Dubai developer Nakheel plans to repay up to 4 billion dirhams ($1.1 billion) of bank debt due in 2015 this year, with around 2.35 billion dirhams earmarked for payment in the first quarter of this year, its chairman said on Saturday.
Nakheel was taken over by the government as part of a $16 billion rescue plan completed in 2011, following the bursting of a real estate bubble in the emirate in 2009.
However, the property market rebounded in 2013, with prices up around 22 percent versus 2012. They had plummeted more than 50 percent from their 2008 peak when the sector crashed.
As a result of the bounce back, Nakheel will not require further government support and is targeting annual profit growth of 15 percent, Ali Rashid Lootah told reporters at a press conference.
Nakheel will also have no problems repaying an Islamic bond, due in 2016, which it issued to trade creditors as part of its restructuring plan due in 2016, Lootah said. The bank debt it is repaying early is part of a $2.2 billion loan facility due next year.-Reuters
