Regional news: United Arab Emirates

Regional banks in the Middle East shared their predictions for the acceleration of a buoyant local non-performing loan market this week – but distressed investors appeared sceptical, citing a “humongous delta” between the banks’ expectations and investor realities.

17 March 2023

Specialist insolvency judges, greater clarity on the priority status of new money and better understanding and cooperation between onshore and offshore regimes: speakers from law and advisory firms, funds and banks in the Middle East provided food for thought for future restructuring reforms in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

16 March 2023

After admitting they took steps against Middle Eastern healthcare group NMC in Dubai that were in breach of an Abu Dhabi Global Market anti-enforcement order, financial broker Noor Capital and its chairman have sought to purge contempt of court charges against them.

02 March 2023

BSA Ahmad Bin Hezeem senior associate Michèle El Khoury examines recently introduced reforms to real estate investment funds in Dubai, which she says aim to strengthen the jurisdiction’s position as a destination for foreign capital, including by protecting the rights of overseas investors when REIFs are faced with bankruptcy.

09 February 2023

NMC Healthcare’s administrators have failed to obtain directions on the effectiveness of the group’s restructuring carried out earlier this year, after a court in the Abu Dhabi General Market held it would be more appropriate for the issue to be decided at a trial next July.

15 November 2022

A controversial court decision on directors’ liability that raised eyebrows in the UAE last year has been partially overturned, in a decision clarifying that only directors responsible for a company’s losses will be held liable for its bankruptcy.

26 October 2022

Middle Eastern healthcare group NMC has restrained financial broker Noor Capital from pursuing enforcement proceedings against it in Dubai, with counsel to the group telling GRR the injunction prevents “one rogue creditor” undermining its successful restructuring.

10 October 2022

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank has secured a worldwide freezing order against the former CEO of Middle Eastern healthcare group NMC, who it accuses of being part of a major fraud that led to the group’s collapse.

05 October 2022

A court in Abu Dhabi’s financial free zone has partially restrained financial broker Noor Capital from pursuing enforcement proceedings against restructured healthcare group NMC in Dubai, ahead of a hearing next week over a UAE judgment debt arising out of a December 2019 loan agreement.

28 September 2022

The Abu Dhabi Global Market has implemented reforms to its insolvency practitioner framework that do away with the need to have a registered office address in the financial free zone to obtain a license.

16 September 2022