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Dubai Overall Debt at Least $129.3 Billion, Credit Suisse Says

2011-01-16

Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Dubai and its state-owned companies carry at least $129.3 billion of debt, of which $50.2 billion is owed by Dubai World, the company that completed a loan restructuring in September, Credit Suisse Group AG said. The second-largest debt, $28.9 billion, is owed by the government itself, the bank said in a research report e-mailed today. Investment Corporation of Dubai and Dubai Holding LLC, two other holding companies, as well as other government-related firms account for the remaining $50.2 billion, it said.  The number “comprises publicly disclosed debt of $111.1 billion and debt on which disclosure is limited,” London-based analysts Mohamad Hawa and Anton Rozanov said in the research report. “The debt burden could be much higher than our final numbers owing to the lack of full disclosure.”  Dubai, the second biggest of the seven states in the United Arab Emirates, had to seek a bailout from neighboring Abu Dhabi after the global financial crisis pushed property prices down by more than half, and frozen credit markets forced some state- owned companies to delay loan payments. Dubai World agreed with creditors in October to restructure $24.9 billion of debt.  The emirate and its state-owned companies have $17.5 billion of debt falling due this year, $17 billion in 2012, $9.7 billion in 2013 and $26 billion in 2014, according to the report. Another $12.8 billion matures in 2015.