UAE banks have started reporting their exposure to the Dubai subsidiary of Phoenix Commodities, which recently filed for liquidation.
Emirates NBD and Mashreq both declared exposure to the company on Tuesday in regulatory filings to the Dubai Financial Market. Emirates NBD said it is owed $23.66 million (Dh86.8m) by Phoenix Global DMCC (PGD), a Dubai-based, wholly-owned subsidiary of British Virgin Islands-registered Phoenix Commodities. Mashreq Bank reported exposure of Dh43.06m to the Dubai entity.
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank and National Bank of Fujairah, said they had no exposure to the company.
The National was unable to reach anyone at Phoenix Global or its chairman and chief executive, Gaurav Dhawan.
Phoenix began in 2001 as a rice trading business and had grown into an operation that generated $3bn in revenue last year trading grains, coal, metals and other commodities.
The documents the company filed seeking liquidation said the business was brought down by losses incurred on currency hedges as markets became volatile during February and March at the time the Covid-19 pandemic spread, according to Reuters.
Restructuring firms Quantuma and KRyS Global were appointed joint liquidators to the company on April 24.
"Following an accelerated review of the company's available financial and company records Quantuma established that the company was facing potential crystallised liabilities of over $400m as a result of accrued losses incurred by its financial derivative trading desk in PGD," the document sent to creditors said, according to Reuters.
The group had about 100 entities trading across the world and employed more than 2,500 people. It claimed to be one of the largest rice distribution companies in the world, delivering close to two million metric tons of rice to its customers each year, its website said.
Operations included a pulses, spices and sugar packing facility in the UAE, milling operations in India, Vietnam and Kazakhstan and factories for processing pulses and nuts in the Ukraine, according to a company brochure.
Last week, the Financial Times reported that the company, which was owned by Dhawan, owes millions to UK-based lenders Standard Chartered and HSBC Holdings.
The specs
Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: From Dh139,000
On sale: Now
Thor%3A%20Love%20and%20Thunder%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Taika%20Waititi%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Chris%20Hemsworth%2C%20Natalie%20Portman%2C%20Christian%20Bale%2C%20Russell%20Crowe%2C%20Tessa%20Thompson%2C%20Taika%20Waititi%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
If you go...
Fly from Dubai or Abu Dhabi to Chiang Mai in Thailand, via Bangkok, before taking a five-hour bus ride across the Laos border to Huay Xai. The land border crossing at Huay Xai is a well-trodden route, meaning entry is swift, though travellers should be aware of visa requirements for both countries.
Flights from Dubai start at Dh4,000 return with Emirates, while Etihad flights from Abu Dhabi start at Dh2,000. Local buses can be booked in Chiang Mai from around Dh50
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
More on Quran memorisation:
Sri Lanka-India Test series schedule
- 1st Test India won by 304 runs at Galle
- 2nd Test Thursday-Monday at Colombo
- 3rd Test August 12-16 at Pallekele
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
