2006年，马克图姆将数家政府企业合并到了迪拜世界控股公司中，由苏拉耶(Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem)出任董事长。相应地，苏拉耶从澳大利亚请来了奥唐纳负责Nakheel，奥唐纳原本在澳大利亚领导着一家增长迅速的房地产基金。
　　In 2006, Sheik Mohammed consolidated a handful of government businesses into the Dubai World holding company, with Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem as its leader. To head Nakheel, Mr. Sulayem, in turn, plucked Mr. O'Donnell from Australia, where he headed a fast-growing property fund.

　　苏拉耶和奥唐纳拒绝对本文置评。Nakheel一位发言人没有回复记者通过电子邮件发送的问题，马克图姆的发言人同样如此。
　　Messrs. Sulayem and O'Donnell declined to comment for this article. A spokesman for Nakheel didn't respond to emailed questions, nor did a spokesman for Dubai's ruler.

　　Nakheel当时势头很猛，准备推出棕榈岛开发项目的第一期项目朱美拉棕榈岛(Palm Jumeirah)，并正在规划接下来两个项目。2006年9月，在一个另外占地914公顷被称为朱美拉公园(Jumeirah Park)的住宅项目，65.4万美元起售的别墅在一天之内就售罄。来自国际银行和当地银行的贷款达到了购买价的97%。
　　Nakheel was on a roll, preparing to open the first of the palm developments, Palm Jumeirah, and planning the next two. In September 2006, at a separate, 914-acre residential community called Jumeirah Park, villas starting at $654,000 sold out in a day. International banks and local lenders offered loans for up to 97% of the purchase price.

　　为了帮助融资建造所有这些工程，奥唐纳转向了债券市场。2006年11月的一个投资者见面会称迪拜是一个“有利的介入点”，能够吸引来自从印度到埃及的广阔中东地区的商人；其预计当时不到120万人的迪拜人口将在14年内增加200万人。
　　To help finance all this construction, Mr. O'Donnell turned to the bond markets. An investor presentation in November 2006 called Dubai a 'vantage access point' that would draw in businessmen from a wide swath of the greater Middle East, from India to Egypt. It projected that Dubai's population, then just under 1.2 million, would grow by two million in 14 years.

　　投资者争先购买Nakheel发行的伊斯兰债券。受强劲需求推动，发行方随后将债券发行规模提高到了35亿美元。
　　Investors rushed to buy a piece of Nakheel's Islamic bond, known as a sukuk. Swamped by demand, the borrower increased the issue's size to $3.5 billion.

　　汤森路透(Thomson Reuters)提供的数据显示，2006年迪拜房地产行业通过债券和银团贷款筹集了49亿美元。2008年，迪拜房地产业的借款规模飙升到了304亿美元。
　　That year, Dubai's real-estate sector raised $4.9 billion through bonds and syndicated loans, according to data provided by Thomson Reuters. Real-estate borrowing soared in 2008 to $30.4 billion.

　　2007年，迪拜世界的一家分公司购买了豪华邮轮“英国女王伊丽莎白二世号”(Queen Elizabeth 2)，计划将这艘邮轮停靠在朱美拉棕榈岛，将其改造成一家豪华酒店。那时，房地产市场的裂缝正在形成。当地官员们此前很少出台可能限制投机活动的地产开发管理规定。由于担心房地产市场已经增长过热，他们也开始这么做了。2008年初，迪拜政府开始对一些大型房地产和金融机构展开了一系列高规格腐败案调查。
　　In 2007, a Dubai World affiliate bought the Queen Elizabeth 2, unveiling plans to moor the ocean liner at the Palm Jumeirah and turn it into a luxury hotel. By then, cracks in the real-estate market were forming. Officials had put few regulations on development that might limit the speculation. Now, concerned that the market had grown overheated, they did so. And in early 2008, authorities embarked on a series of high-profile corruption investigations at some big real-estate and finance firms.

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