State-owned conglomerate Dubai World has $59 billion of liabilities, a large proportion of the Gulf emirate's total debt, as concerns over how its property subsidiary will manage repayments weigh on the market. The group, which owns port operator DP World> and Istithmar World, the owner of high-end retailer Barneys New York, had 217.79 billion dirhams ($59.27 billion) of total liabilities as at December 31.
Its subsidiary Nakheel said in a statement on Nasdaq Dubai's website. "Dubai has previously quantified (its) debt at about $80 billion and most people were attributing that to Dubai World, so the figure is not surprising," said Chet Riley, an analyst at Normura Investment Bank on Thursday.
"The key is to assess the maturity schedule of this debt." Nakheel, facing a massive debt repayment at year-end, said total assets for the group were 365.76 billion dirhams and total revenue reached 52.3 billion dirhams. Dubai World and Nakheel were not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters. Nakheel - the state-owned developer of palm-shaped islands off the coast of Dubai - has $3.5 billion worth of Islamic bonds maturing on December 14 and little light has been shed on the government's plans for them.