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Dubai is asking creditors to accept a six-month suspension on debt repayments for its severely cash-strapped conglomerate Dubai World. The government of the Gulf emirate has also appointed consultants Deloitte to restructure state-run Dubai World's operations. The group includes property developer Nakheel, which built one of the state's most ostentatious projects, the palm-shaped, man-made residential islands of the Palm Jumeirah. The conglomerate also includes DP World, owner of the former P&O ports operator. According to Nakheel, Dubai World has $59bn (£35bn) of liabilities, a large proportion of Dubai's total debt of $80bn (£47bn). The emirate's government said in a statement:...

A former French spy has told how, after being accused of a multimillion-pound fraud in Dubai, he disguised himself as an Arab woman and fled to international waters in a rubber dingy. Herve Jaubert, who served in the French intelligence service until March 1993, said that he drew on his experience to escape after a joint business venture turned sour. He said that he had been running a business in America building submarines when he was approached by Dubai World, a state-owned conglomerate, to form a joint venture making submarines, and he moved to Dubai in 2004. “Like an idiot...

Dubai is investing $600m in one of the poorest counties in the US to set up a manufacturing and distribution complex that would serve as a major logistical hub for North America. The long-term aim, according to people familiar with the deal, is to take advantage of a new generation of larger merchant ships passing from Asia through the soon to be widened Panama Canal and docking at ports such as Charleston and Savannah, seen as future primary gateways to the US. The project is being handled by Jafza, a unit of the government-owned Dubai World group, which has bought...

DUBAI — Dubai Ports World, which faced a last-minute snag in selling its US ports, yesterday said it will not budge to the new demand made by New York Port Authority to pay a $84 million transaction fee. Speaking to Khaleej Times from New York, Chairman of Dubai World, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said: "We have not accepted and we will not accept the huge fee they now demand. However, we are confident that the issue can be resolved as we remain committed to completing the sale as promised." Although DP World has received approval for the sale of...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dubai Ports World, the company whose planned takeover of major port operations in New York and other U.S. cities ignited a political firestorm last year, may be headed for a new storm in its plan to sell off those operations to a U.S.-based company. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is seeking tens of millions of dollars from the prospective new owner, AIG Global Investment Group, for improvements the port agency has made to the Port Newark Container Terminal in Newark, N.J., which AIG would operate. Port Authority spokesman Stephen Sigmund said Wednesday he...

Remember Dubai Ports International? The first-rate Emirates-based firm that, fair and square, tried to buy the operations of several U.S. ports? They were reviled as terrorists, a public outcry followed and then U.S. Congress stuck its nose into the whole business, baselessly condemning the company for no good reason until they were ignominously forced to withdraw from those plans. It was totally unfair to them, they didn’t deserve that kind of treatment, and it sent an incredibly bad message to the rest of the world that the U.S. was flamingly hypocritical. That whole debacle made me ill. Anyway, this setback...

The silence on Capitol Hill has been deafening. On April 28, 2006 the White House announced the approval by President George Bush regarding the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) of its recommendation that Dubai International Capital LLC (DIC), a subsidiary of Dubai Holding and a Dubai government owned conglomerate, to assume the U.S. operations of Doncasters Group Ltd. Just seven weeks prior, there was political posturing, grandstanding and outrage expressed by both political parties in the U.S. Congress when it was revealed, through the U.S. media, that Dubai Ports World, also of Dubai Holding, would takeover...

The deal between Doncasters Group and Dubai International Capital got the green light today from President Bush. The deal was scrutinized by CFIUS and the Pentagon. Congress (for now) seems okay with the deal. According to the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/28/AR2006042800748.html"This investigation was a significant improvement over what happened before," said House Homeland Security Chairman Peter T. King, R-N.Y. "It's been much more thorough, much more detailed." Even Chuckie Schumer is okay with this deal. Per the WaPo... "There are two differences between this deal and the Dubai ports deal," he said in a statement. "First, this went through the process...

CAIRO, Egypt - A confidential Treasury Department review of a United Arab Emirates firm's pending purchase of the British-based contractor that makes components for a tank used by the U.S. Army is expected to go to the White House as soon as this week, according to administration officials. The proposed $1.2 billion deal is almost identical to Dubai Ports World's takeover of the British firm that operated American ports from Miami to New York. But in this case, the proposed buyer, Dubai International Capital, would gain control of a British company, Doncasters Group Limited, that builds the specialized turbine fan...

