Credit Crunch: What Effects To the U.A.E.? [Archive]

LoverOfDubai

October 10th, 2008, 02:23 AM

Gulf states poised to weather financial crisis

Thursday, 9 October 2008
By Julia Wheeler
BBC News, Dubai

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Gulf stock exchanges are apt to exaggerate volatility felt elsewhere

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Dubai is not expecting to taste the austerity many countries will experience

Gulf stock markets are not immune to the global battering the current tornado of volatility has brought.

In Saudi Arabia, there has been a 45% drop in share values this year and it is the same story in the United Arab Emirates' commercial capital, Dubai.

It began with foreign investors pulling out. Local investors followed suit.

Across the region - including in Saudi Arabia where 90% of those investing in markets are estimated to be locals - the plummet has continued as investors became nervous, more risk averse and felt the need to deleverage.

"Cash is king," says Dr Mahdi Mattar, Chief Economist at Shuaa Capital, based in the high-rise, hi-tech, Dubai International Financial Centre.

"This is not just a slowdown in the US or Europe, it is one of the biggest financial crises we have seen," he said. "In those circumstances the world becomes flat. There are no island economies anymore."

Oil cushion

The Gulf markets are risky and volatile at the best of times; now with global volatility so high, events on the markets are playing out exponentially in this region.

However, the fundamentals of the economy are solid, say the analysts.

The Gulf has an advantage over other emerging markets such as India or China in that its main export is oil - something that, despite recent massive jumps and falls is still trading above average prices.

Certainly demand slows in times of global recession, but the oil price has a long way to fall before that becomes a big worry for Gulf governments.

These governments have a huge budget surplus. Indeed, the Gulf and the Middle East are being looked upon by others as a source of capital for the West.

If problems develop closer to home, these surpluses can act as a cushion domestically.

Economists here still see potential for growth in the region, despite the troubles in the global economy.

Soft landing

"We expect to see a slowdown in the GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council) next year, but there will still be a positive rate of growth for the Gulf into 2009," says Marios Maratheftis, Regional Head of Research at Standard Chartered Bank in Dubai.

"I'm talking of between 2% and 3% - certainly lower rates than there have been, but still very respectable growth."

In Dubai, there is also talk of a slowdown - a soft landing rather than a crash - from the huge property price increases of the past few years.

That, say the analysts, is a good thing given high levels of inflation as well as how frenetic things were this time last year in the property market.

Optimism

Dubai is a city that has built a reputation on being able to put a positive spin on most things.

A survey released in conjunction with this week's Cityscape property exhibition (pitched as the largest business-to-business real estate show in the world) says Middle Eastern property markets are expected to outperform all other regions by a significant margin.

Take away the "Well, they would say that, wouldn't they" and actually, the economists believe, the Gulf is likely to be reasonably well insulated - although clearly not isolated - from the global situation.

That is certainly something many expatriate professionals are feeling as they watch what is happening in their home countries.

Those in the financial sector and elsewhere are expecting their numbers to swell as it becomes easier for the region to attract good quality human capital to the knowledge-based economies of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.

Those who are already in the region feel happy to sit tight and weather the doom and gloom in the Arabian sunshine.

"In my industry, there are worse places to be at the moment than Dubai," said one British banker, who wishes to remain anonymous.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7660543.stm

LoverOfDubai

October 10th, 2008, 02:40 AM

Boomtown Feels Effects of a Global Crisis

By Robert F. Worth
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/ads/marketing/mm07/nyt-logo.png
Published: 4 October 2008

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/10/05/world/05dubai-600.jpg
Ali Haider/European Pressphoto Agency
A visitor at the new Atlantis resort in Dubai, where rooms cost as much as $25,000 a night. Now, some expensive projects under construction may be in jeopardy.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — On the surface, this glittering Arabian boomtown seems immune to the financial crisis plaguing the global economy.

The skyline still bristles with cranes — an estimated 20 percent of the world’s total — and the papers are full of ads promoting spectacular new building projects. On Sept. 24, tourists from around the world flocked to the opening of Atlantis, a gargantuan, pink, $1.5 billion resort hotel built on an artificial, palm-shaped island. There was no shortage of people willing to pay as much as $25,000 a night for a room, to gaze at the sharks and rays in a vast glass-lined aquarium in the lobby and to dine at marquee restaurants like Nobu and Brasserie Rostang.

But as recession looms in the West, cracks are appearing in the oil-fueled boom that has made Dubai, with its futuristic skyscrapers on the turquoise waters of the Persian Gulf, a global byword for unfettered growth.

Banks are reining in lending, casting a pall over corporate finance and building plans. Oil prices have been dropping. Stock markets across the region have been falling since June. After insisting for days that the oil-rich Persian Gulf region was fully “insulated” from financial troubles abroad, the Emirates’ Central Bank made about $13.6 billion available on Sept. 22 to ease credit problems, in an echo of bailout measures in the United States. Already, some bankers are saying it is not enough.

Some of Dubai’s more extravagant building projects — the ever-bigger malls, islands and indoor ski slopes — are likely to be dropped if they do not already have financing lined up, bankers say. The credit crisis could also reduce demand from buyers, who will have a harder time getting mortgages.

The shrinkage will be more severe if the financial crisis worsens in the West. Property prices and rents, which have remained steady until now, are widely expected to start dropping soon.

At the same time, investor confidence has been harmed by a long string of high-level corporate scandals, jeopardizing Dubai’s long-term ambition of becoming a regional financial capital.

“Plenty of people are worried,” said Gilbert Bazi, 25, a real estate broker from Lebanon who moved here a year ago. “They are waiting to see if what happened in the United States will happen here.”

When he first arrived, Mr. Bazi said, making money was almost absurdly easy. “Iranians, Russians, Europeans — everybody was buying,” he said. “I didn’t have to call people; they were calling me.”

Now, Mr. Bazi stalks the lobbies of hotels, trying to find clients.

“The market is sleeping,” he said.

In fairness, Dubai still looks rosy when set against the financial turmoil elsewhere. Although it lacks the oil wealth of its sister emirate Abu Dhabi, Dubai has huge budget and current account surpluses, and the government of the Emirates federation is able and willing — like its Persian Gulf neighbors — to inject an almost unlimited amount of money into the system to ease credit problems.

The governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar have reaped so much profit from oil and gas in recent years that they are more worried about how to spend it than about managing any downturn. But the Persian Gulf’s governments face real economic challenges, albeit ones that are profoundly different from those in the West.

Until recently, credit in Dubai was growing by 49 percent a year, according to the Emirates’ Central Bank — a rate almost double that of bank deposits’ growth. That unnerved some bankers here, who felt it could lead to a collapse.

“In the U.S., the challenge is about keeping the banks going,” said Marios Maratheftis, chief economist for Standard Chartered Bank. “Here, the economy has been overheated, a correction is needed, and it’s about making sure the slowdown happens in a smooth, orderly manner.”

If that sounds like an easy problem to have, consider the manic vicissitudes of Dubai’s real estate market. Speculators often got bank loans to put down 10 percent on a property that had not yet been built, only to flip it for a huge profit to another buyer, who would do the same thing, and on and on. That was easy to do when housing prices here were surging so fast that some properties multiplied tenfold in value in just a few years.

But the Dubai authorities began getting nervous about this and imposed new regulations this summer to limit speculation.

Many analysts say the slowdown in Dubai’s economy, assuming it does not worsen to a slump, will make the city’s growth more sustainable and healthy by reducing its dependence on loans and speculation.

Similarly, the authorities hope that recent arrests in corporate scandals will root out the culture of corruption that plagues so many Arab countries. Some of those arrested have been Emiratis with connections to the ruling family, in a gesture clearly intended to send the message that no one is exempt.

As Dubai’s frenzied growth slows, whether there is a hard or soft landing will depend in great part on the banks, the link between the region’s declining stock markets and its still-thriving property sector.

“Banks will have to start lending to end-users,” said Robert McKinnon, a real estate analyst and head of equity research at Al Mal Capital here, referring to people who actually plan on occupying properties as opposed to trading them for profit. “There are some questions about how the banks will handle that transition.”

At worst, if the global economy worsened and some Dubai banks failed, there would be a firm crutch to lean on. In the early 1980s, after several Dubai banks stumbled, the government rescued them and relaunched them as the Emirates Bank International. In the early 1990s, two more banks were rescued. At that time, of course, Dubai was far smaller. The repercussions of such a government bailout today would be far more damaging to Dubai’s image as the epicenter of Persian Gulf development.

The government cushion appears to be part of the reason most local people do not seem anxious right now.

“We don’t worry about it,” said Hassan al-Hassani, 26, a civil engineer and an Emirati citizen, who was drinking coffee late Wednesday night with relatives and friends at a faux-Bedouin-style tent, set up among Dubai’s hypermodern skyscrapers in honor of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. “Maybe it’s good for things to calm down.”

A few yards away, guests admired a miniature model of a new residential and commercial Dubai development called the City of Arabia, which includes what will be — if it is really built — the biggest mall in the world.

“Sometimes we wonder, will people really come to live in these places?” Mr. Hassani asked. But he quickly brushed off the thought with a smile, reminding his listener that native Emiratis — unlike the foreigners, who make up a majority of Dubai’s 1.3 million residents — have a different perspective.

“Remember, 30 years ago almost nobody had phones here,” he said. “There was maybe one tall building. My family only had one car.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/world/middleeast/05dubai.html

A version of this article appeared in print on 5 October 2008, on page A8 of the New York edition of The New York Times.

Stephan23

October 10th, 2008, 10:05 AM

DAX 4.486,16 -400,84 -8,20%
MDAX 5.397,81 -313,85 -5,49%
TecDAX 510,48 -32,37 -5,96%
EUROSTOXX 50 2.404,01 -224,33 -8,54%
ATX 2.161,36 -92,52 -4,10%
DJ IND 8.579,19 -678,91 -7,33%
S&P 500 909,92 -75,02 -7,62%
NASDAQ 100 1.275,10 -55,51 -4,17%
NIKKEI 225 8.276,43 -881,06 -9,62%

:bash::bash::bash::bash::bash::bash::bash::ohno::ohno::ohno::ohno::ohno:

:doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh:

Narrrrrrrrrrrrrfffffffffff

briker

October 10th, 2008, 04:16 PM

Arab stock markets are proving vulnerable to the global economic crisis [AFP]

Arab stock markets have fallen for the fourth straight day as fears grow that the global economic crisis has not been arrested by a $700bn bank rescue in the United States, the world's largest economy.

Saudi Arabia's Tadawul All-Shares index, the largest in the Middle East, sank by more than 7.5 per cent on Wednesday.

Minutes after opening, the index was trading at 5,782.03 points, its lowest level since July 2004.

The fall came in spite of claims from Mohammad al-Jasser, the deputy governor of Saudi Arabia's central bank, that the country's banks are still able to freely lend between each other and are not affected by the global crisis.

Egypt's key CASE-30 stock index fell by 12.56 per cent to 5,156 points shortly after markets opened.

Wednesday's performance threatens to be as negative as Tuesday's 16.47 per cent drop, which took the index to a two-year low.

The CASE-30 has lost more than half its value in six months, after it almost doubled its value over the past four years.

"We're swamped here," Ahmed Hefnawi, an analyst with investment bank EFG Hermes, told AFP.

Gulf losses

Meanwhile, some shares in Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates, have lost more than 25 per cent of their value since the trading week got under way on Sunday.

By mid-morning on Wednesday, the Dubai Financial Market lost 9.68 per cent over the previous day. It is the fourth day in a row in which the market has registered a loss.

Emaar, a real estate developer, suffered the greatest losses in trading, shedding 10 per cent of its share price.

The Kuwait Stock Exchange, the second largest in the Arab world, was down 2.8 per cent on the previous day, halfway through trading.

In a move reflecting the Kuwaiti government's growing concern over the freefalling global economy, the country's central bank cut its discount rate to 4.5 per cent, a reduction of 1.25 percentage points.

Gas-rich Qatar's main exchange also suffered steep losses in trading, with the Doha Securities Market Index losing 8.3 per cent - the biggest single-day decline in several years.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange fell by 5.44 per cent while Oman's Muscat Securities Market slumped by 6.33 per cent.

docc

October 10th, 2008, 04:31 PM

Wow, the markets are really taking a beating. Thank You America. Idiots.

killerk

October 10th, 2008, 04:38 PM

An Article in the Wall Street Journal dated October 10th, 2008

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122357786070619869.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

docc

October 10th, 2008, 04:55 PM

Hmmmm, if that's true, then we are going to have a big problem. 41% debt is not an easily digestible figure.

Abu Dhabi, here i come :D

smussuw

October 10th, 2008, 05:03 PM

good morning

docc

October 10th, 2008, 05:11 PM

good morning

Eh?

Dubai_Steve

October 10th, 2008, 06:49 PM

^^ You woke up and smelt the coffee :lol:

nisha

October 10th, 2008, 07:21 PM

There are people who are interested of the value of there property and there are people who are interested in Dubais future.

The high property prices hinders Dubai to growth faster. If rents and property would be cheaper more residents and companies would move to the tax free paradise.

Well said.....

I've lived through the rise and fall of HK's property boom (property prices are still below the 1997 peak) - classic boom to bust......

I hope that we don't see that happen here; I am getting increasingly uneasy.

Dubai_Steve

October 10th, 2008, 07:43 PM

http://www.emconcepts.co.uk/content.php?cid=33

To begin with, this week we are focussing our attention on the UAE.

Lets start by looking closer to home, it is important to state that daily or weekly immunity from price swings in any global market is impossible. Such is the uncertainty that currently grips all market participants, it is inevitable that the psychological focus placed on the current falling market is – “how far, how long and surely nothing is safe?”

