DUBAI: Dubai is spearheading the restructuring of a conglomerate controlled by the emirate's ruler and has already pumped $2 billion into the debt-laden company, a senior official disclosed in comments published Tuesday. Details of the government's involvement in overhauling Dubai Holding came as government offices and many businesses in the region were closed until next week because of a religious holiday. Dubai shocked global markets over the same holiday break a year ago when it unexpectedly revealed severe debt problems at another state-linked firm, Dubai World. Mohammed Al-Shaibani, a close aide to Dubai's ruler, provided the first details of government assistance to Dubai Holding in an interview with the Financial Times published Tuesday. He said the government has injected “somewhere in the range of $2 billion” into Dubai Holding and was prepared to do more. “I don't want to put any money in it as the government, but I will do it as and when it's required,” he told the paper. He indicated Dubai Holding's lenders, many of them the same banks that lent to Dubai World, would also need to take a financial hit as part of the restructuring. “Everybody has to contribute,” he said. Al-Shaibani sits on a fiscal committee responsible for tackling Dubai's debt problems and was involved in the $24.9 billion restructuring of Dubai World. Unlike that conglomerate, which is owned by the government, Dubai Holding is controlled directly by Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Muhammad Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, himself. The International Monetary Fund estimated earlier this year that Dubai Holding is shouldering $14.8 billion in publicly held debt.
