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Dubai Ports Operator’s U.K. Expansion on Hold Over Brexit

Dubai Ports Operator’s U.K. Expansion on Hold Over Brexit

(Bloomberg) --

Dubai ports operator DP World Plc put its expansion plan in the U.K. on hold due to uncertainties over Brexit.

“I have a deal to expand, but on hold until they decide,” Chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in Riyadh. “Because today if you go to any bank to lend you money in the U.K., they don’t know are we going to be out or in.”

Dubai Ports Operator’s U.K. Expansion on Hold Over Brexit

The U.K. voted to leave the European Union in 2016, yet remains trapped in a long-term relationship with the trading bloc as two prime ministers have found it difficult to have divorce deals approved by parliament.

DP World, one of the world’s biggest ports operator, has invested more than 1.5 billion pounds ($1.9 billion) in the U.K. until now, including in the London Gateway port and logistics park, Sulayem said.

--With assistance from Giovanni Prati.

To contact the reporters on this story: Arif Sharif in Dubai at asharif2@bloomberg.net;Manus Cranny in London at mcranny@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dana El Baltaji at delbaltaji@bloomberg.net, Shaji Mathew, Claudia Maedler

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.