If we look at the recent falls in the world’s major stock and housing markets it is easy to see why investors feel this way.

FTSE

http://www.emconcepts.co.uk/images/FTSE.bmp

DOW Jones

http://www.emconcepts.co.uk/images/Dow.bmp

Dax

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With all participants in the same frame of mind this rationale is actually reflected in the heavily debt exposed markets of the west – those with the riskiest banking fundamentals, and then spreads to other markets. As investors worry that all investments will fall, rational assessment of risks makes way for position protection by taking out cash – which leads to the first stage of the uncertainty, “how far”.

The liquidation of these positions starts the fall, then in the short term further non-participation results in more price drops as markets are unsupported by buyers not willing to commit to a purchase – here is your second stage of uncertainty, “how long”.

Once the drops have become so severe in the stock markets of the West, the fear spreads and leads us into the “surely nothing is safe” stage.

In our opinion this is the issue we currently see affecting many of the emerging economies that are still widely expected to continue positive GDP growth despite the possibility of a significant slowing of global productivity.

This then leads us onto the question - will Middle Eastern and other Emerging Markets recover faster and suffer less (based on their stronger fundamentals now and in the future) or is the future as bleak as that of the more advanced economies.

The best way for us to tackle this question is to study the effects the current turmoil is having in the West and then examine the knock on effects in the specific region.

With the root cause behind the current global turmoil being bad debts, it was widely believed that the oil and the cash rich states of the Emirates would be immune from the market turmoil. However over the past month or so, as confidence drained from any remaining market that contained a level of optimism, the share indexes of Dubai and Abu Dhabi both begun to see falls and last week a crash.

We consider the delay between bearishness in the Western markets and those of the UAE to be a significant observation.

ADX – Abu Dhabi Stock Market

http://www.emconcepts.co.uk/images/ADX.bmp

As you can see the index rose steadily during the course of the year even when other markets were falling. Sharp falls have only been witnessed recently as panic has spread and market participants have looked to exit in haste to preserve wealth rather than to take a risk on testing the markets strength.

Is this justified judging from domestic market fundamentals? We feel not. The falls have been characterised by a lack of transaction volume on the markets. The companies listed on the Abu Dhabi exchange generally have strong capital structures and operate in a core market (UAE) that is still expected to see strong GDP growth in ’09 and has one of the highest GDP per capita levels in the world.

A good example of how this “vacuuming of participants” has led the market is with Aldar Properties, the second largest real estate company in the U.A.E and the largest in Abu Dhabi. Currently listed on the ADX they have strong capitalisation and some of the most popular projects currently under construction in the region. Every project they have launched so far has achieved close to if not actual 100% take up. Profit growth in 2008 was 203% and growth prospects for the Abu Dhabi property market remain strong.

Asteco Report - Abu Dhabi

Shares have now dropped to a point where they are priced significantly under the assets on the companies’ balance sheet and so the company is now planning a significant share buy back.

These market drops highlight panic and uncertainty rather than a fair reflection of future value and growth on a macro scale in the U.A.E.

It has now been widely reported by many analysts that Dubai should see price corrections in real estate values of 10 -15% over the next 12 months. This research and the above conclusion was reached by Morgan Stanley in a recently published report.

We do not completely disagree with this statement however it is very important to highlight two issues that are often over looked and that we believe were overlooked in Morgan Stanley’s findings

1. From what level will prices drop from?

2. If Dubai under-performs, do all the other Emirates in the UAE follow ?

As with any mature property market, the real estate prices in Dubai vary greatly throughout the Emirate. In many cases it is difficult to see the justification for the prices being asked by some sellers, particularly when you compare the prices being asked for some developments with those on the open market (or re-sale market).

Due to high developer pricing forcing up the entry cost in Dubai, many new projects have become unaffordable, in much the same way the UK has seen. Its therefore clear that the market participants charging high prices will need to bring those down to more acceptable levels to in order to kick start sales again, particularly as more and more units are delivered to the market over the next 2 years.

Because of this un-affordability, an emerging trend is beginning to unfold whereby Expats and long term residents are looking to move to the much more affordable northern emirates such as Ras Al Khaimah, Ajman and Umm al Quwain. Prices for real estate in these Emirates are considerably cheaper than other parts of the UAE and will offer a more scenic and a less congested lifestyle. Growing tourist demand, favourable tax laws and healthy employment in the region continues to lure people looking to expatriate from all over the world. This is just one reason why we feel demand should continue on well priced and well located accommodation within specific regions in the UAE. We also expect to see price stability and moderate growth, even in these difficult times.

Mistermark

October 10th, 2008, 11:34 PM

Setting aside debate about the UAE stock market, do we think the prices of completed apartments in Dubai will rise, fall or stay the same in the next 12 months? Likewise, rents?

I ask because I'm debating whether to sell my Goldcrest Views duplex. There are some great distressed deals going in the credit crunched countries right now and if there's unlikely to be much growth, and could be some downside, in this unit, I'd be tempted to sell it on and put the capital into something else.

Dubai_Steve

October 10th, 2008, 11:39 PM

prices will fall 10 to 15% in my opinion

AITU

October 11th, 2008, 06:04 AM

^^I think prices and rents of completed property in good locations will continue to rise over the next two years albeit at a much more sensible level that what we have seen over the last 3 years.

The main reason? The supply of new property is nowhere near able to keep up with demand and I expect more European and US expats to arrive to live and work here to continue the trend.

It depends whether your unit is currently rented out and at what price though as you may be limited on returns because of the rent cap.

234sale

October 11th, 2008, 07:24 AM

Market Overview Oct 2008

1. Prices of Business Bay

- Resale Commercial 1800 – 2400 AED sqft
- Resale Residential 1800 – 2400 AED sqft
- Developer Launch Prices Residential 2700 - 3000 AED sqft
- Developer Launch Price Commercial 2700 – 3200 AED sqft

2. Sales Volumes across Dubai

- According to sources at Better Homes, Landmark and Asteco resale volumes are down by 50% to 75%.
- Transaction Values have not increased in last month
- Market reports suggest a slow down but not a correction in values

3. Investor Behavior

- Investors are still looking for immediate returns on properties.
- Smaller investors are not looking to liquidate assets or repatriate funds due to TAX concerns in home countries
- Some developers are considered not to be trusted due to lack of construction and cancellation of contracts
- Money is available for projects in the right price point, cheapest properties on market still selling.

4. Funding/Equity Requirements

Completed Property
- Commercial Property 30% Equity required of valuation
- Residential Property 25% Equity required of valuation
- These amounts have changed by 20% in last 2 months

Uncompleted Property
- Commercial Property 25% Equity required of original price
- Residential Property 20% Equity required of original price
- These amounts have changed by 15% in last 2 months
- Premium is becoming more difficult to finance, used to be 50% but now 30%.

5. Developer Attitude

- Finance for funding project has reduced significantly
- Lack of reasonable priced land
- Material cost are now reducing

6. Rental Market in Dubai

- Commercial rent minimum of 250AED sqft
- Showroom Rent minimum of 500 AED sqft
- Residential Rent minimum of 150 AED sqft
- Rental market is still strong as companies try to expand Middle-East operations

7. Stock Market

- Local Stock markets are seeing strong negative pressure
- Construction and Developer share values have slipped to milestone lows

8. Currency Issues

- Dollar Appreciation against most major currencies
- Repatriation of spare funds
- Dollar Re-peg / Revaluation no longer considered

9. Inflation

- Still Expected to continue at 8-12%

10. Taxation

- Until inflation decrease , UAE federal government may avoid introduction of Tax.

Credit Crunch is specifically no.4

docc

October 11th, 2008, 07:47 AM

^^ You woke up and smelt the coffee :lol:

Lol, seems like it!

That said, i'm still optimistic about the Dubai market. I'm in this for the long haul so i think that Dubai has what it takes to weather whatever comes across.

docc

October 11th, 2008, 07:51 AM

234sale

October 11th, 2008, 09:17 AM

smussuw

October 11th, 2008, 11:42 AM

translated from wam, no english version yet

UAE central bank governor .. The development of strong local banks and deposits of citizens and the growing Arab / Faisal Ahmad
Oct 11, 2008 - 12:17 --
Abu Dhabi / UAE Central Bank

Abu Dhabi, Oct. 11 / WAM / HE Sultan bin Nasser Al Suwaidi Governor of Central Bank of UAE national and foreign banks operating in the State has a strong financial position.

The Maaleh in a press statement today that the ownership of customer deposits in these banks be distributed to citizens by 75 percent and 8 percent by the Arabs and other nationalities by 17 percent .. He pointed out that the percentage of Arab citizens and increase ownership of deposits in national banks.

He added that the financing banks Maaleh version of European commercial paper / e CP / medium-term bonds and / MTV The S / banks to total assets of 9 only .9 percent while the proportion of deposits among banks to total assets of $ 7 .12 percent, and most deposits owned Banks in the country.

The Maaleh in a press statement that the vast majority of the assets of national banks and foreign banks operating in the state exists in the UAE and its sides are known and full of the opposite of what was found in other economies where the parties in those countries, many of which are unknown.

He pointed out that the ratio of dependents capital reserves of banks and bank assets of 02 .11 percent, which is high in accordance with the standards / Basel 2 / He / Therefore, national banks and branches of foreign banks operating in the State based on a sound basis and a strong 4 .77 percent of the funding sources of safe / .

On questions about buying some shares in foreign banks the central bank governor said that local governments have large proportions in many of the banks that issue is a solution in the UAE long ago.

Participate HE Sultan bin Nasser Al Suwaidi present at the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank meetings in Washington and focus mainly to discuss the crisis in money markets and global capital markets, especially in the advanced industrial countries and analyze the reasons that led to these crises and solutions and proposed changes in monetary policy And those relating to capital markets.

The team includes the central bank facilities to the annual meetings of the Fund and the World Bank and officials of the department and the Treasury Department oversight and inspection of banks and the unity of strategic purpose of monitoring the details of the liquidity crisis and the global credit crunch.

WAM / at / Taq WAM / Taq / h

http://wam.org.ae/servlet/Satellite?c=WamLocAnews&cid=1223546175447&p=1135099400289&pagename=WAM/WamLocAnews/W-T-LAN-FullNews

smussuw

October 11th, 2008, 12:00 PM

Oct 11, 2008 - 01:39 -
WAM Abu Dhabi, Oct 11th, 2008 (WAM): The Governor of the UAE Central Bank HE Sultan Bin Nasser Al Suwaidi asserted that the national and foreign banks in UAE enjoy a strong financial position.

In press statement, the Central Bank said that the ownership of deposits is distributed in such a way that the citizens own 75pc of the depostis, while the Arab nationals and the other nationalities own 8pc and 17pc respectively.

Also banks financing from the European Commercial Paper issues (ECP) and Medium-Term Notes (MTN) to the total bank assets is 9.9pc only.

As for the inter-bank deposits percentage, it is 12.7 pc to the total assets and most of these are owned by banks in the UAE.

For the assets side, the majority of assets of national and foreign banks operating in the UAE are in the UAE and their parties are known and sound, contrary to what is there in other economies where most parties in these countries are unknown, said the statement.

And for capital of banks and their reserves, they represent 11.02pc of bank assets, which is considered high according to Basel II standards.

Thus, national banks and branches of foreign banks operating in the UAE are constructed on safe and sound foundations of 77.4pc of secure financing recourses.

Responding to some inquiries about the purchase of some foreign countries of shares in their banks, the Central Bank explained that local Governments have substantial percentages in many banks; therefore the matter is solved in the UAE from a long time ago.

Al Suweidi is now in Washington DC to attend the IMF/WB Annual Meetings. This year a large amount of time will be dedicated to discuss the liquidity crisis and the financial markets turmoil especially in the advanced industrial countries.

The discussion will include analysis of reasons which led to these crises and solutions or what is called policy response, i.e. changes in monetary policies and those relating to capital markets.

Senior Executive Director of Treasury Department, Assistant Executive Director of Banking Supervision and Examination Department, and the Head of Strategy Unit are accompanying the Governor to the IMF/WF annual meeting.

This team of specialists was formed for the purpose of noting details of the international liquidity and credit crises.

WAM/AB

docc

October 11th, 2008, 04:13 PM

Thanks for the english article smussuw.

Now, that should calm a few people down about how sound banks here are.

crazyeight

October 11th, 2008, 09:50 PM

Don't believe news from local sources. A major UAE bank is on the brink of collapse..and that's from a very reliable source.

FWIW

October 11th, 2008, 09:59 PM

^^Don't leave us hanging...tell us more!

smussuw

October 11th, 2008, 10:08 PM

I think he is referring to ADCB !

bizzybonita

October 11th, 2008, 10:10 PM

^^ chairman of UAE thread :D ...

docc

October 11th, 2008, 10:11 PM

If you're talking about a foreign bank operating in UAE, i can see that happen. But a MAJOR UAE bank? I don't think so....simply because that would DEVASTATE the already slowing market and that's not something that they can afford right now.

Just to list Major UAE banks (in no particular order):

1) NBD
2) Mashreq
3) FGB
4) ADCB
5) NBAD
6) UNB
7) Dubai Bank
8) DIB

I'm sure i've missed a few but all of these have pretty strong roots, so i really don't see any of these going down; especially not the Abu Dhabi banks!

docc

October 11th, 2008, 10:13 PM

I think he is referring to ADCB !

Why would you think its ADCB?

smussuw

October 11th, 2008, 10:24 PM

Because I heard from lots of friends that it lost lots of money from their investments in the US. The chairman has changed recently too. Then there is ADCB suing Morgan Stanley for losing one billion Dirham

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080826/BUSINESS/123270240/1048/rss
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/International_Business/Leading_UAE_banks_chairman_resigns_/articleshow/3482545.cms

It won't collapse though !

