold a majority stake.

The merger was announced in November and a government body evaluating the assets of Amlak and Tamweel is due to complete its work early this year, Al Ittihad newspaper said in December.

Amlak said in a statement on the Dubai bourse website that it would deal with its real estate investment portfolio "in line with current market conditions and on a case by case scenario".

It did not say whether its workforce restructuring would involve job cuts.

Several Dubai developers behind high-profile projects have shed staff as the global crisis forces the Gulf Arab trade and tourism hub to rationalise spending and revise growth plans.

Major job losses in Dubai, where expatriates comprise over 80 percent of the workforce, could have serious knock-on effects for the whole economy. (Reuters)

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READERS' COMMENTS

Why have they waited?
Posted by Skeptical, Dubai on Sunday 1 February 2009 at 14:31 UAE time


Amlak stopped issuing mortgages more than 2 months ago. Why have they not cut back on staff already? What are the customer service/sales people doing all day? And since Amlak will merge with Tamweel it does not make sense that both companies would maintain the same head count. I am confused at Amlak's slow reaction to cut back on staff until now?

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