Nakheel has said that it will be debt-free following the full repayment of its AED4.4 billion ($1.19 bn) trade creditor sukuk on August 25, 2016.

Speaking at a press briefing, Ali Rashid Lootah, the chairman of Nakheel, said the announcement marked a special milestone in the Dubai property developer’s history.

The scheduled payment will mark the end of the company’s financial restructuring, which began in August 2011. Lootah added that all creditor obligations have now been fulfilled.

“It was a challenging period that we went through,” Lootah said at the press briefing. “[But] we’ve achieved it in a good manner and we’ve managed to meet all our commitments, and deliver them ahead of time.

“We’re now expanding in a big way and you can see that. We don’t have any restrictions in our borrowing and we’ve got a lot of interesting projects [coming up]. Banks are ready to finance our projects as they’re viable and make commercial sense. We’re receiving a lot of interest,” he added.

“The company is debt free and we have a strong performance record. Our balance sheet is very resilient and banks are willing to lend to us.”

On August 21, 2014, Nakheel announced that it had prepaid all $2.15 billion of its bank debt – four years before the scheduled repayment date.

“In six years since March 2010, Nakheel has achieved what some considered impossible: completion – ahead of time – of one of the largest, most complex financial restructuring exercises, followed by the successful execution of a new business plan that placed us on a new path to growth,” Lootah said in a statement released by Nakheel.

“As we close the curtain on our restructuring programme, we look forward to starting a fresh chapter in which we are stronger and more resilient than ever.”

Nakheel’s sukuk repayment comes in the wake of a number of achievements for the developer. This includes the meeting of restructuring plan targets two years ahead of the scheduled five-year implementation programme, with savings of $6.80 billion.

The company also achieved year-on-year profit growth over the six years – from AED0.96 billion in 2010 to AED4.38 billion in 2015 – and also launched more than 70 new projects, some of which are completed and operational, while others are in various stages of development.

Furthermore, the developer says that it has handed over 9,132 villas and apartments, and a further 1,923 land units to customers, while also diversifying its business to increase cash-generating assets.