INTERVIEW-Dubai World says subprime crisis slowed investment

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Dubai World, the investment firm of the Dubai government, said on Tuesday it is holding on to U.S. real estate assets amid a property downturn, and that the subprime crisis has slowed its investment decisions this year.

"I'm more cautious because I don't think there's total transparency on how bad the situation is. At the moment we don't know, and it means a lot for our investment planning," its chief investment officer Yu Lai Boon told Reuters in an interview.

He said the concern is that the contagion, which has caused Western banks to write down billions of dollars and caused liquidity to dry up, could spread to Japan and China.

Dubai World, which invests via subsidiaries Nakheel and Istithmar, has a multi-billion dollar global portfolio that ranges from British port operator P&O to New York retailer Barneys, and over $20 billion in real estate assets globally outside Dubai.

Yu said Dubai World is arranging for a $5 billion syndicated term loan to refinance a 364-day bridge loan signed last year to use as general working capital, confirming a Reuters report this month [nL02114138].

(Reporting by Daryl Loo, editing by Neil Chatterjee)