Dubai Courts earns Dh365m from auctioning seized assets



DUBAI // Dubai Courts retrieved more than Dh365 million in debts through electronic auctions of seized assets over the past 11 months.

From January until the end of November, Dh365,575,450 was made through auctioning cars, properties and others items seized by the courts after cases were lodged against individuals who had not paid their debts, said Yacoub Mohammed Abdullah, head of seized properties.

Mr Abdullah said the sale was conducted by Emirates Auctions and the money raised was then used to repay the debts owed to the claimants.

“The items were valued at Dh283m before the auction was carried out but, when they were auctioned, they were sold for a higher price with a difference of over Dh82m higher than the valued price,” said Mr Abdullah.

The profit gained from selling auctioned cars increased by 82 per cent on last year and, for properties, the profit was 28 per cent.

Assets are seized if an owner is found guilty of not paying the debt. When found guilty by the Court of First Instance and ordered to repay the debt, the verdict has to be upheld by the appeal and cassation courts before any assets are seized.

“After the ruling is final, the debtor is given 15 days to come forward to repay the debt and then, if he fails, the section starts procedures of seizing the debtor’s assets, which later get auctioned,” said Mr Abdullah.

More than 50 images of each auctioned item are posted online, with certificates to display the condition they are in. Cars are tested and fixed, if required, while properties are cleaned and maintained.

Mr Abdullah said that any repairs or fines on seized cars are paid by Emirates Auctions before they go under the hammer and, after their sale, the company takes its costs back.

“They even handle the shipment of the car if the buyer was from outside the country,” he said.

All the paperwork needed to finalise the sale of any assets is also completed by Emirates Auctions.

The items up for auction can be viewed at www.emiratesauction.ae.

salamir@thenational.ae

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Rating: 3/5

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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 
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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?

The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.

Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.

New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.

“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.

The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.

The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.

Bloomberg

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Some of Darwish's last words

"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008

His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.

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