Dubai: Dubai Ports World will invest Dh12.9 billion to develop and expand five ports in the next three years, a top company official said yesterday. They include London Gate, Guangdong in China and Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam as part of the P&O deal, besides Kochi in India and Yarimca in Turkey. Mohammad Sharaf, chief executive of DP World, told Gulf News his company had been selected by Pakistan to operate Gwa-dar port. Pakistani government, which said the DP World offer was the best, is studying the terms of the deal to give the green light, he said. Meanwhile, Deutsche...

Tucked into a recent New York Times and, I suspect, read by few was a brief item with the bland headline "Software Company Abandons Deal." This is not the sort of bait to pique readers' interest, yet it provides insight into how powerful Israel is - or is not - in Washington. CheckPoint, an Israeli company, was forced by the Bush administration to drop plans to buy a small American software firm. The decision came "near the conclusion of a full-blown investigation by the same American panel that approved the now-abandoned ports deal involving DP World." This body was expected...

WASHINGTON - New legislative proposals responding to the scandal over a Dubai-owned company's attempted takeover of major operations at some major U.S. ports, which touched off a political firestorm, are getting attention in Congress on Thursday. Measures coming before committees in the House and Senate aim to strengthen U.S. cargo security and port safety, and to bring the federal panel that approved the DP World ports deal under tighter oversight by Congress. The multiagency panel, called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, would be required to investigate any proposed transaction that involved a foreign government or "critical...

WASHINGTON -- An executive with a Dubai-owned company withdrew his nomination as head of the agency that oversees ports in a letter to President Bush on Monday. ... Sanborn, a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and a retired Naval officer, said in his letter that the day he was nominated was the proudest of his life. Former presidential candidate John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., put holds on Sanborn's nomination, saying they needed to know more about his role in the process that allowed DP World to purchase the port operations in the first place. "I...

Despite published reports, former President Bill Clinton says he and his wife always stood together in opposition of the United Arab Emirates port deal. NY1’s Rita Nissan filed this report. There was no Clinton family feud over the Dubai ports deal. That's the word from the former president. “I supported Hillary's position, and the news reports to the contrary were wrong,” Clinton said Tuesday. These were his first comments since the controversial deal fell apart last week. He told reporters at an event in Harlem the agreement for a company owned by the United Arab Emirates to take control of...

Senator's word is now 'final,' says the ex-Prez WASHINGTON - After being surprised by her husband's role in the Dubai ports deal, Sen. Hillary Clinton has insisted that Bill Clinton give her "final say" over what he says and does, well-placed sources said. The former President agreed to give his wife a veto to avoid his habit of making controversial headlines that could hurt her chances of returning to the White House, multiple sources told the Daily News. "He knows it's Hillary's time now," said an adviser close to both Clintons who expects to play a key role in her...

Anto Joseph Mumbai Sunday March 19, 2006 The Observer The controversial £3bn bid by Dubai Ports World to take over P&O has hit another serious problem. Indian states have indicated that they may refuse to sell key ports to DPW over breaches of what they say are long-standing ownership agreements.

This whole situation with P & O, DP World and Eller & Co is just so bizarre. More twists and turns than a pretzel factory... Found this article, "Dubai accused of lying on ports", buried deep in Internet search land. Remember the email that was "leaked" to the media that implied that DP World was not going to sell its US assets? Guess who the leaker was? (no it wasn't Sen. Rockefeller)... None other than Eller & Co's own lawyer, Michael Kreitzer. Kreitzer said "we're making this public because we think Congress should do what it planned last week -...

The U.S. Coast Guard and Customs Services truly are wonderful in safeguarding the country from hazardous materials that could be smuggled into our ports in shipping containers. They have a program that not only protects us but also speeds up the inspection process. Among those anxious to help this process are two people with very little in common. One is Hu Haifeng, a Red princeling, a business executive who lives and works in Beijing. He's the son of Hu Jintao, the president of China. The other is Sandy Berger, who was Bill Clinton's national security adviser for four years.[snip] Berger...

How's that Dubai ports deal going? You remember, the one where Dubai Ports World agreed to sell its U.S. port operations to an American company?

CHINA’s premier, Wen Jiabao, holds a rare news conference to announce, among other things, that his government will do nothing to increase the value of the yuan. America’s commerce secretary, Carlos Gutierrez, responds with a warning that such a policy “will have consequences ... The American people may be forced to reassess our bilateral economic relationship”. And he wants more than a currency revaluation. Congress, he says, is prepared to act unless China opens its telecoms, IT and state procurement sectors, and takes steps to protect intellectual property. Gutierrez made these demands knowing that only a few days earlier the...