Drake & Scull International, the Dubai-listed contractor seeking to restructure about Dh1 billion of debt, said that it appointed Fadi Feghali as its chief executive, a post that has been vacant since August. He will assume his role on April 1.
Mr Feghali, who currently manages the international business units of DSI, succeeds Wael Allan, whose tenure was ended in August by the board of directors amid a management shake-up. Mr Allan had assumed the post in October of 2016 after the long-standing chief executive Khaldoun Tabari stepped down.
“We believe that our comprehensive organisational overhaul and structural reforms have reached a significant milestone with the appointment of Dr Fadi Feghali,” said Abdulla Atatreh, chairman of DSI.
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The contracting firm said in January it expects to finalise restructuring of approximately Dh1bn of debt it raised for projects in Saudi Arabia by March-end this year. It will also begin negotiations with bondholders in the UAE to refinance Dh440m worth of sukuk in the second half of 2018. DSI said this week it plans to issue a sukuk convertible into equity with a minimum value Dh450 million.
The Dubai contractor, which was hit hard by a slowdown in the Arabian Gulf economies, has already reached an agreement with a group of nine lenders to refinance Dh566m of corporate debt.
Under the deal, agreed in the fourth quarter of 2017, the banks on average have extended the maturities by three years on loans, representing 56 per cent of the company’s total corporate general debt, which at the end of September last year stood at Dh1.07bn.
Drake & Scull said in February that its full-year net loss widened despite posting a profit in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Full-year net loss deepened to Dh1.39n from Dh815m.
