Vessels sit at Dubai World’s Drydocks facility in Dubai (file). Almost all of Drydocks’ creditors had indicated their support for the five-year restructuring proposal, but voting at meetings in Dubai yesterday made it official
Zawya Dow Jones /Dubai


Drydocks World, a Dubai-based ship-building and repair firm, has received the official go-ahead from creditors on its $2.2bn debt proposal, taking it a step closer to concluding the restructuring process.
Almost all of Drydocks’ creditors had indicated their support for the five-year restructuring proposal, but voting at meetings in Dubai yesterday made it official.
Creditors holding more than 97% of the debt to be restructured gave their assent, according to a statement from professional services firm PwC, which is advising Drydocks on the restructuring alongside law firm Clifford Chance. Only one creditor did not vote for the proposal.
“The approval of the proposals at today’s (Tuesday) meetings is a fundamental step to concluding Drydocks’ debt restructuring,” said Ian Schneider, a partner at PwC. “The level of support received by the companies far exceeded the two thirds majority required by the Decree 57 legislation to approve these proposals.”
Drydocks, a subsidiary of government-owned Dubai World, is using the Dubai World Tribunal, a special judicial body formed by Dubai’s Decree 57 of 2009, to push through its restructuring proposals. PwC said Drydocks would seek a sanction of the approvals from the Tribunal at a hearing on August 28. If the tribunal gives its blessing, “the restructuring should be formally effective shortly thereafter,” PwC’s statement said.
Schneider declined to name the creditor who did not vote in favour of the restructuring. But Monarch Alternative Capital, a private US Investment firm, has been holding out on the proposal and won a $72mn claim against Drydocks in London this March.
Yesterday’s vote follows another approval from creditors last week that cleared the way for Drydocks to enter into a joint venture deal covering its Southeast Asian business. In that deal, Drydocks is partnering with Pacific Carriers Ltd, a company owned by Malaysian billionaire Robert Kuok’s Kuok Group, to form DDW-PaxOcean Asia. DDW-PaxOcean is to hold Drydocks’ Southeast Asian business.
Drydocks used the $2.2bn of loans it is now restructuring to fund an expansion into Southeast Asia in 2007.