Nakheel to pay off bank debt ahead of schedule

[DUBAI] Nakheel, the real estate giant at the heart of Dubai's financial crisis, said yesterday it will pay off all its bank debt of 7.9 billion dirhams (S$2.67 billion) ahead of schedule.

"Our payment is covering up to the last instalment (scheduled for) 2018," Nakheel chairman Ali Rashid Lootah told reporters.

The full amount would be paid in August despite an earlier pledge to settle only US$1.65 billion this summer. The government-related entity, which built Dubai's palm-shaped island and a cluster of isles in the form of a world map, is to meet its obligations from its own revenues.