Hope this helps ;)

LaCasta

October 11th, 2008, 11:32 PM

I expect mortgage interest rates to reduce,, Hence the increase in equity required..

Where the US-UK failed was that you could borrow 100% at a low interest rate.. SUB PRIME MESS
Rates then go up and property owners have no equity in property anyway,,
Bank takes a hit.

Interest Rates are going to be reducing shortly,, so banks want to avoid to much borrowing.
Lending rates may also come down,, hence min equity will be, 30%.

This is ok if you have bought already as Rent Yields will out perform money in the bank.

But your going to have to have cash in the first place.

How the price will be truely effected is anyones guess but if your looking to buy expect to have 20-30% cash..

This is a good point. The market of Dubai is not the same market of the US. Many people in the US had no capital, had jobs that paid the bare minimum but the stupid banks gave 100% loans to them. Even if banking regulations got tighter in Dubai it would not have the same effect as when banks tightened up their lending in the US causing a crash in the market since the majority of investors in Dubai have always been people with capital.

Shahid

October 12th, 2008, 12:56 AM

I was told Islamic Banking (that follow sharia law) is not effected?

Old Town Lovin...

October 12th, 2008, 06:35 AM

docc

October 12th, 2008, 06:46 AM

Smussuw... Do you think the Govt. would allow this to happen? :ohno:

Not in a million years!

smussuw

October 12th, 2008, 10:17 AM

^^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Credit_and_Commerce_International

a conspiracy against the UAE? :crazy:

docc

October 12th, 2008, 10:55 AM

^^ Wow, that's a crazy article.

How is this relevant here though?

smussuw

October 12th, 2008, 10:57 AM

^^ It was 75% owned by the UAE and it collapsed :runaway:

smussuw

October 12th, 2008, 11:08 AM

The cabinet has just approved insuring deposits in all national banks !

رئيس الدولة يطمئن على متانة إقتصاد الدولة / ...عاجل
Oct 12, 2008 - 12:52 -
مجلس الوزراء / إجتماع ..

أبوظبي في 12 أكتوبر/ وام / أكد صاحب السمو الشيخ خليفة بن زايد آل نهيان رئيس الدولة " حفظه الله " متانة اقتصادنا الوطني وكفاءة جهاز الدولة المصرفي.

جاء ذلك عقب إطلاع سموه من صاحب السمو الشيخ محمد بن راشد آل مكتوم نائب رئيس الدولة رئيس مجلس الوزراء حاكم دبي " رعاه الله " على آخر تطورات الأزمة المالية العالمية وتداعياتها .

إلى ذلك أقر مجلس الوزراء خلال انعقاده اليوم في قصر الرئاسة برئاسة صاحب السمو الشيخ محمد بن راشد ال مكتوم اتخاذ عدد من الخطوات والاجراءات الوقائية الداخلية..وذلك من منطلق الحرص على المصلحة الوطنية وضمان استمرارية النمو الاقتصادي وحماية الاقتصاد الوطني..ومن هذه الاجراءات أن الحكومة تضمن عدم تعرض أي من المصارف الوطنية لأية مخاطر ائتمانية وضمان الودائع والمدخرات في المصارف الوطنية الى جانب توفير ضمانات عمليات الاقتراض فيما بين المصارف العاملة في الدولة وضخ السيولة اللازمة في الجهاز المصرفي في حال تطلب الأمر ذلك .

وقال صاحب السمو نائب رئيس الدولة رئيس مجلس الوزراء حاكم دبي في ختام جلسة مجلس الوزراء / إننا جادون في حماية نظامنا المالي وقطاعنا المصرفي حفاظا على المصالح العليا لدولتنا وشعبنا /.

و/ .

وام/root/د/ز ا

mackie1964

October 12th, 2008, 11:15 AM

smussuw;

Is Emirates Bank a national bank? (I would have thought so but just checking)
Is he guaranteeing 100% of deposits? :cheers:

Tom_Green

October 12th, 2008, 11:18 AM

Well said.....

I've lived through the rise and fall of HK's property boom (property prices are still below the 1997 peak) - classic boom to bust......

I hope that we don't see that happen here; I am getting increasingly uneasy.

What`s the problem? Hong Kong is one of the most important cities in the world, as Shanghai. In both cities the property bubbles burst but it didn`t hurt the cities that much. Dubai will continue to growth. I also don`t believe that the prices will fall too much. It`s not such a free market as Hong Kong in 1997. The goverment does a lot to prevent a real big bubble.

smussuw

October 12th, 2008, 11:20 AM

^^ yes Emirates bank is a national bank. I am reading the news just like you so I don't know exactly the measures and what they exactly mean to us commoners :laugh:

English press release out

WAM UAE takes preventive measures to face global financial crisis Abu Dhabi, Oct. 12th, 2008 (WAM) -- President H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan confirmed that the UAE economy is strong and sound and that its banking system is solid and efficient following a briefing on the latest developments on the global financial crisis by Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai H.H.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

The UAE Cabinet, headed by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid AI Maktoum, approved today a series of internal preventive steps and measures out of keenness to serve national interest, ensure continuity of economic growth and protect national economy.

Among these measures, the Federal Government will ensure that no UAE national bank will be exposed to credit risks, guarantee deposits and savings in all national banks, guarantee all inter-bank lending operations between banks operating in the UAE and inject sufficient liquidity in the financial system if and when necessary.

''We are determined to protect our financial and banking system out of keenness to preserve the interests of our country and people,''Sheikh Mohammed affirmed at the end of the Cabinet session.

mackie1964

October 12th, 2008, 11:26 AM

Great News, thanks :cheers:

docc

October 12th, 2008, 11:30 AM

There we go. The govt. has got our backs fella's :cheers:

Naz UK

October 12th, 2008, 12:00 PM

If by "our" you mean all local nationalised Emiratis, then yes, they certainly have our (the 16% silent minority's) backs. :)

docc

October 12th, 2008, 12:20 PM

Errr, the article says that the deposits will be insured. It doesn't say anything about the source of deposits.

Have you heard differently? Or are you just being a negative Nancy? :D

Naz UK

October 12th, 2008, 01:07 PM

Dunno, call it a hunch. But as for bailing out "all" deposits if the camel dung hits the large district cooling plant, then i'll believe it when i see it.

docc

October 12th, 2008, 01:12 PM

Dunno, call it a hunch. But as for bailing out "all" deposits if the camel dung hits the large district cooling plant, then i'll believe it when i see it.

:lol::lol::lol:

How the heck do you think up this stuff? You write for Arabian Business right? Are you're articles just as amusing? If they are, i'm going to have to subscribe. It's nice to have a few laughs early in the morning :D

Naz UK

October 12th, 2008, 04:21 PM

I am pleased to say I have no connection with Arabianbusiness.com, anymore. :)

docc

October 12th, 2008, 05:11 PM

Oh ok. Don't tell me you joined Ahlan! :D

AltinD

October 13th, 2008, 12:36 AM

Nah, haven't you just noticed the new layout of 7days website ... still the odd months old movie viewing charts though.

Dubai_Steve

October 13th, 2008, 01:13 AM

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b5032740-9881-11dd-ace3-000077b07658.html

Moody’s warns on Dubai vulnerability

Dubai’s debt has soared to about 100 per cent of gross domestic product and continues to grow, leaving it vulnerable to an economic slowdown, according to Moody’s.

In a report obtained by the Financial Times, the ratings agency says Dubai would lack the financial muscle to cover its debt in the event of a systemic shock, such as a real estate collapse or an adverse geopolitical event, making it reliant on Abu Dhabi to bail it out.

“Moody’s will therefore be increasingly factoring the potential for federal support ... given that Dubai is likely to require federal support in the event of a larger-scale systemic bail-out,” the report says.

Dubai Inc, spanning both the government and companies owned by the ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has tapped capital markets to help fuel its giddy growth over the past five years.

Nasser al-Sheikh, director general of Dubai’s finance department, told the FT last week that the emirate could meet its debt obligations for at least the next seven financial quarters.

While aware that it faces challenging global conditions, Dubai’s leadership also says the emirate has thrived through previous world crises and has no plans to slow down the city’s breakneck speed of development.

Moody’s does not rate Dubai’s government, but six government-related bodies have received A1 to A3 ratings on the perception of federal support.

Publicly recorded debt levels have reached 103 per cent of 2006 GDP, the latest available figure, without including the leverage assumed by aggressive investment companies such as Istithmar and Dubai International Capital.

The emirate’s many infrastructure projects, including real estate developments and entertainment parks, should after five years provide the government with cash flow.

But Moody’s says this revenue could be delayed and warns that the economy’s reliance on European and Asian demand for tourism and real estate could trigger problems as the global economy softens.

The spreads on credit default swaps, which insure against debt defaults, have ballooned in recent weeks on rising concerns that the government could have some trouble repaying debts.

Dubai’s hydrocarbons-rich neighbours have lower CDS spreads thanks to the cushion they enjoy because of higher oil revenues.

The United Arab Emirates authorities, Moody’s notes, have a record of supporting failing banks in crises over the past three decades.

Officials in Abu Dhabi, whose assets dwarf Dubai’s public-record liabilities of $47bn (€35bn, £28bn) say they can be relied on to bail out struggling Dubai institutions, though Moody’s says the UAE capital’s willingness to support entities could be made on a case-by-case basis.

malec

October 14th, 2008, 01:17 AM

Don't think this is good.

Dubai May Need Help From Abu Dhabi to Fund Borrowing
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a4sAgqSD_LIA&refer=worldwide

By Matthew Brown
Oct. 13
Bloomberg

Dubai may need help from Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates government to finance a surge in borrowing that paid for the world's tallest tower, palm tree- shaped man-made islands and stakes in banks worldwide.

Dubai's ``potential reliance'' will be ``most significant'' in coming years, Moody's Investors Service said in a report today. Government-controlled companies owe at least $47 billion, more than Dubai's gross domestic product, and they will continue to accumulate debt at a faster pace than the economy grows, the New York-based rating firm said.

``These companies that are based in Dubai have become larger than Dubai itself,'' said Giyas Gokkent, chief economist at National Bank of Abu Dhabi, the U.A.E.'s second-largest commercial bank by assets. ``If anything were to go wrong with any of these companies, Dubai does not have the wherewithal to deal with it.''

State-owned Dubai World paid about $5.1 billion for almost 10 percent of Kirk Kerkorian's MGM Mirage last year; the price has tumbled since to $16.80 from $84. DP World, the government- run company that bought Peninsula and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. for $6.8 billion in 2006, has slumped 55 percent this year on the Dubai International Financial Exchange.

Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum has borrowed to replace Dubai's dwindling revenue from oil, investing to boost earnings from tourism and finance. State-owned carrier Emirates has increased its fleet to the largest in the Middle East, in a bid to double tourists per year to 15 million by 2015. Dubai Holding LLC, which groups assets belonging to Sheikh Mohammed, owns hotel chain Jumeirah Group.

... more at the link above

docc

October 14th, 2008, 07:02 AM

Wait, why isn't that good? All the article is saying is that Abu Dhabi might have to fund Dubai if required. Its a win-win situation for both Abu Dhabi and Dubai. AD will ask for some percentage of ownership and Dubai will get its funds interest free. AD happy, Dubai happy and investors happy.

So, what's wrong with this?

smussuw

October 14th, 2008, 07:42 AM

70 billions more has been transfered to the ministry of finance to help the banks

so that is 50 + 70 = 120 billions in a month !

docc

October 14th, 2008, 08:12 AM

Hmmmm.....interesting. And the plot thickens :D

smussuw

October 14th, 2008, 08:21 AM

Mohammed bin Rashid orders transfer of Dhs70 billion to the Ministry of Finance

Oct 14, 2008 - 10:17 -
WAM Dubai, Oct. 14th, 2008 (WAM)--The Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has ordered the transfer of Dhs70 billion to the Ministry of Finance so that it can inject liquidity into the national banking sector. The move followed the instructions of President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan The order means that Dhs120 billion (US$32.7 billion) has been provided for the banking sector over the last month. On Sheikh Mohammed's instructions, the Ministry of Finance and the UAE Central Bank have been assigned the task of injecting the liquidity into the banking sector.

Sheikh Mohammed ordered the setting up of a suitablly qualified committee composed of the officials of ministries of Finance and Economy and the Central Bank to follow up these instructions, as well as to handle the relevant the Cabinet procedures.

The step further indicates the country's leadership to provide all required guarantees to support the banking sector in the UAE and to protect it from the global financial crisis. It also reflects the quick response of the UAE government in term of providing whatever could guarantee stability for the financial and banking sector in the country.

On Sept. 22nd, the Central Bank allocated Dhs50 billion (US$13.6 billion) as facilities for the banks operating in the country so that they could use them if required, as part of the economic measures taken by the UAE to support the banks to avoid the current global financial crisis.

WAM/MN

smussuw

October 14th, 2008, 01:21 PM

LONDON — Don’t expect Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to jump on the bailout bandwagon.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/10/14/business/worldbusiness/14wealth-1.600.jpg

Carol T. Powers/Bloomberg News
Bader al-Saad, director of the Kuwait Investment Authority.
Given the recent volatility in the stock markets, some large sovereign wealth funds have been hoarding cash, much like the hedge funds and institutional investment funds that have been running for cover.

The oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi oversees the world’s largest government-sponsored fund, for example, and has been steadily adding to its cash position, which is at its highest in years. According to people who have been briefed on its investment strategy, 10 to 20 percent of $550 billion controlled by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is now in cash.

