DP ports borrow $2.3 billion to repay debt amid unprecedented crisis
Dubai Ports Group has borrowed amid an unprecedented financial crisis for months as an extension of the country’s deepening economic crisis.
DP listed two sukuk and two conventional bonds on the NASDAQ Dubai bond exchange, with a total value of $2.3 billion.
According to the Dubai Government Media Office, DP will use the proceeds from the issues to refinance debt and finance growth opportunities.
The listing, which took place in 2019, included two categories of sukuk worth $1.5 billion, and two categories of bonds worth $500 million and $300 million.
“This year’s debt issuance has been well received by a variety of investors,” said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chairman of the company.
DP is the largest issuer of debt in the UAE in terms of value in regional trading, with more than $9 billion in conventional bonds and sukuk listed.
Dubai listed $1 billion in sukuk and $300 million in conventional bonds in July, followed by $500 million in sukuk and $500 million in conventional bonds in September.
The company chairman said in October that the company had difficulty borrowing from banks to finance new investments since the Djibouti government took control of the Doraleh container terminal, which is partly owned by the company in 2018.
“What bank will lend you money? What if the country you invest in followed the example of Djibouti? Djibouti has set a bad precedent. ”
The government of Djibouti took control of the Doraleh container terminal from DP World in February 2018, in a dispute dating back to 2012.
Dubai’s sovereign debt stood at $32 billion, while the public debt-to-GDP ratio of the emirate was only 27.9 percent as of the end of September, while debt servicing stood at only 5 percent of the public budget.
According to Fitch, about $23 billion of these debts are borne by the UAE’s banking portfolios, and it is not yet known how government companies in Dubai will deal with these debts. Finance 2008.
DP is widely seen as a tool of aggression for the UAE, sabotage of state capabilities and plundering its wealth and capabilities.
The management of more than 70 ports around the world, some of the most successful ports in the world, apart from the Arab and African ports, gives the UAE special immunity. Money immunity, a lobbying paper to silence exhibitions of the UAE approach.
In addition, these ports were not used exclusively by the UAE as ports, as they used them as “military bases” from which to launch their forces in the war against Yemen. It will not hesitate to do so with any other State, even if it is the port State, if necessary.
