On Sunday, Dubai Bank declared a net profit of Dh226.1 million in 2008, up 7.26% from 2007 despite the global credit crunch.  Moreover, assets grew by 69% to Dh18.5 billion, while deposits grew by 94% to Dh14.97 billion.  Finally, the bank’s retail arm’s Ijarah and Personal Finance portfolios grew by 164 and 143% respectively, continuing their strong success of recent years.

Emaar Properties PJSC, the UAE’s largest developer, is one of several prominent Dubai firms seeking to borrow in order to fund expansion in the wake of a global financial crisis, tightened lending and plummeting property values.  Bloomberg reports today that “plans for a $2 billion euro medium-term note program guaranteed by Emaar and a $2 billion trust certificate program by a Shariah-compliant unit were approved by the U.K. Listing Authority.”  A unit of HSBC Holdings Plc will be the paying agent for both programs.  Analysts report that Emaar has about 9.1 billion dirhams ($2.5 billion) of outstanding debt, and cash and cash equivalents of 4.03 billion dirhams at the end of September. Other Dubai firms seeking cash include Dubai Bank, which announced in September that it planned to sell as much as $5 billion of Islamic bonds.  And Commercial Bank of ...