Dubai Group scouts for Shuaa stake buyer

|Arabian Post Staff| Dubai Group, a member of the Dubai Holding,  has hired Emirates NBD to help find a buyer for its stake in investment bank Shuaa Capital, Bloomberg reported quoting two people familiar with the matter.

The sale process is at an early stage and may not result in a deal, Bloomberg quoted the sources as saying.  But the sources were not identified as the talks are private. Dubai Group holds a 48 percent stake in Shuaa worth about $100 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Trading volumes in Shuaa have been soaring in recent weeks amid signs that an investor may be seeking to gain a foothold in the company. The investment firm, whose shares have lost about two-thirds of their value in the past two years, had four chief executive officers in about five years and managed without one since the end of 2013. The stock has gained 68 percent so far this year.

Dubai Group was one of several companies in the emirate that were forced to restructure loans arranged before property prices slumped and credit markets froze after the 2008 global credit crisis. The company reached a final agreement with lenders to restructure $6 billion in debt in 2014 after three years of talks.