The Dubai government has taken control of the financial restructuring of Dubai Holding, pumping $2bn into a troubled conglomerate that once symbolised the Gulf emirate’s extravagant development.

The same elite committee that oversaw the $25bn restructuring of government-owned Dubai World has turned its attention to the emirate’s second large revamp – a lower-key restructuring of about $12bn in debts at the group of companies owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Dubai’s ruler.

According to Mohammed al-Shaibani, the powerful director of the ruler’s court, the government has already injected $2bn into Dubai Holding and is willing to put more capital into the lossmaking conglomerate that spans property, business parks and financial investments. -However, it also expects banks to accept some of the pain, as was the case in the Dubai World restructuring.