Dubai Defaults

worldtraveller

Although Dubai is on a much larger scale, there are surely some ananolgies with the likes of Paul Reichmann and the development of Canary Wharf, back in the late 80's/early 90's. Prior to that it was a rundown area of the east end docks.

By the time it had been completed, we were in recession and the brand new skyscrapers were not able to get enough tenants and in 1992 Olympia & York collapsed, unable to finance its US$20 billion of debt.

Mind you, he was back only 3 years later with new investor's including George Soros, but finally had to throw in the towel a few months ago when he sold his stake to Songbird Estates. His shareholding was sold by Commerzbank AG for £112.5 million after the bank called in a loan to him.

Boom & bust.....!

lostinrates

StevieJ wrote: »

They used to think that at the beginning of the season if they could bring the horses on in their coat etc, there would be some advantage over the others and they could pick off some big races early in the season e.g. 1000/2000 guineas.

I understand the theory..but its slightly flawed. In any case, if you look at the imporvement in performanace over ''recent'' years horses...er...haven't really. Improvements are to career length, injury recovery and ''improvements'' to managment...horses just haven't got (significantly) faster. There is a super graph reproduced in one of the major equine physiology textbooks showing the improement, or lac thereof, in comparison to (IIRC) man, greyhound and camel.

StevieJ

lostinrates wrote: »

I understand the theory..but its slightly flawed. In any case, if you look at the imporvement in performanace over ''recent'' years horses...er...haven't really. Improvements are to career length, injury recovery and ''improvements'' to managment...horses just haven't got (significantly) faster. There is a super graph reproduced in one of the major equine physiology textbooks showing the improement, or lac thereof, in comparison to (IIRC) man, greyhound and camel.

How do you improve on this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS4f6wiQJh4&feature=related

If you wrote a movie script and said a horse would win by 31 lengths and break the track record that still stands for almost 40 years they would throw you out because its too unbelievable.

lostinrates

StevieJ wrote: »

How do you improve on this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS4f6wiQJh4&feature=related

If you wrote a movie script and said a horse would win by 31 lengths and break the track record that still stands for almost 40 years they would throw you out because its too unbelievable.

My answer is that we should improve on it by decreasing wastage and improving welfare, and maintaining current performance. There is an awful lot of scope there!

smashing link.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

Godolphin have had a better end to the season, but they haven't been able to compete with Coolmore in terms of strength and depths in all the Group 1s as they used to. The new business model seems to be waving blank cheques to scoop up other people's good 2 year olds at the end of the season- can't recall the last time they had a decent home-grown horse (whatever happend to Ibn Kaldoun?). Sheikh Mo needs to have a quiet word with the Aga K and pick up some wisdom regarding long term breeding strategies. He has also invested a lot in the Dubai Carnival, which isn't really taken very seriously by the rest of the world.

Mr.Brown_4

Bit fed up today. Was laughing at the Dubai crash yesterday, thinking "what idiots bought into that bubble". Just got my InsideTrack statement for the last month and I've realised I bought property over there as part of the boom. tbh at the time I just signed the paperwork - Manchester, Leeds, wherever - it didn't seem to matter where I bought my BTL's. Now I've realised some of them were in Dubai. My wife had already noticed but thought it was somewhere in Wales.

edgex

Revenge_of_the_Red_Devil wrote: »

at what price to the UAE's reputation? They know their oil won't last forever, and they'll need something to keep them from fading into obscurity and poverty. Dubai is a step in that direction. Letting it fail completely would be like cutting your nose off to spite your face. It just needs reigning in a little..

the UAE's reputation?
none, its not the UAE that would be defaulting on their loans.
those loans are held by private companies, which happen to be owned by the ruling family of Dubai

Dubai is not the UAE, in the same way that the UAE is not Dubai
Nakheel is not Dubai etc etc


Dubai by itself isnt a step anywhere, its not a real economy.
it was completely reliant on external finance & external buyers.
the sale of a property is a one time deal, it does not form the basis for an economy. once its been sold, thats it. it dosnt employ anyone any longer, so it no longer creates any revenue.

the rest of the group that make up the UAE, eg Abu Dhabi, do actually have an economy, & they have industry that creates ongoing employment & revenues, ie. the oil & petrochemical industries.

lostinrates

I've been playing a little game to day of people/companies I suspect might have been a little too invested in Dubai for comfort. Time might tell. I doubt it though.

worldtraveller

Four British banks have a $5 billion combined exposure to Dubai World, making them the biggest foreign creditor group at the Dubai state-owned conglomerate, the Financial Times said on Thursday.

The report, citing bankers and advisers, said Royal Bank of Scotland was the most exposed with between $1 billion and $2 billion. HSBC, Standard Chartered and Lloyds Banking Group had exposure of about $1 billion each, according to the report.

The report confirms that British banks have far greater exposure to potential problem debts in Dubai than their global rivals, as shown by several sets of loan data.

UK banks have loans totaling $50 billion into the United Arab Emirates, out of total loans of $123 billion by international banks, according to statistics from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS).

But there remains a lack of clarity on where exposures to Dubai World lie and how wide the issue will spread.

Reuters

Generali

StevieJ wrote: »

How do you improve on this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS4f6wiQJh4&feature=related

If you wrote a movie script and said a horse would win by 31 lengths and break the track record that still stands for almost 40 years they would throw you out because its too unbelievable.

Wow.

I know enough about horse racing to lose money to the bookie. Was the horse underweight? How did this happen please?