By Tom Arnold, Davide Barbuscia
DUBAI: Dubai’s Meydan Group, a major developer of hospitality and entertainment facilities in the emirate, is seeking a syndicated loan of a minimum of 450 million dirhams ($122.5 million) to finance a hotel project, sources said on Monday.
Meydan is building several projects in the emirate, including Dubai Canal, a 3-kilometre stretch of waterway between Dubai’s Business Bay and the coast, and additional real estate projects next to its Meydan Racecourse, home of the Dubai World Cup horse race.
Commercial Bank of Dubai was leading the discussions for a potential transaction, the sources said, with one adding the financing was expected to close before the end of November.
Meydan Group was unavailable to comment.
In March, Meydan signed a deal to obtain $476 million of financing from Qatar National Bank (QNB) and QNB’s United Arab Emirates affiliate Commercial Bank International, to support investment in new projects. It also obtained 1 billion dirhams of Islamic financing in June to strengthen Meydan’s capital structure, diversify its investor base and support new projects.
In another fundraising in Dubai within the hospitality real estate sector, Turkish contractor Gunal said last month it was securing a loan of around 800 million dirhams for the building of a hotel and apartment complex in Dubai’s Business Bay area. ($1 = 3.6729 UAE dirham)
(Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)
Source: Reuters