Union Properties Agrees to Sell Dubai Ritz-Carlton Hotel at Lowered Price

Union Properties PJSC agreed to sell the Ritz-Carlton hotel development in Dubai for less than the asking price of 1.5 billion dirhams ($410 million), Chairman Khalid bin Kalban said.

Dubai’s third-biggest developer by market value plans to sign the sale agreement in the next ten days, bin Kalban said by phone today. He declined to identify the buyer of the hotel, located within the Dubai International Financial Center, or disclose terms of the deal until the contract is signed.

“Everything has been agreed, all that remains is the drafting of contracts,” bin Kalban said.

Proceeds from the sale will help Union complete other projects such as the Limestone House apartment building and the 80-story Index skyscraper in the DIFC, a tax-free business park that houses hundreds of companies.

Union Properties halted development work after credit dried up in the financial crisis and more customers defaulted. In 2009, the company reported its first full-year loss and suspended work on F1-X, a Formula One theme park in the MotorCity development at the Dubai Autodrome race track.

The developer’s second-quarter loss widened to 349 million dirhams from 228 million dirhams a year earlier because of provisions for falling real estate values, according to a statement to the Dubai exchange on Aug. 12.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zainab Fattah in Dubai on zfattah@bloomberg.net

• Tweet
• More
  • Business Exchange
  • Buzz up!
  • Digg
• Print
• Email