Very little of that is expected to go to wounded financial institutions in America, these people say.

The second-largest fund in the region, the Kuwait Investment Authority, with assets of about $250 billion, has also been accumulating cash. The fund’s director, Bader al-Saad, told bankers in New York last week that he had no interest in buying distressed financial companies.

That means the cash-hungry American and British governments, which together plan to borrow about $800 billion to invest in flailing banks, will have fewer options. About all that can be expected of the cash-rich wealth funds, analysts said, is that they will lend some money to the American government on a short-term basis because they can count on it to be paid back.

“Sovereign funds are piling up cash because there has not been a big reward of putting your money to work,” said Brad W. Setser, an international finance analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations. “But what I find to be more worrisome is a complete unwillingness on the part of sovereigns to hold anything else but supersafe Treasury bills.”

That sovereign funds appear to have the same buyers’ fright as the portfolio manager of a mutual fund should not necessarily be a surprise, given their aversion to assets with even the slightest risk. But with their longer-term investment horizons, the funds were expected to be more willing to ride out the stomach-churning ups-and-downs of the market.

The plunge in the value of oil, along with fears that the global economic downturn is likely to be deeper and longer-lasting than expected, has probably been the most significant factor in changing that thinking.

Mr. Setser points to data showing a spike in the holdings of Treasury bills by foreign institutions since the credit downturn began about 15 months ago. At the same time, the funds have reduced their purchases of riskier securities, like the equities and bonds issued by corporations and the mortgage lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In the 12-month period that ended in July, the net purchase by foreigners of American long-term securities almost halved — to $456 billion for the period ended in July, from $751 billion in the year to July 2007.

Both Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, which has a mandate to invest overseas, were early buyers of big Wall Street financial firms. Abu Dhabi invested in Citigroup and Kuwait purchased a stake in Merrill Lynch and a subsequent position in Citigroup.

The investment returns have been poor — Citi closed at $15.75 Monday, down from $31 when Abu Dhabi invested. What is worse, economic troubles are now cropping up closer to home.

In Kuwait, the stock exchange has stumbled badly, prompting its sovereign fund to promise to invest $1 billion to prop it up.

As for Abu Dhabi, it may become distracted by a slowdown in Dubai, its neighboring emirate. Dubai has attracted global renown for its debt-fueled development boom, which was undertaken through heavy reliance on now-stricken international loan markets. Unlike Abu Dhabi, Dubai does not sit on a large oil reserve.

This week Moody’s released a report in which it estimated Dubai’s liabilities to be about $46 billion, the size of its gross domestic product. With many ambitious development projects depending on rising property prices, the combination of a price correction and an inability to borrow could lead to problems similar to those plaguing the American and British economies.

“Cumulative liabilities are currently rising faster than investments are able to generate returns,” said Philipp Lotter, a Moody’s analyst and co-author of the report.

While the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority’s international orientation makes a bailout of Dubai less feasible, analysts say that Dubai’s difficulties and lower oil prices will slow what had been a growing flow of petrodollars to Western stock and bond markets.

Indeed, Gulf Arab states took emergency measures to support their financial systems Sunday. These included a rare cut by Saudi Arabia in its benchmark lending rate and a vow by the United Arab Emirates to protect national banks and guarantee deposits.

More starkly, the Qatar Investment Authority, the sovereign fund for Qatar, committed $5.3 billion on Monday to buying stakes of 10 to 20 percent in the country’s banks.

Gulf stock markets have been falling for weeks now, driven lower mostly by the decline in oil prices.

Wealth funds outside the Middle East are facing similar pressures.

The $5 trillion explosion in global dollar reserves during this decade was driven by an export boom in Asian countries including China, South Korea and India, which relied largely on satisfying consumer demand in the United States and Europe. As a recession takes hold, demand will flag and foreign institutions in these counties are likely to be more concerned with using their surpluses to stimulate their own economies, analysts say.

In recent months, many troubled financial firms made the pilgrimage from Abu Dhabi to Singapore in search of an investment lifeline. They went home empty-handed.

“These funds are risk-averse like others are now,” said Edwin Truman, a long-time observer of global finance at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “Because of the attention paid to them in the past two years, they may be even more so.”

docc

October 14th, 2008, 01:38 PM

Good. Keep that money here and invest in expanding infrastructure, healthcare, education etc.

Wannaberich

October 14th, 2008, 02:27 PM

ARABIAN BUSINESS:

'EFG-Hermes said anecdotal evidence showed sales and the number of deals made at last week's Cityscape real estate exhibition were down on previous years, given the more cautious approach from some investors and uncertainty in the markets.

However preliminary transaction figures provide a less gloomy picture, with deals registered with the Dubai Land Department during Cityscape totaling nearly 2.5 billion dirhams ($681 million) in 2008, up from 2.05 billion dirhams last year and 657 million dirhams in 2006, EFG-Hermes said'

So despite all the doom and gloom,global financial crisis etc,sales are up !

jixline

October 14th, 2008, 02:38 PM

Docc do you have pink sunglasses?

docc

October 14th, 2008, 03:40 PM

I wear spectacles (myopia) :)

Yes yes, i've heard it before. I'm too optimistic which i shouldn't be and yada yada yada. Care to add to it? :D

AltinD

October 14th, 2008, 04:38 PM

^^ Weren't you the one bashing RTA for the road system design and implementation less then a year a go?

... NO, I have NOT mistaken you with Naz. :D

docc

October 14th, 2008, 04:47 PM

Yea, that was me. And yea, they deserved it back then (and to a certain extent now as well). But i have to applaud the huge strides they have taken in improving things in such a short time and hence why i am so vocal about my support for Dubai.

Btw, The Marina road network is still a joke.

Naz UK

October 14th, 2008, 06:19 PM

The huge stride you're referring to...was it over Sheikh Zayed road, just to get to the other side, seen as there's a distinct lack of pedestrian crossings? :dunno:

Tom_Green

October 20th, 2008, 01:48 AM

I believe that the supertalls announced during cityscape will be build. Why? Because they create attention and it will help Dubai to keep the image of beeing the ever growing city. They will bring back the optimism to Dubai.

ardi

October 27th, 2008, 11:47 AM

Gentelman market is very slow, I dont want to get into details...

Doctor_UK

October 28th, 2008, 03:51 AM

why did the oil prices shot up to 140 and now back to 60 in such a short period of time??.... can someone explain this in simple terms for economical illetrates like me :) please...

all this happening around us these days beats me :nuts:

....

Imre

October 28th, 2008, 08:22 AM

Why oil is important for the Dubai property market?

Dubai has no oil at all, and most of developers have nothing about the oil business,cheaper oil price good for them, construction cost going to be less than before.

skdubai

October 28th, 2008, 08:35 AM

A few Reasons that i can think of are..

1) The dollar had fallen sharply just before and that was pushing the price of oil up because the oil is priced in dollars. Which is also the reason why it is falling now.
2) The Americans have stated consuming less and less oil since the fears of recession kicked in, so lower demand and lower price.
3) People were betting on commodities (Oil, Gold, Silver etc.,) and were pushing their prices up, but when they saw the situation, they are dumping everything and running for the US T-bills, which is a reason why the Dollar is rising now and commodity prices are coming down..

and as for the effect on Dubai, it is a matter of confidence.... UAE is the country and its major source of revenue is oil, so people are looking at UAE and not just Dubai!!
You have to remember that there are a LOT of speculators in the property market in Dubai today who get spooked easily, so they jump ship at the first sign of trouble!!

docc

October 28th, 2008, 09:51 AM

"Spooked easily" is an understatement :lol:

But yes, we have to consider the UAE collectively as Abu Dhabi is a cushion for Dubai and if things go wrong, then its only the oil money that can save all of them. However, in long term, Dubai has a better chance of surviving as they really don't depend on oil for everything. That was the plan to begin with, right from the day's of Sheikh Rashid (God bless his soul), who was the true visionary and knew the importance of trade and business. You can imagine what an intellectual he was to plan an oil-independent economy almost 20-30 years ahead and especially in times when oil was the main source of income.

Just brilliant. Hats off to him.

AltinD

October 28th, 2008, 03:54 PM

Gentelman market is very slow, I dont want to get into details...

For a family business you know very well, it has been "slow" for as long as we remember. :D

docc

October 28th, 2008, 04:59 PM

^^ Inside joke?

Does he run a real estate company?

ardi

October 29th, 2008, 08:33 AM

For a family business you know very well, it has been "slow" for as long as we remember. :D

I am trying sell my studio's car park in International City and I am facing some problems, thats why I think the market is slow, wanted to inform AltinD and docc, seems they are expert on buying car parks with adding 0.5% premium on top and sharing it with 3rd party agent.

And I was talking about the banking sector, you may not even obtain a car loan. Gulf bank bankrupt in Kuwait earlier aswell. Fear spreading everywhere.

IISinbadII

October 29th, 2008, 11:51 AM

aazain

October 29th, 2008, 02:38 PM

http://www.7days.ae/storydetails.php?id=68432%20%20%20%20&page=local%20news&title=No%20Takers%20Of%20Dubai%20Debt

enriquedubai2

October 29th, 2008, 03:51 PM

Hey guys,

Check this out

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1954933468700958565&hl=es

Scary doesn't it?

skdubai

October 29th, 2008, 04:04 PM

ok, everyone knows that the US dollar is in trouble, but this guy is a bit crazy me think!!

But on a serious note though, everyone in the world now knows that the US economy cannot keep doing what is is doing as of now. The people have negative savings and the govt. has a huge hole in the budget, so eventually if this continues, there is going to be a dollar crisis, so he is half way there, but the whole Amero thing is a bit out there!!! for anyone interested in this topic, you can lookup dollar crisis in Google.. or look at the video here..

http://www.videonewslive.com/view/263704/will_the_dollar_crash

Also if any country in the world really wants to destroy the US, all they need to do is dump all their dollars and convert to EURO or sumthin (of course this refers to countries like China, UAE, Saudi etc., who have sufficient dollar reserves) or change the trading currency of oil from dollar to another currency (Read Saddam Hussain) That will bring the dollar to its knees

V Kapoor

October 30th, 2008, 08:58 AM

It seams like China and Gulf countries are the only two left with a lot of money. Now they are expected to bail out the world. So as far as the thread topic "Credit Crunch What Effects To UAE" goes, we now have an answer.

I don't know!!! but I heard that China tooo is in the DUMPS!!!!
Their INDEX is down 70 to 80 percent. Its a real mess in CHINA too.... but these guys are real clever......they don't let the world know!!!!

V Kapoor

October 30th, 2008, 09:01 AM

I am trying sell my studio's car park in International City and I am facing some problems, thats why I think the market is slow, wanted to inform AltinD and docc, seems they are expert on buying car parks with adding 0.5% premium on top and sharing it with 3rd party agent.

And I was talking about the banking sector, you may not even obtain a car loan. Gulf bank bankrupt in Kuwait earlier aswell. Fear spreading everywhere.

CAR PARKS for SALE!! (IN DUBAI) Now thats a Joke!! Altin? Any takers!!

V Kapoor

October 30th, 2008, 09:06 AM

Tquest

October 30th, 2008, 11:06 AM

I don't know!!! but I heard that China tooo is in the DUMPS!!!!
Their INDEX is down 70 to 80 percent. Its a real mess in CHINA too.... but these guys are real clever......they don't let the world know!!!!

most bric states are hit far harder than the west, especially compared to europe- they dont have their own financial sector, so they are heavily invested in the western ones! in russia they have had to shut down the market twice already, and china has plummeted even more than the us markets!

malec

October 30th, 2008, 11:15 AM

Hey guys,

Check this out

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1954933468700958565&hl=es

Scary doesn't it?

From wikipedia:

American white nationalist and white supremacist from North Bergen, New Jersey. He ran his program, The Hal Turner Show, as a webcast from his home once a week and depended on donations by his listeners. He quit the show in July 2008 for good. In August his website also closed down though he retains a blog.

Turner has often made news for his extreme right-wing views. He promotes antisemitism (including rounding up and killing Jews)[1]

Lost all credibility right there.

AltinD

October 30th, 2008, 03:08 PM

Tquest

October 30th, 2008, 05:24 PM

haha yeah- "buy French Franks!!! But not the Euro- coz its not backed by anyone"
that says it all. Why not Italian Liras while we're at it!!???

Tquest

October 30th, 2008, 05:24 PM

was referring to the vid, sorry;)

msamre

October 31st, 2008, 01:24 AM

By the end of 2008 all international banks will collapse and there will be only the two following banks Left:

1- International Blood Bank
2- International Semen Bank

AltinD

October 31st, 2008, 07:13 PM

^^ So where did you deposited yours?

The later seams improbable, the former doesn't seams possible either.

DUBAI

October 31st, 2008, 09:12 PM

Could be lots of oppertunities for SWF's,

Barklays apparently sold 62% to AD and Qatar,

and now facebook...
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/10/facebook-hemorraging-cash-runs-to-dubai-for-money

ardi

November 6th, 2008, 10:27 AM

Dubai developers feel effects of price uncertainty

Dubai estate agents and developers have been living the high life for years, with the city's booming property market seemingly unable to put a foot wrong and investors begging for developers to accept their money for any project that made it past the drawing board stage.
United Arab Emirates: 3 hours, 42 minutes ago

Many villas on the Palm Jumeirah, though sold, remain unoccupied

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The upheaval of the last few months, however, has brought about radical changes in their business models.

Developer Damac, the group behind 51 projects in Dubai alone, has already begun overhauling its organisation. An industry insider puts the number of employees at risk from the cut backs at close to 180.

