Oman's Onyx in bid to recover Blue City funds

Onyx Investments Ltd on Sunday said it had filed a statement of claim with the Omani courts, as a first step to recover its investment in the stalled real estate project Blue City. In March Onyx, 100-percent owned by government-controlled Oman Investment Fund, bought all of Abu Dhabi-backed firm Essdar Capital's bond investments in the troubled Blue City project for an undisclosed amount in a rare distressed deal in the Gulf. Onyx had bought 100 percent of the Class A notes and 98 percent of the Class A3 notes from Essdar. The Bank of New York Mellon and Bank Muscat are security trustees and filed the statement of claim with the Primary Commercial Court of Oman "to obtain a debt recovery judgement which is required in order to subsequently commence enforcement of the project security in Oman," Onyx said in a statement. An hour from Oman's capital of Muscat, the $15bn Blue City project was touted as Oman's biggest real estate project. It stalled amid dismal sales and clashes between shareholders.