Drake & Scull replaces finance chief after just eight months in management shake-up

Lossmaking Dubai-based contractor brings in former Hyder regional chairman Wael Allan into newly-created chief operating officer role as it looks to fiscal consolidation.

Drake & Scull International (DSI) has replaced its chief fin­ancial officer after just eight months in the role, and has also brought in the former head of Arcadis’s Middle East operations to the new post of chief operating officer.

The Dubai-based contractor said that Kailash Sadangi has been appointed as chief fin­ancial officer, replacing Sam Deeb, whose appointment in the same role was only announced last October.

He had joined following a spell at Abu Dhabi-based Al Jaber Group, where he had been suspended from his post since April 2015, pending a disciplinary hearing, according to a statement issued by the firm at the time.

His successor, Mr Sadangi, had previously worked at the listed Saudi Arabian contracting company Al Khodari & Sons for four years, and before that had been the regional finance chief for the construction crane company Terex.

Wael Allan, meanwhile, had been the regional chairman and global chief operating officer for the construction consultancy Hyder, and following its takeover by Arcadis in October 2014 he was made Middle East chief executive in February 2015 – a position he held for a year until he was replaced by Graham Reid earlier this year. The chief operating officer role he is undertaking at DSI is a newly-created position.

In a statement to the Dubai Financial Market, the com­pany said that the appointments had been made “in light of the challenging market conditions across the region”.

“The new management structure is expected to enhance DSI’s efforts to continue its fiscal consolidation, operating discipline and costs rationalisation drive,” it said.

DSI declared a net loss of Dh936 million in 2015, compared to a profit of Dh100.7m in the previous year. The loss was blamed on the fact that it had to make provisions of Dh984m in the third quarter of 2015 – a significant proportion of which was owing to a contractual dispute in Saudi Arabia. Revenue was also 11 per cent lower at Dh4.2 billion.

In a statement accompanying its annual report, the company’s chief executive Khaldoun Tabari said 2015 had been “one of DSI’s toughest years since our historic IPO [in 2008], during which we undertook certain exceptional methods to ensure feasible business continuity”.

He added that it would concentrate on higher-margin business in MEP, oil & gas, rail and water treatment in 2016.

Notes to the accounts showed that it has put assets with a book value of Dh450m up for sale, including its share in a joint venture project that was aimed at diversification, its share in a project in Saudi Arabia and a development property. The company said that it expects to complete the sale of these by the end of June.

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