Damac Properties CEO Peter Riddoch told AME Info: 'The continuing global slowdown will inevitably lead companies to review their staffing levels and recruitment requirements. Damac Properties will continue to review its own position in line with the market and aim to ensure that it right sizes/maintains its staffing levels accordingly.'

The company would not elaborate further on which departments were likely to be most affected, although insiders note that sales staff across the industry are likely to be placed under renewed intensity.

Real estate agency Better Homes is also said to be feeling the effects of the slow down in property sales, with cutbacks possibly affecting up to 50% of some of its departments.

However, when addressing a conference at the Dubai International Financial Centre last week, Sultan bin Sulayem ruled out the possibility of a fall in house prices in the emirate.

'The demand-supply imbalance persists and I do not see any downward trend in prices, despite the fact that some investors may try to sell lower,' said Sulayem. 'There is an appetite in the market but the will is not there.'

Despite these assurances the supply and demand imbalance does not appear to be having the desired effect. Many of the city's new districts, such as Business Bay or the Palm Jumeirah, though completed are still only partially occupied. This could be seen as a legacy of purchases by speculators or short term investors, which recent legislation enacted by the authorities has begun to curb in favour of longer term buyers and end users.

There have already been changes in the city's property market. In a move that would have been unforeseeable even two months ago, one developer has already put units in one of its projects up for sale at up to a third of the prices which were originally mooted.

Ukraine-based VIP Waterfront, the company behind the Royal Bay development planned in Madinat Al Arab's Waterfront, has gone ahead with the launch of sales for the project - but has put in place a pre-emptive price cut to tempt in investors. At Dhs2,300 per square foot, properties are now reportedly going for up to a third less than the group had previously planned to launch at.

This is partially a reflection of the tightened access to credit, which had been fuelling many previous off plan sales, but is possibly also an indication that the new breed of investor in property in Dubai is the middle class that has so far been almost absent. The balance between speculators and end-user residents may have begun to change.

Scary isnt it???

skdubai

November 6th, 2008, 10:55 AM

it had to come eventually.... Speculators in a small number can be good for the market, but in Dubai, i have not seen that many end users actually buying property!! It is filled with speculators and once they are cleared out, there is going to be a huge supply of finished apartments for both rental and sale. There will definitely be a correction, it is just a matter of when and by how much! People who live in lala land have to realize that that it is a cycle, prices cannot keep going endlessly while constructions also keeps going on endlessly!!

BTW, i am not talking about the economy as a whole here, but about th RE sector.

TakeMeHigher

November 6th, 2008, 11:15 AM

Who will put money on Palm Jumeria becoming a run down fishing village in twenty years?

Naz UK

November 7th, 2008, 02:49 PM

Erm, you?

Richard Head

November 7th, 2008, 03:19 PM

Who will put money on Palm Jumeria becoming a run down fishing village in twenty years?

I'll take an educated wild-ass guess that Donald Trump will not be supporting your speculative view. I don't know you, so I may not be giving you fair credit, but for now i'd prefer to follow his intuition than yours. :ohno:

skdubai

November 8th, 2008, 12:02 AM

enough talk about fishing villages guys... You have to realize that just bcoz there is a correction in the real estate market, Dubai's economy wont come crashing down!! It is part of a business cycle, property becomes cheaper, hence more attractive and then investors will come back again. The correction at this point is really needed though, the longer it takes, the harder the fall!!

Tquest

November 8th, 2008, 04:59 PM

what parts of dubai will in your opinion be hit most by this correction, and which districts will be affected least?
thanks in advance

AppleMac

November 8th, 2008, 08:52 PM

High Times

November 8th, 2008, 11:55 PM

^^^^

I agree,

Dubai is desperate for near complete districts to emerge as communities within the big picture.

Palm J, Marina, are the best bets for me.

Once an area can begin to behave like a micro economey of it's own it will sheild itself from the volotiity associated with off plan SELLING.

aazain

November 9th, 2008, 10:25 AM

flares

November 9th, 2008, 10:40 AM

Don't forget Discovery Gardens fully completed and excellent location at reasonable price but painted in pink and peach!!

aazain

November 9th, 2008, 12:45 PM

but painted in pink and peach!!

So What??

Tquest

November 9th, 2008, 05:54 PM

Business bay? DIFC?

AppleMac

November 9th, 2008, 06:29 PM

The trouble with Business Bay area is that the selling prices were astronomical so I cannot see any 'cushion' in the price.

cyborg81

November 10th, 2008, 04:06 AM

There is a question mark over about half-a-trillion dollars worth of energy projects in the Gulf that are in varying stages of completion, a US-based strategy advisory firm in global energy has said.

A worldwide slowdown in lending has put the completion of these energy projects in jeopardy, according to Raja Kiwan, an analyst with the Washington DC-based PFC EnergyPFC Energy.

"Now that commodity prices have plunged on global recession fears and credit markets remain nearly closed, questions are being raised about the financing and economic rationale of many of the large projects still in the design and planning stage," Kiwan wrote in a market intelligence memo.

PFCPFCPFC Energy
Region-wide | Services
News | Profile | Officers
has raised concern not only about energy projects, including refineries, but also industrial, infrastructure and real estate projects, altogether worth more than $3 trillion (Dh11.02trn).

Kiwan said: "Rapid growth in the GCCGCC has been driven by large-scale investment in energy, industry, infrastructure and real estate. Until recently, higher oil prices and abundant liquidity fuelled an accelerating rate of investment growth, especially in the over-heating property market.

"The overhang of uncompleted and pending investments is massive. The total is in excess of $3trn, the lion's share of it for projects expected to be finished within three to five years," he said.

Kiwan says it is hard to see how even the most buoyant market could absorb that much new housing and commercial development.

"Moreover, these investments are highly concentrated in the UAE, which alone accounts for $900 billion of the total. Saudi Arabia accounts for another $550bn, but much of that is for the kingdom's programme of industrial city development, which marks the one significant exception to the generally medium-term nature of these projects - many of the cities will be built out over the next 20 to 25 years."
While lower oil prices alone would have caused some of these deals to be re-examined, access to financing has become a far more serious obstacle, PFCPFCPFC Energy
Region-wide | Services
News | Profile | Officers
believes.

The international financial crisis has caused a brutal reversal in liquidity conditions, and foreign banks, which had reportedly been providing as much as 70 per cent of the region's project financing, have quickly reduced their involvement - in a few cases even considering invoking material adverse change clauses in order to walk away from already completed deals.

There is a growing realisation that the situation is not likely to improve in 2009.

"There are regional banks that remain liquid and interested in project finance, but with existing commitments are in no position to make up the shortfall," Kiwan said.

"There are niches for Islamic institutions to fill, but these lack the size and expertise to take on a significant share of the market. Some project organisers have turned to non-Japanese Asian banks, most of which are still relatively unaffected by the crisis, for financing.

"This is a relationship with enormous long-term potential, but even healthy banks will be cautious about entering new and unfamiliar markets at a time of heightened risk, and too much cannot be expected from these lenders in the short term.

"Under these circumstances it has to be assumed that investment will slow, and that many of these projects will not go ahead, and others will be delayed.

"The question then becomes one of triage: who decides, and on what basis, which deals get done and which do not? Governments will play a major role in this process, since they and their sovereign wealth funds represent the most important remaining source of liquidity. However, governments are likely to backstop only those investments that they consider strategic - that is, essential for economic development or for the provision of public services."

Planned investments in upstream oil and gas development are expected to go ahead because they represent the core of the GCCGCC economies and budgets.

"In the case of the largest producers, cash-rich national oil companies should be able to finance projects from their own balance sheets. Moreover, low development and production costs mean that project economics will continue to make sense at any plausible level for energy prices. The only exception to this general rule may be refinery projects, some of which appear to be motivated more by regional political considerations than by economics," said Kiwan.

This makes such refining projects strategic, "but in a different sense", and "potentially more vulnerable to delays" in the current difficult financing environment.

As slowing investment results in slower economic growth for the Gulf countries, it will also mean a deceleration in energy demand growth for the region.

"Any scaling down in planned new investment spending should feed through directly to reduced oil consumption. Given the number and scale of projects currently under way, we continue to see fairly healthy demand growth of 5.3 per cent in 2009 to reach 4.43 mmb/d, down however from 10.8 per cent demand growth in 2008."

By Yazad Darasha

© Emirates Business 24/7 2008

http://uk.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20081109044722/%24460B%20Projects%20In%20Limbo

luci203

November 10th, 2008, 11:06 AM

it had to come eventually.... Speculators in a small number can be good for the market, but in Dubai, i have not seen that many end users actually buying property!! It is filled with speculators and once they are cleared out, there is going to be a huge supply of finished apartments for both rental and sale.
This is the biggest threat. Speculators having too much propreties. Same thing happend to Florida. If the speculators will have to "pull out" because of the credit chrunch, the prices will drop a lot.

AppleMac

November 10th, 2008, 11:29 AM

This is the biggest threat. Speculators having too much propreties. Same thing happend to Florida. If the speculators will have to "pull out" because of the credit chrunch, the prices will drop a lot.

prices will only drop a lot if all these properties held by speculators are empty.

My apartment block in the Marina is about 80% full - most of the remaining are holiday homes for people living abroad.

So unless my situation is very unusual I just cannot see where all this un-occupied property is.

skdubai

November 10th, 2008, 12:43 PM

There is an article in he KT today which also says what i have been saying for a while now... A lot of apartments in JLT and Marina are empty because they are either owned by Speculators or holiday homes for mostly Europeans. This is bad if the balance is towards speculators!!

luci203

November 10th, 2008, 12:59 PM

^^
Even holiday home owners can sell. (if they have financial problems at home), the only "solid" owners are the residents.

smussuw

November 10th, 2008, 05:24 PM

HSBC: AED20,000 monthly salary needed to get loan
by Dylan Bowman on Monday, 10 November 2008

zoom
CREDIT CRUNCH: HSBC has raised its minimum monthly salary threshold to 20,000 dirhams. (Getty Images)
HSBC has raised the minimum monthly salary someone must earn to qualify for a personal loan to 20,000 dirhams ($5,445) due to the global credit crunch, the bank confirmed to Arabian Business on Monday.

The bank said it doubled the minimum monthly salary threshold on Nov. 1 from 10,000 dirhams.

HSBC raised its threshold to 10,000 dirhams from 5,000 dirhams in early October, it said.

The bank said in a statement the new credit eligibility criteria “will ensure that customers receive loans that they can afford to repay at a time of considerable uncertainty around the world”.

Raj Madha, equity anaylst at EFG-Hermes, said HSBC might be trying to reduce its exposure to a section of the market that many see as overleveraged and other banks could follow suit given the current liquidity squeeze.

"We would expect banks to be less agressive in going after loans, particularly where the returns do not necessarily match the risks," Madha said.

The news has left customers worried about how they will afford to pay their rent.

As many landlords demand tenants pay the entire year’s rent upfront it is common for tenants to take out a personal loan and pay it off over the course of the year.

HSBC's new threshold compares to just 3,000 dirhams a month which is required to take out a loan with Standard Chartered.

Have you been refused a personal loan because your bank has tightened its credit eligibility criteria? Arabian Business wants to hear from you. Email us at dylan.bowman@itp.com.

234sale

November 10th, 2008, 05:25 PM

llyods tsb just pulled all mortgages on apartments..

50% on villas

they were only a small player in the market

AltinD

November 10th, 2008, 06:35 PM

...Have you been refused a personal loan because your bank has tightened its credit eligibility criteria? .

I shouted for the xth time to Standart Chartered Bank agents to stop calling me every week offering loans.

skdubai

November 10th, 2008, 07:40 PM

it is only a few banks who seem to be panicking! I got 3 calls in the last week alone offering loans, while HSBC has become so cautious!

Richard Head

November 10th, 2008, 08:06 PM

I'd say off plan properties in the Waterfront and Jebel Ali Palm, also Dubailand. Given the current financial situation nobody has any idea about when these developments will be completed - it may be a very long wait for some.

Properties that will best sustain their price will be the ones in the more 'completed' parts of town - Marina, Tecom, Jumeriah Palm etc.

I think the contrast will be even more stark, and will be as simple as this.

1) Off-plan property - Totally dead in the water, prices will drop like a stone. Already started. Developers will in the best case slow down or reduce projects, or in the worse case bail out altogether leaving a lot of fingers on fire.

2) Completed property - in view of 1) the supply / demand gap will continue to grow, and both capital values and rental prices will continue to increase, or at worse flatten for a while.

Example - Arabian Ranches, hundreds of Alma (off-plan) for sale, prices have dropped dramatically. Saheel (fully developed communities with many end users in residence) - prices have stabilised, a couple of panic sellers have dropped prices but not dramatically, availability still very limited. Values generally holding up well.

Already there are great buying opportunities for those with ready funds who know the market and the right places to buy.

Mavekris

November 10th, 2008, 09:41 PM

^^Aaahhhhhhh
Thanks for screwing up this thread into another investment one.

Now go call your friends too:weird:

Richard Head

November 11th, 2008, 08:07 PM

^^ Did you read the thread title? Do you believe this title to be a cover-up for a thread that is actually about proven techniques for breeding hamsters in Norway? Please enlighten the authors of almost every post on this thread that thought the title was a teeny bit investment-orientated.

