Carlyle, Buyout Firms Looked at Dubai’s Assets After Debt Woes

Carlyle Group, the world’s second-biggest private-equity company, and other buyout firms evaluated purchasing assets owned by Dubai as the emirate looked for ways to cut its debt, Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein said.

“We have looked at a number of those assets as have a lot of other private equity people,” Rubenstein told reporters today at the World Economic Forum in Marrakesh, Morocco. Many assets owned by Dubai’s investment companies “have not been sold because there’s an increasing view that the economy is coming back, the value of these properties are coming back, there hasn’t been a compelling need to sell at a distressed price.”