Three senior staff at UAE’s Arabtec quit, new CFO appointed

Arabtec, the largest construction company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has accepted the resignation of three senior members of staff as part of a reorganisation, it said on Wednesday.

The three were Iyad Abdalrahim, group chief financial officer; Yazan Hatamleh, group chief human resources and administration officer; and Wassel al-Fakhoury, group general counsel.

The company appointed Ravi Murthy as acting group chief financial officer with immediate effect, it said, adding the moves were part of a reorganisation to achieve cost savings and enhance profitability.

This follows a series of management upheavals at the company since June last year.

In May, the board elected Abu Dhabi businessman Mohamed Thani Murshed Ghannam al-Rumaithi as its new chairman, replacing Khadem Abdulla al-Qubaisi.

Mohamed al-Fahim was appointed acting chief executive in June last year. He replaced Hasan Ismaik, who resigned from the post after a six-week power struggle between the Jordanian and Arabtec’s major shareholder Aabar Investments.

The latest reshuffle was likely to further test investor faith in the company, said Sanyalaksna Manibhandu, head of research at NBAD Securities.

Arabtec shares were down 1.96 per cent at 0800 GMT, against a 0.99 per cent loss for the wider main Dubai stock index.

“After these changes and two consecutive quarters of losses, Arabtec needs to see some stability and until that happens investors are not going to risk their portfolio to buy into the stock,” Manibhandu said, adding management also needed to outline its future strategy to investors.

Arabtec has major projects on hand, including a $36.7bn project to build one million housing units in Egypt, as well as projects in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The builder reported a loss attributable to equity holders in the parent of Dhs 279.82m ($76.18m) in the first quarter as costs surged.