* Recovering economy permits revival of huge projects
* But financing environment not as positive as in last boom
* Many projects likely to be done in phases
* Some may not materialise at all
* Bonds, not bank loans may play bigger role this time
DUBAI, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Dubai is reviving massive real
estate projects as its economy recovers from a corporate debt
crisis, but this time around, constraints on financing are
likely to slow the pace of its building boom.
Memories of the crisis will keep many investors cautious
about stumping up money before projects are completed. That will
leave the plans heavily dependent on bank loans and the bond
markets - and the global climate is not favourable for banks.
Official announcements over the past few days have recalled
the heady days of the mid-2000s, when Dubai was building some of
ts most flamboyant projects, including the world's tallest
skyscraper and an archipelago of man-made islands.
Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum
unveiled plans last week for Emaar Properties and
conglomerate Dubai Holding to build a complex housing
100 hotels and the world's biggest shopping mall.
He did not say how much the project would cost but one local
property analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity in the
absence of fuller details, estimated it would cost between $20
billion and $50 billion. The upper end of that range would be
well over half of Dubai's annual economic output.
On Monday, Sheikh Mohammed announced that Dubai planned to
build a 10 billion dirham ($2.7 billion) complex of five theme
parks. Other projects dusted off by the government and property
developers in the last few months include a canal to the city's
business district and a $1 billion replica of the Taj Mahal.
It is by no means certain that all these plans will go
ahead. Dubai has a history of cancelled projects: plans for a
kilometre-high tower, an underwater hotel and a huge waterfront
development were mooted in the boom years and never happened.
But unlike projects which ran into trouble during the crisis
of 2009-2010, the viability of the new plans will be based to a
large degree not on Dubai's volatile real estate market, but on
revenues from tourism and retail spending.
So if the emirate's tourist boom continues, the projects may
pay off. Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport is
growing at an annual rate of well over 10 percent.
Nevertheless, in the aftermath of Dubai's crisis, it would
be difficult to finance much of the projects by pre-selling
parts of them, said Craig Plumb, regional head of research at
consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle.
"There is natural caution among investors to buy off-plan.
There is investor appetite for some small off-plan projects but
certainly not at this scale," he said.
"So where the money is going to come from for this project
is a question that Emaar and Dubai Holding will have to address
soon."
FINANCES
In contrast to its oil-rich neighbour Abu Dhabi, Dubai's
government does not have the large fiscal reserves needed to
finance the projects; it was forced to take a last-minute $10
billion bailout from Abu Dhabi at the height of the crisis to
avoid a bond default of a state-linked developer.
The International Monetary Fund estimates Dubai's
government-linked entities will need to repay about $9.4 billion
of maturing bonds and syndicated loans in 2013 and $31.0 billion
- much of it loans that were extended during the crisis - in
2014. It calls refinancing these amounts "a challenge".
So Dubai will need to finance its projects from the markets,
and the loan markets do not look as attractive as they did in
the mid-2000s, when banks were scrambling to lend to the
emirate.
European banks have been cutting back their foreign lending
because of financial pressures in their home countries, while
many have been burned by Dubai debt restructurings since 2009.
"People have not fully forgotten what happened during the
crisis," said one senior Dubai-based banker.
Another international banker said he had not heard of any
serious financing plan for the shopping mall project so far.
"Given the magnitude of the project the government is
talking about, we would be in the loop if there was a serious
financing plan. This looks very initial and preliminary to me
right now," he said.
With foreign banks cautious, Dubai will need to turn to its
local banks. But they may not be big enough, especially since
rules introduced by the central bank this year in response to
the crisis limit commercial banks' exposure to state-linked
entities. Some banks already exceed the limit.
"Local banks are liquid but I can't see them pulling
something like this alone," said the first Dubai banker. "Even
to finance 50 percent of the project, as it's planned now, will
be a challenge for them."
BONDS
That leaves the bond market. Here the climate has improved
dramatically this year as investors have regained confidence in
Dubai; yields on bonds from the emirate have plunged.
In particular, sukuk (Islamic bonds) from Dubai have
attracted massive demand, partly because of a huge supply/demand
imbalance among cash-rich Islamic funds. So sukuk could play a
big role in Dubai's financing activities.
However, bond market traders and investors said the Dubai
government might not be able to raise more than roughly $3
billion through bond issues in a single year.
State-linked companies would probably find it more difficult
to issue bonds and have to pay investors higher yields,
especially since the Dubai government has been reluctant to
provide explicit guarantees for their bonds.
The result, analysts said, is that Dubai will probably
implement its big projects in phases spread over many years,
with the financing of each phase contingent on economic and
market conditions at the time.
Although Sheikh Mohammed said last week that construction of
the shopping mall complex should start "immediately", he did not
give a time frame.
State-backed companies from Abu Dhabi could be invited to
join in parts of the projects to improve access to financing.
"Abu Dhabi or some of its companies may be part of this mega
development," said an Abu Dhabi government official who did not
wish to be identified.
"It is early days, let's wait for the devil in the details."
(Additional reporting by Dinesh Nair, Mirna Sleiman, Rachna
Uppal and Stanley Carvalho; Editing by Andrew Torchia)