November 27, 2009
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<Tapping Water>
Dubai’s $80 Billion Debt Reasonable, HSBC’s Nasr Says
2009-10-08 08:48:41.908 GMTOct. 8 (Bloomberg) — Dubai’s $80 billion of state-related debt is “reasonable,” given the economy’s size and growth rate, and HSBC Holdings Plc will lend to companies facing funding problems, the bank’s Middle East chairman said.
“If you believe the Middle East story, you have to believe the Dubai story,” HSBC Bank Middle East Ltd. Chairman Youssef Nasr said in an interview yesterday. “Temporary mismatches in
supply and demand” in the property market need to be addressed, he said.The global credit crisis has hurt Dubai’s key property, tourism and financial services industries and led to thousands of job losses. Property prices in the second-biggest of the United Arab Emirates’ seven states fell 49 percent from their peak a year ago, Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. said on Aug. 16.
Dubai’s government and state-owned companies must repay at least $4.52 billion of debt this quarter, Deutsche Bank AG said on Sept. 15. Last month, Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum said he isn’t worried about the emirate’s ability to repay debt this year.
Loan terms for “sound” real estate projects could be adjusted to reflect the affect of the credit crisis, said Nasr, 55, who moves to Hong Kong in February as the chairman of HSBC’s global private banking unit.
“Sometimes, things happen which delays the realization of a project,” he said. “It’s not saying that the dream has evaporated, it’s just that it is going to take a little longer———————-
