Nakheel rebounds with £1bn profit

Dubai state-owned developer Nakheel is charging ahead with a raft of new projects after dragging itself back from the nadir of the global financial crisis.

Nakheel, the firm behind Dubai’s palm-shaped islands, became debt free last summer after completing a five-year debt restructuring to reorganise more than $16bn of liabilities amassed in the emirate’s property crash.

At Mipim, the firm said it had clocked up £1.1bn of profit since the previous year’s property jamboree.

Sanjay Manchanda, the developer’s chief executive, told Building: “The evils of the global financial crisis have now passed for Nakheel because we’ve delivered our business plan much ahead of time and all the debt that was restructured back in 2011 has now been paid up fully and we have no legacy issues.”

Manchanda added that the firm was adding to its core development business by investing in retail, leisure and residential property, and did not rule out venturing outside Dubai. “Why not?” he said.

Nakheel is currently on site building the 52-storey hotel and residential complex Palm Tower and last autumn unveiled plans for a 220m-tall twin-tower hotel and apartment complex called Palm 360, both on its flagship Palm Jumeirah island.

The developer is also working on Deira Islands nearby up the coast from Palm Jumeirah, where construction is expected to complete next year on a 2km bazaar-style night souk, while tenders have come in to build a 4.5 million sq ft mall.