Arabtec announces second board meeting of the year

Construction company's board met on January 23, when it also suspended its shares, but did not announce annual results and resumed traing the next day. Arabtec's board meets next week.

Arabtec has announced a meeting on February 12 to discuss its results from last year.

Arabtec has announced that it will be holding its second board meeting of the year on February 12 to discuss its 2016 results, the UAE’s largest listed construction company said in a statement to the Dubai Financial Market this morning.

Arabtec’s shares were suspended on the DFM on January 23 as the company’s board of directors met for the first time this year, with many analysts expecting that the company would publish its results shortly afterwards.

The results were not published and were trading again the following day.

Arabtec reported an annual net loss of Dh2.34 billion in 2015 on the back of a revenue of Dh7.25bn.

It has reported quarterly losses for the past two years as the company has struggled to cut huge costs amassed during a rapid expansion two years earlier.

During the tenure of Hasan Ismaik, who was the company’s chief executive between 2012 and 2014, Arabtec expanded rapidly, announcing an ambitious list of projects around the world amid plans to become one of the world’s 10 biggest builders – an exponential jump from its global ranking of 187 in 2012.

In mid-2014, when Mr Ismaik left the company, Arabtec shares plummeted, forcing the company to get rid of hundreds of staff, including most of its senior executives.

In November, Arabtec appointed Hamish Tyrwhitt, the chief executive of the global interior solutions company Depa, as its new chief executive as the company attempted to signal that it had turned a corner.

Arabtec shares stood at Dh1.38 at noon on Wednesday, down from Dh1.39 at close the day before.

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