Nakheel to pay $1.3bn in Islamic bonds by June-end

Troubled Palm Jumeirah developer Nakheel is to pay its trade creditors $1.3bn in the form of Islamic bonds by the end of June, in an effort to settle 60 percent of its debt.

The state-backed property group is reportedly pressing ahead with procedures to issue the sukuk required to finance its debt restructuring and separate from conglomerate Dubai World.

Nakheel has said more than 90 percent of trade creditors have agreed to the restructuring plan, which would see Nakheel pay 40 percent of its debts in cash, and the remaining 60 percent in the form of sukuk shares with an annual return of eight percent.

The developer requires 95 percent agreement among its creditors to finalise the debt deal.

“For the agreement with creditors, we are looking to finalize by end of second quarter of 2011, [June]” a Nakheel spokesperson told Arabian Business in an earlier emailed statement. “The sukuk will be concluded by the end of the quarter.”

In March, the developer said it had made cash payments of $1.25bn to its trade creditors under its plan to restructure $10.8bn in debt.

The company confirmed in April it had stopped selling real estate units in Dubai, and has launched an advertising campaign offering rent-free periods in its lower-priced developments in a bid to boost tenant numbers.

The developer behind Dubai’s palm-shaped island was the biggest casualty of the emirate’s real estate crash, halting work on a number of offplan projects.

Nakheel’s inability to meet its obligations left it with billions of dirhams in unpaid bills to contractors and suppliers and helped trigger Dubai’s debt crisis in 2009.

A company spokesperson this month said Nakheel would be carved out of parent company Dubai World and become a government-owned entity by June.