Skift Take
The Atlantis' early excesses were excessive -- even by Dubai standards. They led to the exit of former owner Kerzner, and since then they've been more conservative.
Atlantis the Palm, the hotel owned by Dubai World Corp. unit Istithmar World PJSC, is seeking an $850 million loan to refinance debt due in 2017, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
The resort, which spent $20 million on its launch party in 2008, has hired Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, Barclays Plc, Commercial Bank of Dubai PSC, HSBC Holdings Plc, National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC, and Union National Bank PJSC to arrange the facility, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deal is private. The banks are marketing the loan to a wider group of lenders.
It would replace a $700 million 12-year term loan raised in 2005 to fund construction of Atlantis, said the people. Barclays and HSBC were bookrunners on the existing deal, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Istithmar, which owned a 50 percent stake in Atlantis, bought the other half from former partners Kerzner International Holdings Ltd. for $250 million last year. The $1.5 billion resort opened on an outer frond of Dubai’s man-made, palm-shaped island at the peak of the global financial crisis in 2008.
Officials at Istithmar didn’t immediately reply to an e- mail seeking comment on the financing outside of normal working hours.
Dubai World, one of the sheikhdom’s three main holding companies, reached an agreement with about 80 banks in March 2011 to repay about $15 billion of loans.
Editors: Jennifer Joan Lee, Michael Shanahan. To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Morris in London at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Faris Khan at [email protected]. 
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Photo credit: File photo of an aerial view of Atlantis hotel seen with The Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. Matthias Seifert / Reuters