And for the record, hamsters hate the cold.

bizzybonita

November 11th, 2008, 08:17 PM

About the hamsters , you would know better ! " the head of Lion "

flares

November 12th, 2008, 07:09 AM

sure it was Gere not Head who had a thing for hamsters

Tquest

November 12th, 2008, 11:54 AM

the effects of the credit crunch... i do believe we should be talking about the effects on our investments rather than the effects of the credit crunch on the environment? or am i wrong here:bash:

thats all were here for- to talk about investments right?? ok- a few nutty architecture-freaks may be here just to see how the investments are coming along...:lol:

Dubai_Steve

November 12th, 2008, 04:13 PM

By the end of 2008 all international banks will collapse and there will be only the two following banks Left:

1- International Blood Bank
2- International Semen Bank

2 is also short of funds!

http://uk.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUKTRE4AB2P220081112

:lol:

Stephan23

November 14th, 2008, 11:48 AM

Die Wüste bebt

http://img.stern.de/_content/64/53/645337/dubai250_1_250.jpg

http://www.stern.de/reise/fernreisen/:Dubai-Die-W%FCste/645337.html

Von Claus Hecking, Dubai

Große Pläne, große Projekte, große Bauten: Der Aufstieg von Dubai war märchenhaft. Und wurde auf Pump finanziert. Nun reißt die Finanzkrise das kleine Emirat mit - die Zeit des billigen Geldes ist vorbei.

Diese Stille. Sie irritiert, passt nicht zu Dubai, diesem lauten, überfüllten Betonmoloch. Verstummt ist das Gehämmer, Gebagger, Geschrei der Arbeiter. Erstarrt stehen Kräne und Bagger in Kilometern Einöde. Gelangweilt betrachtet ein Wachmann den Dreck unter seinen Fingernägeln.

Ein einziges Fahrzeug hat in der vergangenen halben Stunde den Checkpoint zur Palm Deira passiert, dem gigantischsten Bauprojekt, das Dubais Gigantomanen je in Angriff genommen haben. Als "achtes Weltwunder" haben sie die neue Palme angepriesen. 12,5 Kilometer sollte die künstliche Insel ins Meer ragen, achtmal so groß wie die berühmte erste Palme werden, einer Million Menschen Lebensraum bieten. Sie sollte der Welt zeigen, wozu Dubai fähig ist. Sollte.

.........................

Emir of Ketir

November 14th, 2008, 01:06 PM

The banks are cutting out domestic liquidity in the market.
Foreign liquidity is not existing either so the market is bound to crash.

http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Real_Estate_Property/10259283.html

skdubai

November 14th, 2008, 01:15 PM

Dubai_Steve

November 14th, 2008, 01:17 PM

Dubai property expats 'denied credit'
14 November, 2008

By Dan Stewart

UAE's largest bank reportedly halts consumer credit to employees of Dubai developers

Foreigners employed by property developers in Dubai are allegedly to be denied credit by the UAE's largest bank.

Emirates NBD reportedly sent an internal email instructing its employees not to grant retail credit, also known as consumer credit, to staff working for 12 of Dubai's leading property firms.

The move means that Britons employed by companies such as Emaar, Nakheel, and Dubai Properties could find their personal credit severely restricted.

A memo reported in a local magazine said: “"In view of the current market scenario, it has been decided to suspend retail credit facilities to expatriate employees working with the below mentioned employers, due to possible restructuring, lay-offs and job loss."

Emirates NBD immediately denied the story, but the Reuters news agency later confirmed that the memo existed.

The 12 firms on the list are: Amlak, Damac Holding, Damac Invest Co, Damac Investment & Properties, Daman Investments, Dubai Properties, Emaar, KM Properties, Nakheel, Sama Dubai, Tamweer and Union Properties.

Damac, the largest private property company in Dubai, admitted earlier this week that it will be making 200 redundancies in view of the credit crisis. Emaar also confirmed that it is looking at restructuring its personnel.

http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=284&storycode=3127611&c=0

Stephan23

November 14th, 2008, 02:29 PM

?? translation?

Too much !!

High Times

November 14th, 2008, 03:25 PM

?? translation?

Claus Hecking, Dubai

Big plans, big projects, big buildings: The Rise of Dubai was fabulous. Pump and was financed. Now pulling the financial crisis with the small emirate - the era of cheap money is over.

This silence. It irritates, does not correspond to Dubai, this noisy, overcrowded Betonmoloch. Silenced the Gehämmer, Gebagger, screams of the workers. Solidifies cranes and excavators are in kilometers solitude. Considered a bored guard the dirt under his fingernails.

A single vehicle has in the past half hour, the checkpoint happened to Palm Deira, the most massive construction project, the Dubai Gigantomanen ever have tackled. As the "eighth wonder of the world", they have praised the new palm. 12.5 km artificial island should protrude into the sea, eight times as big as the famous first Palme, one million people living offer. It should show the world what Dubai is capable of.

mackie1964

November 14th, 2008, 04:53 PM

Claus Hecking, Dubai

this noisy, overcrowded Betonmoloch. Silenced the Gehämmer, Gebagger, screams of the workers. Solidifies cranes and excavators are in kilometers solitude. Considered a bored guard the dirt under his fingernails.

:lol::lol::lol::lol:

Classic free web translation :lol::cheers:

skdubai

November 14th, 2008, 05:28 PM

^^ lol!!

High Times

November 14th, 2008, 06:22 PM

:lol::lol::lol::lol:

Classic free web translation :lol::cheers:

I know, i see where bizzybonita gets it from now. :lol::lol:

Tquest

November 15th, 2008, 04:19 PM

Von Claus Hecking, Dubai

Große Pläne, große Projekte, große Bauten: Der Aufstieg von Dubai war märchenhaft. Und wurde auf Pump finanziert. Nun reißt die Finanzkrise das kleine Emirat mit - die Zeit des billigen Geldes ist vorbei.
Big plans, big projects, big buildings: the rise of dubai was fairytale-like. and it was financed on credit. now the credit cruch has engulfed this emirat, the time of cheap money is over.

Diese Stille. Sie irritiert, passt nicht zu Dubai, diesem lauten, überfüllten Betonmoloch. Verstummt ist das Gehämmer, Gebagger, Geschrei der Arbeiter. Erstarrt stehen Kräne und Bagger in Kilometern Einöde. Gelangweilt betrachtet ein Wachmann den Dreck unter seinen Fingernägeln.
This silence. it irritates, doesnt fit to dubai, this loud, overcrowded concretejungle. silneced is the hammering, the digging, the shouting of the workers. frozen in time stand kranes and diggers in the kilometrs of solitude. Bored a watchman looks at the dirt under his fingernails.

Ein einziges Fahrzeug hat in der vergangenen halben Stunde den Checkpoint zur Palm Deira passiert, dem gigantischsten Bauprojekt, das Dubais Gigantomanen je in Angriff genommen haben. Als "achtes Weltwunder" haben sie die neue Palme angepriesen. 12,5 Kilometer sollte die künstliche Insel ins Meer ragen, achtmal so groß wie die berühmte erste Palme werden, einer Million Menschen Lebensraum bieten. Sie sollte der Welt zeigen, wozu Dubai fähig ist. Sollte.
One single vehicle has passed the checkpoint to deira in the last half hour, the biggest construction project that dubais gigantomaniacs ever started. This new Palmshaped island was considered the eight wonder of the world- It should have reached 12,5kms into the sea, eight times the size of the first, original palm. It was supposed to inhabit one million people. The island intended to show the world what dubai was capable of... intended.

Tquest

November 15th, 2008, 04:21 PM

excuse the typos- just to give you a jist of what the man is talking about without having to rely on online translators;)
:cheers:

skdubai

November 15th, 2008, 04:46 PM

^^ thanks, this actually makes a lot more sense...

Emir of Ketir

November 20th, 2008, 02:58 PM

Hi, can anybody give a rough indication on how many towers in JLT and Dubai Marina work has been stopped? Any estimates?

ardi

November 20th, 2008, 03:01 PM

Does anybody think Dubai will be more or less look (Economic Situation) like US next year , around this time? Or the government has plan to protect economy?

docc

November 20th, 2008, 03:20 PM

^^ The Govt IS taking steps and WILL continue to take steps to stop the ongoing chaos. People running around like chickens with their head chopped off (gory i know), doesn't bode well for the economy of any city. Dubai and the UAE have a reputation to preserve and they are doing more than probably any other Country to fight the crisis.

Thanks to the lack of bureaucracy and political agenda's, we can expect to see prompt action. You'll see my point of view...in February.

ardi

November 20th, 2008, 03:57 PM

Thanks, I hope this will happen. But do you think companies like Dubai world which are part of government are capable of paying back their loans to banks, if not do you think still they will construct their projects without financing options or they willcancel thier project and cut 100000 jobs?

docc

November 20th, 2008, 04:13 PM

They will refinance when necessary and they don't really have to look outside the UAE for refinancing ;)

Wannaberich

November 20th, 2008, 04:36 PM

AltinD

November 20th, 2008, 05:58 PM

Hi, can anybody give a rough indication on how many towers in JLT and Dubai Marina work has been stopped? Any estimates?

What do you mean by stopped? If the main construction starts it means that the financing is arranged (in most cases anyway)

heatstor

November 21st, 2008, 03:46 PM

Can anyone who really knows the subject explain what exactly the credit crunch is relative to UAE?
I can somewhat understand the situation in the US based on banks taking on too much leverage, too many bad mortgages issued and selling of CDS, but afaik, none of this is applicable to UAE. I can understand a small impact as banks are interconnected, but that could mean a positive impact too.
Thanks in advance.

Wannaberich

November 21st, 2008, 03:53 PM

ardi

November 21st, 2008, 07:45 PM

Its not the matter of Dubai banks who gained finance, mostly is construction comopanies and master developers who worked with credit from EU and US banks, everybody were thinking they are building with oil revenues which clearly was wrong.

skdubai

November 21st, 2008, 09:30 PM

^^
I was also wondering if anyone knows.
Dubai banks I assume didnt take on the bad debts from the states etc.Is it just because they are connected to other banks who did that has made them vunerable?
Plus,if so much property in Dubai is brought with cash like I keep on reading,the banks withdrawing finance should be such a problem?

The problem for most UAE banks is that they have very little source of funds available locally to provide the kind of credit needed. So when the foreign money suddenly deserted them during this mess, they are strapped for cash and are also worried about the local RE market....

Also i would not trust the banks here too much when they say they had no exposure to the the US mess, they are not required to be as transparent here, so they can afford to hide the facts a bit!!

Wannaberich

November 21st, 2008, 09:53 PM

^^ thanks

THE DUBAI GUYS

November 21st, 2008, 10:13 PM

Dubai denies talks with Abu Dhabi over rescue plan

* Published: 19 November 2008 16:06 GMT
* Author: Matthew Martin
* More by this Author
* Last Updated: 19 November 2008 17:04

Dubai is not in talks with Abu Dhabi about a loan to help bail out Dubai-based companies hit by the global financial market crisis, according to the director general of the Dubai Finance Department.

Nasser al-Sheikh was responding to media reports on 19 November that the two emirates would unveil a rescue plan later this month.

He also said that a committee had been formed by the Dubai government in the past six to eight weeks to explore how the emirate will be affected by the financial crisis and how it can cope with slower economic growth, but that no external advisers had been hired.

"The committee is looking at the impact of the current challenges on Dubai and how to face them," said Al-Sheikh.

He added that, although Dubai had been able to take advantage of the ease of borrowing over the last few years without having to secure a rating from one of the credit rating agencies, it was now looking to restart the rating process.

"Dubai never needed a rating to borrow but now it is essential," said Al-Sheikh.

http://www.meed.com/news/2008/11/dubai_denies_talks_with_abu_dhabi_about_bail_out_plan.html

R

Emir of Ketir

November 22nd, 2008, 03:35 PM

Sandboy

November 23rd, 2008, 03:08 PM

What do you mean by stopped? If the main construction starts it means that the financing is arranged (in most cases anyway)

that's what I thought but have heard from 2 separate sources of projects which have started being stopped today

ardi

November 23rd, 2008, 03:55 PM

^^ there are lots project onhold, but its not mainly becase finance situation it may be under redesign in order to reduce the construction cost, like Dubai Promenade

Emir of Ketir

November 25th, 2008, 09:32 PM

"[..] amid a massive capital outflow estimated at Dh500 billion between July and October this year, which resulted in a stock market crash and a correction in the real estate sector.[..]"

Source: http://archive.gulfnews.com/business/Economy/10262270.html

aazain

November 26th, 2008, 08:12 AM

ABU DHABI FINANCE IS LIVE GUYS.....IF YOU HAVE A CHANCE...CHECK OUT ITTIHAD AND THE NATIONAL TO SEE OUR REVEALER ADS.

Abu Dhabi enters the mortgage market

Bradley Hope

- Last Updated: November 25. 2008 9:09PM UAE / GMT

[image:
http://adimg.sv.publicus.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=AD&Date=20081125&Category=BUSINESS&ArtNo=215943881&Ref=AR&MaxW=300]

Alie Eid al Mehairi, the chairman of Abu Dhabi Finance, said the company will focus on building up customer service, as a survey found that 90 per cent of the people were unhappy with their mortgage experience. Jaime Puebla / The National

Abu Dhabi // Five of Abu Dhabi's largest companies will launch a home finance company on Wednesday that will fill the void left by the implosion of credit at home and abroad.

Abu Dhabi Finance, as the new lender is to be known, is a joint venture between Mubadala Development, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Aldar Properties, Sorouh Real Estate and the Tourism Development and Investment Company.

With Dh500 million (US$136.1m) in paid up capital, it will start by offering mortgages to buyers of properties from the three developers – which account for two thirds of Abu Dhabi's projects – and then expand to the rest of Abu Dhabi and the nation.

"We did a survey and found that 90 per cent of people were unhappy with their mortgage experience" in the UAE, said Ali Eid al Mehairi, the chairman of the new company and a development director at Mubadala. "In the last year, we have focused on building up customer service."

At a time when home finance companies and banks are cutting their lending terms and making it difficult to buy a home, the new company will begin offering mortgages with loan-to-value ratios as high as 85 per cent.

