Morning round-up: Dubai World hires turnaround firm

Dubai World has hired a premier corporate turnaround company, AlixPartners, to help with restructuring, The National reports today. AlixPartners is one of the lead advisory companies to General Motors as it goes through bankruptcy proceedings. The first major challenge on the horizon for Dubai World is Nakheel's $3.5bn sukuk coming due in December. Analysts are watching this very closely.

The investigation into corruption in the Dubai business world started from the ruler's office, which gave investigators broad authority to ask questions and demand documents from companies, Marten Youssef reported in The National today. The story came out of a court appearance from Mohammed Mustafa Hussain, who was appointed to investigate dealings at Deyaar Development.

Nakheel announced this morning that it was lowering the service charge for Discovery Gardens after reducing costs of goods and services. The drop amounts to about Dh5 per square foot and will be backdated to January 1, 2009.

Emaar Properties has acquired a $122m piece of debt at Golden Ace to expand its holdings in the retail and mall business, Parag Deulgaonkar reports in Emirates Business 24/7 today. The paper also has an update on the investigations into financial improprieties at Mizin and some analyst commentary on Nasser al Shaikh's resignation from Deyaar Development.