Moelis & Company, the boutique investment bank that advised the Government of Dubai during the debt crisis of 2009-10, is to launch an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange to value the bank at about US$1.5 billion, the company said.
Kenneth Moelis, the chairman and chief executive, will make a paper gain of more than $350 million when the shares are listed on NYSE.
Moelis advised the Dubai Department of Finance during the protracted negotiations with more than 70 banks after Dubai World, the government-owned conglomerate, sought a restructuring deal with creditors.
The deal, which was eventually completed in late 2010, was hailed by Mr Moelis as a “template for how to get a complicated consensual restructuring deal done … I am a long-term believer in Dubai.”
Since then, Dubai World has appointed Blackstone, another US independent adviser, to work on a “debt optimisation mandate” covering the ongoing repayment of some $14.5bn between now and 2018, involving big asset sales. Some analysts believe a second restructuring of debts will eventually be needed.
Moelis opened an office in Dubai International Financial Centre in 2011 under the executive Augusto Sasso, who led the Moelis team during the 2010 debt talks. The Dubai office, the headquarters for Moelis’s Middle East operations, is now led by Yorick Van Slingelandt.
Moelis also advised on the sale last year by Dubai World subsidiary Istithmar World of a 50 per cent stake in the Fontainebleau resort in Miami and on the pending purchase by the UAE telecoms operator Etisalat of a $5.6bn controlling stake in Maroc Telecom.
The bank was voted “best investment bank in the UAE 2013” by the Euromoney financial publication.
Moelis declined to comment on the IPO.
fkane@thenational.ae
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