Dubai, 9th June 2010
Essdar Investments Limited announces completion of Tender Offer to acquire Certain Outstanding Notes of Blue City Investments 1 Limited.
Essdar Investments Limited (“EIL”) is pleased to announce the completion of its Tender Offer to acquire Class A Floating Rate Senior Secured Unrestricted Notes (the “Notes”) issued by Blue City Investments 1 Limited. Essdar Capital Limited (“ECL”), a company authorized and regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (“DFSA”), acted as the Financial Adviser to the Tender Offer. EIL is managed by Essdar Capital Managers Limited (“ECML”), a company authorized and regulated by the DFSA. (EIL, ECL and ECML together referred to as Essdar)
EIL has acquired Notes with a principal amount as of 7 November 2006 of USD 588 million at an average discount of 37.15% from the face value of the Notes. With this purchase EIL now holds over 99% of the Notes representing USD 655 million in original face value of the Notes. The investment represents a significant step towards Essdar’s regional distressed debt strategy.
Essdar aims to be one of the finest regional financial advisory, asset management and investment firms. Essdar’s shareholders together with their affiliates and investors include Middle Eastern private royal wealth funds, sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors with substantial investments in the global markets. The foundation of Essdar’s approach is to leverage the combined strengths of its stakeholders and focus on its core competencies in sovereign advisory, complex debt restructurings, structured finance and investment solutions.
The Chairman of Essdar, H.E. Hamad Abdulla Al Shamsi said: “We are very proud of the completion of this transaction by Essdar. This investment is a landmark transaction in regional distressed debt and is a significant step towards Essdar’s regional strategy. Essdar will continue to provide innovative investment strategies in equity and debt capital markets.”
Mohamad Sotoudeh, CEO of Essdar, said: “With the credit crunch more and more entities are finding it difficult to refinance. Essdar’s strategy is to look at such businesses and develop and execute a strategy which can extract value for our investors and the businesses.”
