Elizabeth Fournier
Staff writer

For holders of Dubai World debt, all eyes are on December 14. That's when the next payment on the company's $26 billion of Nakheel bonds is due, and the day when creditors can move from planning their next move to enacting it.

Dubai World's creditors fall into two categories: those that hold the Islamic sukuk, and those that bought classic senior debt. Within the senior debt are two sub-groups and the group a creditor belongs to could affect the likelihood of it being able to make a claim.

International banks, with lending documentation structured under English law, will have lengthy lists of exactly what constitutes an event of default. These include covenant breaches and the standard set of insolvency tests that result in the immediate acceleration of the debt.

There are also bilateral agreements with local banks. These are likely to be much shorter, less sophisticated documents,...