Dubai Holding to Restructure?

Quoting unnamed sources, The Financial Times reports that Dubai Holding is considering appointing a financial advisor to assist it with exploring the rescheduling of its loans which are said to be about US$20 billion.  DH declined to comment on "speculation".

It seems that if DH has an issue, it is largely with highly levered foreign investments, many of which were bought for top dollar at the top of the market.

I'd expect that in terms of priority, Cirque du Soleil would be further back in the line for cash than say Nakheel or Limitless.

On DH's portfolio, just last week, Dubai International Capital filed a motion in Amsterdam Court to try and prevent Oaktree Capital (a distressed debt specialist investor) from taking control of AlMatis (which DIC acquired in November 2007) via a debt to equity conversion.  As has been noted in the press, a couple of hotels were turned back to the lenders earlier.

A financial advisor could be quite useful to DH not just for rescheduling but  perhaps more importantly for a corporate reorganization or refocusing of strategy.  One  key step could be triage of the foreign assets.  In effect deciding which ones have the better prospects and focusing resources on those and letting the less robust ones go.