Wednesday 10 February 2010
2/10/2010 10:26:00 am | 
Posted by
Jemma Marke and Sue Arscott
The QE2 and a 50% stake in Atlantis, the Palm are among assets being sold by Dubai to help pay the emirate’s £14 billion debt.
Dubai World’s private equity arm Istithmar bought the QE2 from Cunard in June 2007 for $100 million.
The plan was to turn it into a luxury floating hotel berthed at the Palm Jumeirah island but it failed to materialise.
During the spending spree years Istithmar bought up these and a host of other businesses such as the W Hotel and Mandarin Oriental hotels and retailer Barneys in New York.
It is understood that assets will be sold off individually rather than finding a single buyer for everything.
Some assets have already gone, such as the W for which the group was forced to accept $2 million at a foreclosure auction creating a loss of $283 million.
It’s share in the Indian budget airline Spice Jet has been offloaded and the UK port and shipping agent has been put up for sale at $700 million.
Despite the array of assets it has been reported that the sales may not generate much return as Istithmar invested $3.8 billion in capital but also took on debts of $14 billion between 2003 and 2007.
source:www.ttglive.com
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1 comments:
QE2 is worth around 0.07% of Dubai World's total assets, so is not a top priority for them.
She does seem to be attracting a huge amount of global interest though, more than their other more financially-valuable assets. The owners have not said she is for sale, it is all speculation, and the terms of sale with Cunard probably prohibit them doing so, but they may be open to joint-venture type opportunities around the world - the ship is ready to sail with a few days notice, anywhere in the world.
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