Qatari Diar offers City Gate customers quid pro quo: Qatari Diar has offered amended contract terms to clients of its City Gate project in exchange for them dropping lawsuits against the company, according to Al Shorouk. A number of Qatari Diar’s customers began legal proceedings after the company — which has long looked for an exit from the New Cairo development — tried to terminate the contracts and return to customers their installments.

Under the amended contracts, Qatari Diar will need to begin constructing the units within the next three years and ensure that they take no longer than three years to be delivered. The company would be able to subcontract the construction work or sell the project to another company, provided the units are completed on time. Development in the City Gate project was halted back in 2016 when armed men took over the land plot.

Qatari Diar may be close to solving some of its problems: Local media reported last October that Naguib Sawiris’ Ora Developers was in “advanced talks” to acquire a 51% stake in the project for USD 800 mn, an acquisition that would help resolve Qatari Diar’s four-year legal row with the New Urban Communities Authority and dispute with the government — both caused by the Doha-based company’s failure to complete the project.