The Subprime Crisis and the Middle East

The US subprime crisis is having little impact on the Middle East financial sector; in fact the crisis turned out to be quite an opportunity for the region’s financial institutions. To date, the only direct loss reported was by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), which wrote down $19 million in assets during the third quarter of 2007. A few other firms took indirect hits. One such firm was Emaar Properties. In August 2007, the Dubai-based property developer explained that its US subsidiary unit John Laing Home’s (JLH) third quarter results were lower than expected due to the subprime mortgage crisis and a possible implosion of America’s housing bubble. Emaar was unable to comment on this development for Executive. In a previously conducted interview with Reuters, however, Emaar Property’s chief financial officer, Amit Jain, noted “third-quarter JLH results are going to be lower than earlier estimates — not incurring losses, but