(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Ending a relentless and consistent slide arabtec the uae�s largest listed construction company closed 1.
the surprise exit of ismaik who was appointed ceo in february 2013 and currently holds 28.84 per cent share in the largest construction company in the uae comes in the wake of a market turbulence caused by an erroneous news that a major shareholder had cut its stake in arabtec.
over the past six weeks arabtec has suffered a severe setback with its share price plunging as much as 50 per cent. the company’s drastic reversal of fortunes started a few weeks ago as the abu dhabi state fund aabar investments a unit of the international petroleum investment company or ipic cut its stake in the construction major to 18.85 per cent from 21.57 per cent.
the stock suffered consistent sharp declines over the past few days following wrong data caused by a “system glitch” that showed that aabar had further cut its stake. persistent rumours of disagreements between arabtec and aabar also fuelled investor concerns. an arabtec spokesman said the resignation of ismaik was to take effect after a company board meeting scheduled for wednesday afternoon in abu dhabi.
mohamed al fahim a board member from abu dhabi’s state-owned ipic was reportedly appointed as arabtec’s acting ceo. before joining ipic al fahim worked at abu dhabi national oil co kpmg in dubai and hsbc holdings in london. arabtec which recorded a 30 per cent jump in revenues to $2 billion in 2013 saw its share price trebling in the first five months of this year as it bagged several new contracts worth billion of dirhams in the uae and across the gcc. in 2013 it claimed it had about $59 billion of projects in the pipeline. earlier this year the company won a $40 billion deal to build one million homes in egypt over coming years.
on wednesday arabtec shares closed 1.9 per cent higher as dubai’s benchmark dfm index rose 0.6 per cent to 4522 points. abu dhabi’s bourse also led gains rising 0.7 per cent on the back of national bank of abu dhabi which jumped 4.3 per cent.
most other stock markets in the gulf also rebounded on wednesday after an iraq-related sell-off ended although stocks directly exposed to the country continued to suffer.
— issacjohnئkhaleejtimes.com
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