Drydocks World Debt Deal Given Green Light

Drydocks World, the shipbuilding and repair arm of Dubai World, has creditor approval for its $2.2 billion debt-restructuring plan

“The approval of the proposals at today’s [creditors] meetings is a fundamental step to concluding Drydocks ‘ debt restructuring,” said Ian Schneider, a partner at PwC.

“The level of support received by the companies far exceeded the two-thirds majority required by the Decree 57 legislation to approve these proposals,” the statement said. The shipbuilding and repair company, which has unveiled an ambitious underwater hotels and floating cities project, the first of its kind in the region, is using the Dubai World Tribunal, a special judicial body formed by Dubai’s Decree 57 of 2009, to expedite its restructuring proposals.

PwC said Drydocks would seek a sanction of the approvals from the Tribunal at a hearing on August 28. If the Tribunal gives its blessing, “the restructuring should be formally effective shortly thereafter,” PwC’s statement said. The tribunal was set up in the wake of Dubai’s 2009 debt crisis as part of new legal procedures meant to govern the restructuring of Dubai World debts.

A panel of three judges from Britain and Singapore presides over the Dubai World Tribunal.