Financial Regulatory Forum

By Tamara Walid and Tessa Walsh

DUBAI, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Investor confidence in Dubai took a fresh knock on Tuesday as officials dithered over a rescue for debt-laden state conglomerate Dubai World  and ratings agency Moody’s slapped a downgrade on government-related debt.

“You can usually take the view that no news is good news, but in Dubai’s case it’s quite the opposite — investors need to hear some developments on Dubai World’s restructuring,” said Julian Bruce, EFG-Hermes director of institutional equity sales.

Leading lenders met Dubai World on Monday to negotiate over a $3.5 billion sukuk, the world’s largest, issued by Dubai World subsidiary Nakheel, builder of Dubai’s palm-shaped islands.

That bond is scheduled to be repayed on Dec. 14, in less than a week, but longer term, creditors also face a request for a six month standstill on $26 billion of debt.

A banker close to the discussions said Dubai World had not yet shown the creditors a proposal.

By Andy Bruce
LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) – British businesses are slowly finding it easier to raise funds from debt markets and bank loans, two surveys showed on Monday, a day after Britain’s finance minister said he was concerned about lending costs.  Companies were able to raise more finance from longer-term markets like corporate bonds in the second quarter, according to respondents in the Bank of England’s quarterly Asset Purchase Facility report, as liquidity and price transparency in the market improved. (more…)