"This is very good news for the consumer," said Chris Green, the managing director of Investment Boutique in Dubai. "I think this could be a very big boost in confidence for the man on the street who was thinking about buying despite the negative news coming out."

The process to create Abu Dhabi Finance began a year ago, when Mubadala decided the emirate needed a better mortgage provider, but in recent weeks the creation of a well-funded mortgage provider has become especially relevant. Banks have either stopped issuing mortgages or cut their loan-to-value ratios to as low as 50 per cent in some cases. Amlak Finance, the largest home finance provider in the Emirates, said last week it had stopped issuing loans while it reviewed its credit policy.

Abu Dhabi Finance hopes to take up some of the excess demand in the market for reasonable mortgages. Its products will more closely resemble those being offered earlier this summer when the property market was booming. The duration of the mortgages offered will range from 3 to 30 years. The borrower must be under the age of 70 when the mortgage ends. They will have a debt-to-service ratio of 55 per cent. The interest rate on the loans, between 8.5 per cent and 9 per cent, was about as expensive as others in the market, mortgage brokers said.

Shafqat Malik, the chief financial officer of Aldar Properties, said the new company was important because it was geared towards people looking to buy homes to live in, which is the fundamental driver of the property economy.

"It is going to help not only Aldar but all the developers here, because this vehicle is geared toward the specific requirements of the end-user," he said. "You are providing much more choice to the end-user to be able to go and find the financing to buy a home."

Together with the newly announced Emirates Development Bank, it would also bring some liquidity back to the suffering property market, analysts said.

The Government announced this week that Emirates Development Bank would be formed by the merger of Real Estate Bank, Emirates Industrial Bank, Amlak and Tamweel – making it the largest provider of home loans in the country and a facility that could directly help distressed property developers.

Mohammed Ali Alabbar, a member of the Dubai Executive Council and chairman of Emaar Properties, said the merged bank would "facilitate lending and move liquidity into sectors needed, especially in real estate".

Mr Mehairi said Abu Dhabi Finance had its financing secured and would be able to get through any "rough situations that come to the market". The competitive advantage for its 70-person operation – based in the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank building on Zayed the First Street – would be customer service, he said.

"Customer ambassadors" would monitor the mortgage experience and sales staff would be rewarded not just on mortgage execution but the quality of the process, the company said. Advisers will use a fleet of branded cars to travel to wherever customers need them.

"Whether there is a correction in the real estate market or not, people will still need mortgage products here," Mr Mehairi said. "We feel confident the market is strong and people are going to buy properties."

IISinbadII

November 26th, 2008, 09:35 AM

I don't understand why companies like Tatweer are stopping to hand out mortages. This is the complete wrong signal to the market. The market needs fresh money otherwise it will come to a halt. What is required is better ratings of whether someone is egible for a credit - not the complete stop of mortages - this has been proven to be false in the past century. Put the money back into the market or it will crash. I hear Palm Jumeirah villas have already dropped by 40% (!!)

Credit ratings are based on job earnings among other things. Most folks in Dubai are foreigners. And in this environment there is no guarantee that they will not loose their jobs, pack up and leave. So why would banks take the risk of lending esp. when properties are loosing value.

The whole idea of a credit based economy is what has brought us to this crises in the first place, IMO.

makerian

November 26th, 2008, 05:32 PM

The whole idea of a credit based economy is what has brought us to this crises in the first place, IMO.

Yes and consequences that are unfolding globally are necessary to bear to clear out the excesses. The money printing by central banks on the other hand will do little cure the real problems in global economies. They can control the quantity of money out there but they do not have as much control over its velocity. They cannot force banks to lend. We are in this for a while and so we should be.

shine4me

November 27th, 2008, 07:00 PM

Credit ratings are based on job earnings among other things. Most folks in Dubai are foreigners. And in this environment there is no guarantee that they will not loose their jobs, pack up and leave. So why would banks take the risk of lending esp. when properties are loosing value.

The whole idea of a credit based economy is what has brought us to this crises in the first place, IMO.

Yep I agree with what you have said, Another valid point here is also that the banks will simply not lend on properties where LTV ratios are seriously unstable. Thus banks have effectivley closed shop and will probably start to lend again when external markets start to move again. They will then know what the 'true value' of real estate within the UAE is. So once the US and UK markets start to move again then the Dubai markets will move again as they are so intrinsically linked together. We are in for such a tough year ahead but once we are through it things may never be the same again.

Wannaberich

November 27th, 2008, 07:37 PM

House prices in the UK dropped by only 0.4% this month.
The slowest monthly fall since prices started to drop last November.
Maybe the tide is turning.

EmiratesAirline380

November 27th, 2008, 08:53 PM

People are saying Dubai is bankrupt. Is that true?

Mistermark

November 27th, 2008, 09:27 PM

House prices in the UK dropped by only 0.4% this month.
The slowest monthly fall since prices started to drop last November.
Maybe the tide is turning.

I don't believe the statistics - not even close. The problem is this: the price index show the average selling price (or, in the case of the Rightmove index, asking price) of the properties sold (or, for Rightmove, marketed) that month.

Right now, first-time and buy-to-let purchasers have been pretty much taken out of the market due to the difficulties in getting high LTV and BTL mortgages respectively. Most of them buy apartments and low-value terraced houses. So the mix of properties being sold has become richer, resulting in the statistics showing a lower price decrease than estate agents or anyone actually selling their homes will tell you is the truth.

Figures vary around the country and by property type, but in my particular neck of the woods (Surrey commuter belt, close to the M25) I believe family houses are down 20 percent from the peak and flats rather more than that.

helghast

November 27th, 2008, 09:44 PM

People are saying Dubai is bankrupt. Is that true?

no, its not true.

docc

November 27th, 2008, 10:05 PM

People are saying Dubai is bankrupt. Is that true?

What do you think?

shine4me

November 27th, 2008, 10:56 PM

Mistermark you have it absolutley spot on! people should forget these varying blips in the housing market as the only trend we will be seeing for the next 9 months at least, is a downward trend. The figures that have been released regarding property prices are not accurate at all and what will further compound the problem, is deflation. This will result in many more jobs being lost thus taking the wind out of the economy even further. Both Britain and the States are in very serious trouble and I see no end to the correction of prices across all sectors of the economy for quite some time. With regards to Dubai well these hard times will make some companies disappear as they were only ever built on a house of cards. It is a global economic correction occuring right now and it will take time to work itself through all financial systems. But it will pass. Eventually.

Wannaberich

November 28th, 2008, 12:26 AM

U guys don't believe a figure of 0.4% but had it been 2% u wouldnt have questioned it.

shine4me

November 28th, 2008, 11:44 AM

U guys don't believe a figure of 0.4% but had it been 2% u wouldnt have questioned it.

Errrr I don't believe it because I am involved in the property markets here in London. The 'true' figures are not even close to 0.4% just because less properties are coming onto the market because of the time of year, does not mean that things are turning. The one indicator which is never factored in all of this, is the auction rooms which in most cases are selling at least 30% below asking prices. To be honest I get sick and tired of reading all these weekly reports on the microscopic changes in prices, they benefit only the guy who publishes it. The end of January reports and February reports are the only true key indicators of what is happening in the global real estate markets.

TakeMeHigher

November 28th, 2008, 12:11 PM

It's widely recognised that London is affected more than the rest of the country.

The only true reports are the Land Registry numbers. Anything else is a sideshow.

Mistermark

November 28th, 2008, 01:40 PM

It's widely recognised that London is affected more than the rest of the country.

The only true reports are the Land Registry numbers. Anything else is a sideshow.

Actually I don't believe the Land Registry figures either. They include all residential property, not just that which is privately owned. In the current market, that means the figures are influenced by newly delivered housing association stock.

Most people would assume this would drive down the index, but in actual fact many housing associations demand higher specifications for properties, and strike less commercially sound deals, than owner occupiers (are we surprised?) - and of course, it's all new, pristine stock rather than tired resales. As a result, a high proportion of 'affordable' housing being registered in a month drives the index up, not down...

TakeMeHigher

November 28th, 2008, 01:57 PM

Sheltie

November 28th, 2008, 02:22 PM

Larionovo who are building Ireland in The World have gone into liquidation.

Mistermark

November 28th, 2008, 03:27 PM

So you have your own version of house prices to which nobody else subscribes? Fair enough - no wonder you don't believe anything that you read. I suppose that you also don't believe that RSL's buy affordable stock at a VO agreed discount?

I wouldn't say that 'nobody else' subscribes to my version of UK house prices, just that the measure I use differs from that employed by the well-known monthly price indices - for the simple reason that they don't give a sensible picture in these exceptional times.

My assessment of the true market value of UK residential property intended for owner occupation or private sector rental is currently driven by the prices achieved at auction. In today's market these are generally 20-50 percent below the prices at which optimistic private owners are marketing (but not selling) their properties.

As for social landlords, when the mortgage market ground to a halt, there were grand plans for them to start buying up the unsold stock that developers had bought for sale to owner-occupiers. That idea has largely fallen through because the housing associations were unhappy with the specifications, not because they didn't want to pay the prices.

So yes, those landlords may, in theory, get volume-based discounts from developers, but in reality, they still pay over the odds for unnecessarily overspecified properties for their overindulged coach potato tenants.

Welcome to Britain, 2008.

jixline

November 29th, 2008, 12:31 AM

:)

Recession: When the money goes, so does the toxic wife

As the recession worsens, a lot of rich men are finding their gold-digging wives are taking to their heels

By Tara Winter Wilson
Last Updated: 7:31PM GMT 26 Nov 2008
Some women are like businessmen - utterly ruthless, and seeing a rich man as their career path
Some women are like businessmen - utterly ruthless, and seeing a rich man as their career path Photo: GETTY

'You loser!" screamed Katie, aiming a vase at her husband. "You've destroyed my life,'' she continued, hurling it. "Just look at my hair, look at my nails! You loser, you jerk, you nobody."

Katie's husband, Jack, whose property portfolio disintegrated in the financial crash, had just told his wife that she would have to cut back on her thrice-weekly visits to Nicky Clarke, the nail salon in Harvey Nichols, and the oxygen facials, chemical peels and seaweed wraps at Space NK.

Not only that, but they no longer had the money to pay for an army of bullied Eastern Europeans to wait on her hand and foot.

Worse was to come – the brow-lift would have to be cancelled; her black Amex card would have to be snipped in half; and there was no way, he told her, that he could carry on spending £28,000 a year on Henry's school fees at Eton.

Chloe, too, would have to leave the marginally cheaper (only £25,000 pa) Wycombe Abbey immediately.

Such was the aggression and verbal and physical abuse that followed that Jack was left with cut lips and blood streaming from a broken nose.

Their eight-year-old child, not yet at boarding school, sat cowering in a corner and dialling 999. When they arrived, they had to restrain Katie forcibly from attacking her husband.

An extreme and isolated example of the global economic meltdown hitting the £1 million home? Sadly no. When the super-rich feel the pinch, inevitably, the Toxic Wife heads off.

The Toxic Wife, first identified in these pages almost two years ago, is a particular and terrifying species.

Not to be confused with the stay-at-home mother who selflessly devotes herself to the upbringing of her children, with all the housework and domestic chores that entails, the Toxic Wife is the woman who gives up work as soon as she marries, ostensibly to create a stable home environment for any offspring that might come along, but who then employs large numbers of staff to do all the domestic work she promised to undertake, leaving her with little to do all day except shop, lunch and luxuriate.

Having married her wealthy husband with his considerable salary uppermost in her mind, the Toxic Wife simply does not do "for richer, for poorer". Little Dorrit, she ain't.

Indeed, lawyers and financial advisers have reported a 50 per cent increase in the number of divorce inquiries since the financial markets collapsed in September.

A recent survey conducted by community website makefriendsonline revealed that a third of 10,000 respondents believe that financial hardship will cause a relationship to fail, while matrimonial law specialists Mishcon de Reya have reported up to 300 per cent more inquiries.

Numbers have risen significantly as couples seek to reach an agreement before the recession tightens its grip. But for the Toxic Wife, "agreement" is the last thing on her mind.

There are countless stories of them acting in the most bizarre and inhumane ways. For gold-diggers are materialistic to such an extent that they are emotionally detached from other people.

There's an inability to empathise with another human being. They certainly don't ''do'' conscience. Money, on the other hand, they both love and understand.

''I told my wife to stop this organic food malarkey,'' said Jeremy, a beleaguered hedge-fund manager, another man who fell for an extremely beautiful yet extravagant woman.

"She went ballistic. Organic Hass avocados cost £1.75 each and she wanted me to buy six of them! In the end, I just peeled off the labels that said they were certified organic and put them on ordinary avocados – she didn't notice the difference. I did the same with bananas…''

''So why did she walk out on you?'' I asked.

''She has a very high standard of living,'' he said. ''She's never taken the Tube or a bus; it's always taxis. And she likes to eat out a lot, at the best restaurants, and she likes to buy expensive gifts for people she wants to impress.

"As soon as the financial wobbles started, she must have joined some upmarket dating agency because somehow she's found another very rich man pretty damn fast.''

Another case is Sasha who, for the past few months, had been gloating about the £3.4 million chalet in Verbier her husband was about to exchange on, how she'd managed to hire a high-society interior decorator to do it up for a song (''more an anthem, actually", she'd giggled) and how much she was looking forward to a white, snowy Christmas there.

At the last minute, Husband pulled out of the deal. Never mind that he had lost his lucrative job in the City, she felt he had deliberately traumatised her and is suing him for divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty. '

'She's got the personality of an overindulged infant,'' he sighed, ''a spoilt brat who starts screaming the moment a toy is taken away.''

