Asian group invests in Queen Elizabeth 2 Financial Times Asian investors are set to invest in refitting the Queen Elizabeth 2 as a floating hotel, ending the five-year saga surrounding the historic cruise liner's ownership by the indebted emirate. The joint venture deal, which is scheduled to be signed on ... |
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Asian group invests in Queen Elizabeth 2 - Financial Times
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At $100M Dubai Purchased QE2 50YO old RMS Queen Elizabeth-2 Cruise Ship (Dubai Privileged Prodigals gossiped $200M). It took Dubai Privileged Prodigals 7 years to calculate that QE2 cost Dubai $84M Parking at $1M per month. To take QE2 off from Dubai-World’s Black-belt-Bankruptcy-Buyer Istithmar cookedbooks QE2 was sold as Scrap Metal to Chinese at $1M to turn it to floating brothel probably in Antarctica. Oh! I remember an axiom of someone said: “if you ain’t strike rich in Dubai you ain’t make it elsewhere” does this makes since? Who cares? Now dumb down, hold your breath, shut-up, sit down & listen Simeon Kerr of The Financial Times Ltd. Your discretion is advised:
ReplyDeleteGoogle this… “Asian group invests in Queen Elizabeth 2” is removed from The Financial Times and replaced by New course for QE2 as investors come aboard By Simeon Kerr in Dubai. Asian investors are set to invest in refitting the Queen Elizabeth 2 as a floating hotel, ending the five-year saga surrounding the historic cruise liner’s ownership by the indebted emirate. The joint venture deal, which is scheduled to be signed on Thursday, should mean the vessel eventually sails off to serve as a floating hotel in Hong Kong or Singapore, people aware of the matter say. More than four years since the cruise ship arrived in Dubai, the vessel – first launched by Queen Elizabeth in 1967 – is expected to sail into dry docks for an expensive refurbishment costing millions of dollars, instead of a one-way voyage to the scrap yard. Dubai World bought the ship from Cunard in 2007 for about $100m but the troubled government-owned conglomerate’s plans for the ship were wrecked when a year later the financial crisis burst the emirate’s property bubble. The Oceanic Group, based in Singapore, is poised to invest in the joint venture with Dubai, saving the emirate an estimated $1m a month needed to keep the vessel berthed in Dubai’s Port Rashid. Oceanic, backed by investors in Hong Kong and China, is expected to pay Dubai about $1m a year, with an option to purchase the floating hotel after 10 years for a minimum price of $35m, the people say. The deal has been brokered by Khamis Buamim, chairman of Dubai World’s ship overhaul firm Drydocks World. Mr Buamim was unavailable for comment. The QE2 became a painful reminder of the emirate’s boom time overseas spending spree but the emirate is now enjoying an economic recovery led by tourism, trade and transport as it emerges as a regional safe haven amid the unrest of the Arab uprising. Dubai has been scrambling to find a solution for the QE2 since bank creditors to Dubai World, which restructured $25bn of debts in 2011, asked the government to find a buyer or sell the idle vessel for scrap. The joint venture will take the QE2 off Istithmar’s balance sheet, which insiders have described as an “elegant solution” for the Dubai World investment vehicle. Dubai World is supposed to start repaying bank creditors in September 2015 from the proceeds of sales of assets largely held by Istithmar. The former chairman of Dubai World, Sultan bin Sulayem, last year revealed plans to turn the QE2 into a 300-room hotel, forming the centrepiece of a maritime-themed tourism attraction based in Dubai. But within a few weeks the plan unravelled amid political infighting. Dubai is now launching new real estate projects and development initiatives amid its new-found optimism. But some analysts are concerned that the emirate is stoking a new property boom without learning the lessons of its real estate crash.