DIC offloads assets and ponders more sales

During the boom years, Dubai International Capital (DIC) was the standard bearer for the emirate's global investment ambitions, buying billions of dollars worth of businesses and investments in a four-year burst of expansion. As perhaps the highest profile part of Dubai Holding, it acquired interests in some of the world's best-known brands, such as HSBC, Sony and EADS, the manufacturer of Airbus. At one stage, under its founder and chief executive Sameer al Ansari, it almost bought Liverpool FC, the famous English football club, with a suggested price tag of more than £300 million (Dh1.59 billion).

Last week, it emerged that most of its high-profile global acquisitions had been quietly sold since the boom turned bad in late 2008. How much DIC received has not been made public, but, given the fall in global asset prices, it is unlikely to have turned a profit on these deals. DIC, now under the chief executive Anand Krishnan, also announced a deal with its principal bankers to postpone debt repayments for three months, although it would continue to pay interest and other financial charges during this period.

The company's total debts are not big by the standard of its parent company and certainly bear no comparison with Dubai World, which clinched a deal with most of the creditors to whom it owes a total of US$23.5bn (Dh86.31bn). But DIC's debts of about $2.6bn, including a $1.25bn syndicated loan due for repayment in a few weeks, were obviously big enough to cause the company to reconsider its long-term capital structure.

Analysts expect DIC to conduct detailed negotiations with remaining bankers and creditors, and to consider the possibility of a series of disposals of some its remaining assets. Remaining assets include a stake in the owners of Madame Tussauds museum in London, the British engineering group Doncasters, and a holding in the UAE luxury-goods group Rivoli. DIC also owns Travelodge, the UK hotel chain, the British healthcare group Alliance Medical, and the German companies Mauser and Almatis. It is involved in a legal dispute over the latter.