In the grown-up world that toy is money and what it can buy: status, power, glamour and arrogance. It also has a way of making these particular women precious. ''Because I'm worth it'' has become the catch-all legitimiser for any personal indulgence.

According to Susie Ambrose, a marital psychotherapist and CEO of Seventy-Thirty, an upmarket introduction company that takes its name from the work versus free time balance, there has been an unprecedented demand from married women recently.

''We are being targeted by women on the fence between leaving their husbands who are on the brink of losing their wealth, and wanting to meet someone extremely rich straight away,'' she says.

Like a frog, the Toxic Wife needs to hop safely on to another lily pad, and a rich one, before leaving her husband. She won't stand on her own two feet. And finding a job is quite beneath her.

Yet Susie Ambrose thinks such women ''are like businessmen – utterly ruthless". The rich man is the career path, the meal ticket, and it doesn't matter how fat, old, balding or unattractive he is – it's solely about money.

''These particular women know how to fake love,'' adds Ambrose. ''They're actually very good at it.''

She now has a waiting-list for her life-coaching sessions – a course costs between £10,000-£60,000 – on how to distinguish a gold-digger from a genuine woman.

Men, it seems, have got wise to the potential Toxic Wife and don't want to end up with someone who is going to bolt the moment they experience some financial bad luck.

For men, divorce is one of the most expensive trials in life – emotionally and financially. As the joke doing the rounds among City men goes: "This credit crunch is worse than a divorce. I've lost half my net worth and I still have a wife."

But this is no joke. I've seen at first hand how, as soon as money disappears, so does love.

Olivia and Richard had a set of beautiful and expensively conceived twins (we're talking around £30,000 worth of IVF treatments for the right gender – she joked how she would send them back if they were girls), a fabulous house, great holidays several times a year, two nannies and a lifestyle of which most of us lesser mortals could only fantasise.

How we laughed when Richard, with admiration in his voice, mentioned at a drinks party last year that he'd turned to his wife in the middle of the night and asked her if she'd still love him if he lost all his money.

''F--- no!'' had been her answer. Such a feisty, amusing (and obviously joky) response delighted him. But today he is scratching his head with abject dejection. She had meant it.

She left him the moment he lost his senior post at an investment bank and immediately hooked up with another rich man.

Worse, she took their boys with her and he rarely sees them because she has since moved to America to start afresh with her new, unsuspecting milch-cow.

As most of us are battening down the hatches and finding inventive ways to cope with the new austerity, some unfortunate men have not only lost their jobs, they are also having the scales ripped from their eyes.

The horrible truth has dawned: they married a woman who wanted them solely for their money.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/recession/3527803/Recession-When-the-money-goes-so-does-the-toxic-wife.html

BinDubai

November 29th, 2008, 11:51 AM

Larionovo who are building Ireland in The World have gone into liquidation.

omg thats the best news that I've heard today :D i hated that island project so bad !

bizzybonita

November 29th, 2008, 05:05 PM

^^ me too :lol:

makerian

November 29th, 2008, 06:01 PM

Larionovo who are building Ireland in The World have gone into liquidation.

Wasn't Ireland being marketed by Profile Properties or is it the same company?

EmiratesAirline380

November 30th, 2008, 11:34 PM

No merger with Etihad, Emirates says
Gulf News Report
Published: December 01, 2008, 00:34

Dubai: Emirates, the Dubai Government-owned airline on Sunday denied any merger talks with Abu Dhabi Government-owned Etihad Airways - a rumour circulating in corporate circles for some time, as part of a so-called bailout package by the Abu Dhabi government.

"There are no merger talks taking place between Emirates and Etihad. We have no knowledge of the federal government or Abu Dhabi, or another airline taking a stake in Emirates," an Emirates spokesperson told Gulf News in an e-mailed statement.

Emirates and Etihad are among the world's fastest growing airlines that are in massive expansion mode. Between them they have about 450 aircraft on order.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While Emirates, with 118 aircraft in the fleet, is a profitable carrier, Etihad is yet to break even. Both are operating in a growth market where passenger traffic is expected to grow for at least a decade, if not more, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) projections.

The Gulf's aviation market is set to grow further as new airlines are adding to the growing traffic and helping to serve increased passenger flow to and from the region.

luv2bebrown

December 1st, 2008, 06:50 AM

even if they did merge you can be assured that etihad's operations would be absorbed under the emirates banner - EVEN if abu dhabi took full ownership of EK.

skdubai

December 1st, 2008, 10:33 AM

ofcourse they would deny it.. i am not saying this is happening, but even if it was, would you actually expect emirates to come out and admit it?

luv2bebrown

December 1st, 2008, 01:02 PM

shine4me

December 1st, 2008, 06:51 PM

Larionovo who are building Ireland in The World have gone into liquidation.

They are the main partners in Profile if I am not mistaken?

LoverOfDubai

December 2nd, 2008, 03:16 AM

it would definitely make a lot of financial sense for them to merge. and then for Emirates and Etihad to merge with Qatar Airways to create a middle eastern MEGA carrier. oh yeah and scrap the FlyDubai project! ;)

Wouldn't that just be going back to the days when Gulf Air was the "national" carrier of multiple Gulf countries? Then after a few years, each country would pull out and (re)create their own airline. The cycle would would just continue...

luv2bebrown

December 2nd, 2008, 05:27 AM

well true but the main issue with gulf air was that it boycotted Dubai due to DXB's open skies policy.

but i guess you're right. from a purely airline business sense, it makes sense for the major carriers to merge. but since each airline also has a secondary objective of increasing airport hub revenue/passenger numbers AND encouraging tourism, each of the states would end up fighting.

Imre

December 2nd, 2008, 04:58 PM

02/December/2008

credit crunch reached me as well.

before

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/245/imresolt03zo5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

after

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/246/imresolt04zf1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Parisian Girl

December 2nd, 2008, 05:10 PM

^^ :rofl:

PS: Crisis? What crisis?

December 2nd, 2008, 05:55 PM

best time to buy new cars!

smussuw

December 2nd, 2008, 06:29 PM

^^ no yet, car dealers are still exploiting the situation. I hope they get bankrupt, those monopolists :ohno:

docc

December 2nd, 2008, 07:06 PM

^^ How are they exploiting the situation?

Interest comment about the monopoly. How come it works that way? Aren't any of the other's concerned that they aren't getting a piece of the action?

smussuw

December 2nd, 2008, 07:29 PM

^^ an example, when the Euro used to go up by one cent to the dollar they used to raise the car price multiple times because of that excuse, now the Euro lost over 30% of its values and the prices are the same. What do u call that? They always brag about the free market yet, this franchineses monopoly are the total opposite to that, hypocrites.

on another note they changed parts of the constitution. We just got 100 years backward. I officially lost hope about the country :bash:

sad sad national day :ohno:

jba

December 2nd, 2008, 07:35 PM

Ithink Sheikh Mohammad needs to step in now and ensure EVERY tower under construction is completed by the master developer if needs must, otherwise Dubai will become a huge part finished site for years to come:ohno:

If they where to ensure this then the market would sort itself out in no time and Dubai would have no problem selling itself again.

The developers who complete will be the winners in the end.

skdubai

December 2nd, 2008, 07:51 PM

on another note they changed parts of the constitution. We just got 100 years backward. I officially lost hope about the country :bash:

sad sad national day :ohno:

?? what did they change?

smussuw

December 2nd, 2008, 08:03 PM

?? what did they change?Ministers weren't allowed to allowed to be members or chair companies before, now they can. Before all laws used to go to the parliament, now the president can decide not handing the laws to the parliament to discuss it. So they basically took powers from the parliament which didn't even have any in the first place before. There are some insignificant changes too but they don't really make a difference.

docc

December 2nd, 2008, 08:04 PM

skdubai

December 2nd, 2008, 09:08 PM

Ministers weren't allowed to allowed to be members or chair companies before, now they can

That is conflict of interest, so yea, thats pretty bad!!

smussuw

December 2nd, 2008, 09:37 PM

Oh okie. Well, if the parliament didn't have any powers in the first place, why are you so upset about it? Also, how does this affect the country in general? Sorry, but i'm rather clueless about politics (thankfully).Well, it wouldn't affect the current status because we are already backward.

The thing is that for a country that pride itself of being part of the 21st century modern world it shouldn't have such backward system. Now don't tell me what does parliament do, u should know better. The president speech in 2005 was talking about empowering the Emiratis by having semi elections and giving more powers to our legislative body to be able monitor and assist the executive body. It is surprising because it is the total opposite now, they not only didn't give any powers to the parliament but they actually took some of its rights. Putting that aside, in the new points in the constitution there is a conflict of interest between the ministers role and their job as chairmen or members in companies as skdubai have said. So they are basically legalizing corruption.

I really wonder how long they think they can survive with their prey tribal mentality :ohno:

LoverOfDubai

December 3rd, 2008, 02:19 AM

Smussuw, I hope you do not mind but I am continuing this conversation here (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=28863196#post28863196). I have a few questions for you.

luv2bebrown

December 3rd, 2008, 05:30 AM

docc

December 3rd, 2008, 08:46 AM

Well, it wouldn't affect the current status because we are already backward.

The thing is that for a country that pride itself of being part of the 21st century modern world it shouldn't have such backward system. Now don't tell me what does parliament do, u should know better. The president speech in 2005 was talking about empowering the Emiratis by having semi elections and giving more powers to our legislative body to be able monitor and assist the executive body. It is surprising because it is the total opposite now, they not only didn't give any powers to the parliament but they actually took some of its rights. Putting that aside, in the new points in the constitution there is a conflict of interest between the ministers role and their job as chairmen or members in companies as skdubai have said. So they are basically legalizing corruption.

I really wonder how long they think they can survive with their prey tribal mentality :ohno:

Ouch.

I see your point :ohno:

XAU

December 3rd, 2008, 11:59 AM

right!

Stephan23

December 3rd, 2008, 12:19 PM

Hochtief hat die Dubai-Krise

http://boerse.ard.de/servlet/de.hr.cms.servlet.IMS?enc=d3M9Ym9lcnNlJmJsb2JJZD0yNTcyMCZ3aWR0aD0xOTUmaGVpZ2h0PTUwMDAmYWdlPTEwMDAwMDAwJnF1YWw9MCZpZD0zMjQxNDQ_

Die Abkühlung des Immobilienbooms in Dubai bekommt nun auch Hochtief zu spüren. Ein Großprojekt unter Beteiligung des deutschen Bauriesen ist wegen der Folgen der Finanzkrise auf Eis gelegt worden.

Mit dem Dubai Trump Tower wollte sich der amerikanische Multimilliardär Donald Trump auch in dem Arabischen Emirat ein Denkmal setzen. Das Gebäude sollte auf der vor der Küste Dubais aufgeschütteten Insel Palm Jumeirah entstehen und mit Hotelzimmern, Büroflächen und Shoppingarealen eine Anlaufstelle für Einheimische ebenso wie für Touristen sein. Mit Baukosten von über einer halben Milliarde Euro sollte es eines der teuersten Einzelbauprojekte Dubais werden.

Doch mit derartigen Milliardärsträumen ist es nun erst einmal Essig. Das Trump-Tower-Projekt in Dubai sei ausgesetzt worden, teilte die Hochtief-Tochter Leighton am Montag mit. Grund dafür seien die sich verschlechternden Marktbedingungen. Die australische Hochtief-Tochter sollte über ihre Beteiligung Al Habtoor Leighton Group einen Teil des Bauwerks realisieren.

Kommt da noch was nach?
Der Projektentwickler trage alle bislang angefallenen Kosten für den geplanten Bau, hieß es weiter. Deshalb gebe es keine Auswirkungen auf die Ergebnisse von Al Habtoor Leighton. Die Reaktion an den Börsen fiel dennoch heftig aus. In Australien brachen Papiere von Leighton Holding um über sieben Prozent ein. Hochtief-Aktien verlieren in Frankfurt vier Prozent.

Vor dem Hintergrund, dass Leighton am Golf noch weitere zahlreiche Auftragseingänge abarbeitet, fällt dieses Kursminus noch relativ milde aus. Allerdings hat die Aktie auch schon eine deutliche Talfahrt hinter sich: Seit Jahresbeginn steht ein Kursminus von über 60 Prozent zu Buche.

Ausländer ziehen ihr Geld ab
In Dubai sind wegen der Finanzkrise bereits mehrere Bau-Projekte ins Stocken geraten oder stehen gar vor dem Aus. Denn die Finanzierung von Bauvorhaben über Kredite hat sich seither deutlich erschwert.

Dabei erwies sich zuletzt auch die Abhängigkeit von ausländischen Investoren als fatal – Stichwort "Repatriierung": Insbesondere US-Anleger zogen ihr Geld aus den Arabischen Emiraten ab, um es in Dollar umzuschichten. Die Zentralbank in Abu Dhabi schätzt, dass ausländische Investoren seit Ausbruch der Krise 40 bis 50 Milliarden Dollar aus der Region abgezogen haben.

Schmerzhafte, aber kurze Krise?
Vor diesem Hintergrund sind Aktien von Immobilienfirmen reihenweise eingebrochen. Die führenden Gesellschaften wie Emaar und Union Properties haben seit Ausbruch der Finanzkrise 80 Prozent ihres Börsenwerts eingebüßt.

Experten vor Ort betonen allerdings, dass die Finanzkrise Dubai zwar überraschend heftig erwischt habe. Sie rechnen aber mit einer raschen Erholung (lesen Sie dazu den ARD-Korrespondentenbericht "Das ist der Preis für die bisherige Gier").

http://boerse.ard.de/content.jsp?key=dokument_324150