Deyaar Development Company is finalising plans to offer stock options to key employees from next year, a top executive said.

"We are finalising the terms and conditions. We do believe that we have everything in line for the employee stock option plan (ESOP) to start next year," Chief Executive Markus Giebel told Emirates Business.

Emaar Properties and Shuaa Capital are among the few companies in the UAE that offer stock options to employees.

Giebel said Deyaar has postponed a plan to raise Dh5 billion through a sukuk issue this year because of the global credit crisis.

"There is very little liquidity in the market right now and to launch a sukuk would be foolish. We have to obey market conditions and so we have delayed it but not cancelled our plan for it," Giebel said.

Deyaar is also looking at the option of expansion through vertical integration, with district cooling and services management being the probable streams of new business opportunities.

"Vertical integration always makes sense if I can do it less expensively by myself or more efficiently than the third parties," Giebel said. The company is also looking at the possibility of buying back its shares from the market.

"Buyback is always an option, especially after the government's announcement [easing the regulations]. However, we have not declared any intention to do so," he said.