Dubai's giant developer Emaar Properties, which built the world's tallest tower, will issue up to 500 million dollars in convertible notes, pending approval by shareholders, the company said.
"The company intends to use the net proceeds of the offering to refinance short-term liabilities and for general corporate purposes," Emaar said in a late-Wednesday statement. The planned offering would be for 450 million dollars of convertible notes due in 2015, "with a potential maximum size of US 500 million dollars if the over-allotment option is exercised," Emaar said.
The notes will have a coupon of 7.5 percent annually, and will be convertible into Emaar shares at an initial price of 4.75 dirhams (about 1.2 dollars) per share, it said. They will be listed on the Luxembourg Euro MTF market. In a Wednesday letter to the Dubai Financial Market, Emaar said that it had set up a wholly-owned subsidiary, Pyrus Limited, incorporated in the Cayman Islands, to issue the notes, which would be guaranteed by Emaar.
Pyrus would lend the proceeds from the notes to Emaar.
Emaar said its board has approved the notes issue, but that it was still subject to "the passing of certain resolutions at an extraordinary general shareholders' meeting of the company," which is expected to be held around November 3. Emaar was the developer behind Burj Khalifa -- at 828 metres (2,717 feet), the tallest tower in the world -- which opened in Dubai in January.
The glitzy Gulf city state, which partly owns Emaar, borrowed heavily to fuel its rapid development. But its fortunes changed when the global financial crisis dried up available financing and brought its quickly growing property sector to a screeching halt, leaving Dubai saddled with estimated debts of more than 100 billion dollars.
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