DUBAI: Dana Gas is set to become the first UAE company to fail to pay an Islamic bond on maturity, three sources familiar with the matter said, sending its stock and bond prices sharply lower.
The UAE’s largest listed natural gas firm, hit by payment delays from Egypt and Iraq’s Kurdistan region, will not repay a $ 920 million convertible sukuk, when it matures today, the sources said.
However, Sharjah-based Dana has won more time to hammer out a deal with bondholders, they added.
Dana Gas declined to comment.
Although indebted firms in the UAE have extended maturities on billions of dollars in bank loans since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008-09, no sukuk have been restructured or unpaid on maturity.
Saudi and Kuwaiti companies have defaulted on Islamic bonds in the past, leading to complex debt negotiations which have dragged on for years. Kuwait’s Investment Dar, which co-owns luxury carmaker Aston Martin, defaulted on a $ 100 million Islamic debt issue in 2009.
Dana has a $ 1 billion sukuk maturing on Oct. 31. It repurchased about $ 80 million of the sukuk in 2008, leaving $920 million outstanding.
The five-year sukuk, which was issued with a 7.5 percent coupon, has gained international interest as a majority of the debt is said to be owned by large investment firms including BlackRock Inc. and Ashmore Group.
A source said that London-based Spinnaker Capital was among large holders. An executive at Spinnaker in London said it does not own Dana Gas bonds currently and has not held them before. BlackRock owns about 30 percent of the outstanding sukuk, according to two separate market sources.
There is “absolutely no chance” of a white knight swooping in to repay the bond by the due date, a source close to the talks said.
In 2009, the Abu Dhabi government stepped in at the eleventh hour to help Dubai repay developer Nakheel’s $ 4.1 billion Islamic bond.
The sources said Dana, in which Crescent Petroleum owns a 20-percent stake, reached a standstill agreement with creditors in early October giving it six months to repay the bond.
Some creditors are preparing for a potential “post-default scenario,” one source familiar with the discussions said, in which no deal would be reached at all.
Shares in Dana fell 8.5 percent to AED0.43 on the Abu Dhabi bourse after the Reuters report before closing down 4.26 percent.
The shares have been battered by concerns over how Dana will find funds to repay the bond and limited communication from the company on the matter. The sukuk has a conversion price of AED1.926.
The sukuk, which is lightly traded, was quoted at a bid price of 68 cents on the dollar yesterday, down from 78 cents on the dollar on Monday, according to prices quoted by Nomura.
Dana is to issue a statement this week detailing its plans to restructure the bond, said two sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the matter is not public.
There was a “high probability” the Dana sukuk will be restructured, London-based investment firm Exotix said in a report earlier this year, adding its restructuring valuation on the privately-owned firm was 61.5 percent of par value.
Dana, which also has a 3-percent stake in Hungarian group MOL, is not seen as a strategic entity for the UAE and so any government support is unlikely.
In May, Dana said it wanted to find a consensual deal with sukukholders to repay the bond, and said it had hired Blackstone Group, Deutsche Bank and law firm Latham & Watkins as advisers.
Investors have hired Moelis and law firm Linklaters as advisers.
Dana, which has operations in the UAE, Egypt and Iraq’s Kurdistan region, says its cash flow has been affected by global economic conditions and regional events, including Egyptian unrest last year which delayed payments.
The company had a cash balance of AED 601 million ($ 164 million) as of June 30, 2012. Outstanding receivables on Egypt gas deliveries stood at AED 729 million and AED 1.2 billion in the Kurdistan region at that time.
In a recent interview, Dana board member and Crescent Chief Executive Majid Jafar said Egypt was paying the company for all fuel it was receiving from its operations and was optimistic outstanding payments would be settled.
Jafar said last week talks between the company and creditors were still ongoing, and have been “amicable and friendly.”
Dana Gas won’t repay $ 920 million sukuk
Dana Gas won’t repay $ 920 million sukuk
Multilateralism strained, but global cooperation adapting: WEF report
DUBAI: Overall levels of international cooperation have held steady in recent years, with smaller and more innovative partnerships emerging, often at regional and cross-regional levels, according to a World Economic Forum report.
The third edition of the Global Cooperation Barometer was launched on Thursday, ahead of the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos from Jan. 19 to 23.
“The takeaway of the Global Cooperation Barometer is that while multilateralism is under real strain, cooperation is not ending, it is adapting,” Ariel Kastner, head of geopolitical agenda and communications at WEF, told Arab News.
Developed alongside McKinsey & Company, the report uses 41 metrics to track global cooperation in five areas: Trade and capital; innovation and technology; climate and natural capital; health and wellness; and peace and security.
The pace of cooperation differs across sectors, with peace and security seeing the largest decline. Cooperation weakened across every tracked metric as conflicts intensified, military spending rose and multilateral mechanisms struggled to contain crises.
By contrast, climate and nature, alongside innovation and technology, recorded the strongest increases.
Rising finance flows and global supply chains supported record deployment of clean technologies, even as progress remained insufficient to meet global targets.
Despite tighter controls, cross-border data flows, IT services and digital connectivity continued to expand, underscoring the resilience of technology cooperation amid increasing restrictions.
The report found that collaboration in critical technologies is increasingly being channeled through smaller, aligned groupings rather than broad multilateral frameworks.
This reflects a broader shift, Kastner said, highlighting the trend toward “pragmatic forms of collaboration — at the regional level or among smaller groups of countries — that advance both shared priorities and national interests.”
“In the Gulf, for example, partnerships and investments with Asia, Europe and Africa in areas such as energy, technology and infrastructure, illustrate how focused collaboration can deliver results despite broader, global headwinds,” he said.
Meanwhile, health and wellness and trade and capital remained flat.
Health outcomes have so far held up following the pandemic, but sharp declines in development assistance are placing growing strain on lower- and middle-income countries.
In trade, cooperation remained above pre-pandemic levels, with goods volumes continuing to grow, albeit at a slower pace than the global economy, while services and selected capital flows showed stronger momentum.
The report also highlights the growing role of smaller, trade-dependent economies in sustaining global cooperation through initiatives such as the Future of Investment and Trade Partnership, launched in September 2025 by the UAE, New Zealand, Singapore and Switzerland.
Looking ahead, maintaining open channels of communication will be critical, Kastner said.
“Crucially, the building block of cooperation in today’s more uncertain era is dialogue — parties can only identify areas of common ground by speaking with one another.”
