Arabtec Holding, the largest construction firm in the UAE by market value, has been awarded its second contract in a month from Emaar Properties - a Dh1.6 billion (US$435.6 million) deal to build 1,437 villas at the Bawadi project in Dubailand. The company said today it would also be responsible for designing the properties at the project, which Emaar was developing in a joint venture with the Dubai Holding subsidiary, Tatweer, for about Dh60bn. Emaar and Tatweer are developing 6.5 million square metres of land at Bawadi, a project that has an overall investment of Dh200bn and is set to be the largest hospitality and leisure development in the world. Arabtec's new contract brings the value of its jobs in hand to about Dh38bn. Other residential wins this year with Emaar include a Dh559m deal awarded last month for the construction of 550 villas at the Warsan development in Dubai, as well as a contract to build 68 homes at the Dubai Polo and Equestrian Club in Arabian Ranches. Arabtec is also building 1,500 homes at the Al Furjan development in Dubai - another Nakheel project - in a deal worth Dh3bn. And it is working on a Dh411m villa project for the Sanctuary Falls development within Jumeirah Golf Estates. The company set up a division called Arabtec Living to focus specifically on the construction of villas. The division has a workforce of about 15,000 employees. "We only take on projects for which we know we can provide the workforce," said Tom Barry, the general manager at Arabtec. Mr Barry added that the company used a building system called "tunnel formwork", which allowed for the quick construction of villas, for its projects with Emaar. "This is a planned building mechanism that is used from project to project," he said. "We can build about 10 villas a day using this system, then the plumbing and mechanical engineering work follows." In light of soaring construction costs, Arabtec also negotiates price escalation deals with its clients. "[Prices for] building materials such as cement and rebar (steel reinforcement bars) are very volatile so we try to negotiate with clients that we proceed with the project using a cost weighting system - so if prices go up, then the client reimburses us at the end of the project." Last month Arabtec was also awarded a Dh638m contract by Cayan Investment and Development for the construction of two residential towers at Dubai Marina. But its largest contract this year was a Dh10bn deal to build the 400-metre-tall Okhta Centre in St Petersburg on behalf of Gazprom Neft, the oil subsidiary of the Russian national gas company, Gazprom, and the City of St Petersburg. Arabtec, which is the UAE's only publicly listed construction firm, recently recorded a consolidated profit of Dh505m for the first half of this year, an increase of 191 per cent from Dh173m during the same period last year. @Email:agiuffrida@thenational.ae
