Dubai advised not to sell assets at distressed price

Dubai should not sell assets at distressed price as there is increasing perception that economies are recovering and asset values are going up again, according to a senior official of Carlyle Group, the world’s second biggest private equity company.

Speaking to reporters at the World Economic Forum in Marrakesh, Morocco, Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein said his company and other buyout companies considering acquiring assets owned by Dubai.

“We have looked at a number of those assets as have a lot of other private equity people. 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,” he was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

Dubai’s Istithmar World, Dubai Group and Dubai International Capital (DIC) bought assets around the world including New York-based luxury retailer Barneys New York and UK-based medical imaging company Alliance Medical Ltd.

“You can assume that most private-equity firms have looked at most of the things that DIC owned and other assets,” Rubenstein said. “Dubai didn’t want to sell at the bottom of the market and correctly they waited and the markets have come back, so prices are probably higher. I expect there will be sales at some point, but not at overly distressed prices,” he told reporters in Marrakesh.

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