Nakheel, the master developer of Dubai’s trademark Palm Islands and many other ambitious projects, has recently restarted a portion of its developments after a difficult period of two years. Fully owned by the state of Dubai via parent company Dubai World, Nakheel had to restructure and refinance. The restructuring is near completion, with separation of the company from Dubai World planned before the end of this quarter. Nakheel Chairman Ali Rashed Lootah agreed to elaborate on the scope and pace of the company’s turnaround in an exclusive interview with Executive. In the past few months, Nakheel has announced the resumption of work on several developments. What is the rationale behind this? As a real estate company, we are committed to deliver what we have promised to [our] investors. After the approval of our restructuring and the approval of our business plan by the authorities, we had to go ahead
