DPW: ANNOUNCMENT ON "MEDIUM" FOR EFFECTING TRANSFER OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L DUBAI 001451 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR NEA/FO, NEA/ARPI E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/14/2021 TAGS: PREL EINV PNUC PTER IR IQ IS AE SUBJECT: DPW: ANNOUNCMENT ON "MEDIUM" FOR EFFECTING TRANSFER OF CONTROL DUE IN TWO DAYS; DIVESTITURE TO FOLLOW REF: DUBAI 1446 CLASSIFIED BY: Jason Davis, Consul General, Dubai , UAE. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Consul General contacted Dubai Ports World (DPW) Executive Chairman Sultan bin Sulayim (SBS) March 14 to ask him to clarify statements he had made earlier (reftel) suggesting that DPW might be exploring a alternative "basis" (other than sale to an existing U.S. company) for divesting itself of its existing North American operations. ¶2. (C) Initially reluctant to engage again on the topic, SBS responded only that "we are working on this right now, and discussing it with Treasury; within the next two days we will make an announcement defining what it is." Pressed on the question of whether "it" referred to an entity to which ownership would be divested, SBS said "no, we are talking about the 'medium' for transferring CONTROL of North American operations away from DPW. Once that is accomplished we will focus on our ultimate goal, which remains complete divestiture to a company with no links to Dubai." An interim arrangement was needed because actual sale was "not something you can do in one day -- even selling a house takes longer than that," SBS noted. DAVIS