DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai's Emaar Properties (DU:EMAR) will recover 1.22 billion dirhams (265.89 million pounds) from an insurance claim for a fire that engulfed one of Dubai's most prominent hotel skyscrapers on New Year's Eve 2015, the developer said Monday.
The luxury Address Downtown, owned by Emaar and located a few hundred metres away from the world's tallest building, has been closed since it caught fire 13 months ago.
The insurance claim will result in a write back of the 301 million dirhams provision created in 2015 to cover the incident. The write back will be recorded as income in the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2016, according to a bourse statement.
The claim is signed with local insurer Orient Insurance .
An electrical short-circuit sparked the fire that engulfed the 63-storey hotel and residential block on Dec. 31, 2015, Dubai's police chief previously said. The building was evacuated with only minor injuries reported.
Emaar said on Jan. 3, 2016 the fire should have "no material impact" on the company because the building and risk of fire were covered by its insurance.
The hotel caught fire ahead of the annual New Year fireworks display at the nearby Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. The fireworks display went ahead without interruption.
($1 = 3.6726 UAE dirham)