U.A.E.'s Al Jaber Agrees to Second Restructuring of $1.5 Billion

(Bloomberg) -- Al Jaber Group, a family-owned business in Abu Dhabi, agreed with banks to restructure $1.5 billion of debt for a second time after sluggish economic growth hurt cash flow, people with knowledge of the plan said.

The group is close to signing a deal with about 20 creditors to push out loan maturities to December 2026, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

In return, Al Jaber will seek to raise about 1.63 billion dirhams ($444 million) from asset sales by the end of 2020 and is in the process of hiring sale managers. Members of the Al Jaber family, as well as other shareholders, will also try to raise as much as 765 million dirhams by selling personal assets, according to the people.

Banks have also committed to extending a credit line of about 1.5 billion dirhams to Al Jaber to support project bids. The entire deal is expected to be completed by September after all the banks receive approvals, according to the people. A spokesman for the Al Jaber Group declined to comment.

Second Time Around

Al Jaber is among several businesses in the United Arab Emirates that restructured liabilities after the global financial crisis in 2008 led to a crash in property prices and froze credit markets. It signed an agreement to alter the terms on about $4 billion of debt in June 2014 after about four years of negotiations.

Economic growth in the U.A.E., the second-biggest Arab economy, has slowed over the past three years as lower oil prices curbed government spending. Although growth is expected to accelerate to 2.8% this year, it’s still well below the average in the 15 years to 2015, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Other key features of the proposed deal include:

• More than two thirds of proceeds from assets sale to buy back debt at 52 cents to the dollar in auctions from creditors who want an early exit; rest to repay debt at par
• New deal has interest at Eibor + 2.5% with payment in kind waived, compared with earlier deal that had interest at Eibor + 4.5% plus PIK
• Al Jaber will pay 1% flat interest in cash in 2019; remaining interest to be capitalized
• Quarterly amortization to begin from March 2021
• Group to focus on core businesses of infrastructure, roads, construction, logistics
• Clifford Chance LLP is advising Al Jaber, Allen & Overy LLP is advising banks
• Representatives for Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy declined to comment
• York Capital, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Emirates NBD and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank are among creditors

--With assistance from Nicolas Parasie.

To contact the reporter on this story: Arif Sharif in Dubai at asharif2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stefania Bianchi at sbianchi10@bloomberg.net, Claudia Maedler

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