Arabtec Holding said yesterday that its construction unit, which is building the Louvre Abu Dhabi, has bought a 45 per cent stake in Emirates Falcon Electromechanical Company (Efeco), giving it full ownership of the company.
With operations in the UAE, Qatar, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, Efeco provides infrastructure, electrical, air conditioning, plumbing, and sanitary works for residential and commercial developments.
“The move is perfectly in line with our strategy of diversifying our sources of income and optimising our revenue-generating business,” said Hasan Abdullah Ismaik, the managing director and chief executive of Arabtec Holding.
Arabtec launched a joint venture last month with the engineering arm of the South Korean conglomerate Samsung as a springboard for expansion into more complex engineering and “big ticket” infrastructure work around the Middle East and North Africa.
Earnings at Arabtec, the UAE’s largest construction company, rose to Dh92.4 million for the three months to the end of June compared with a loss of Dh11.6m for April to June 2012.
The latest results were driven by a strong performance in its Saudi Arabian and UAE operations.
Arabtec, which announced in June that it would pay a 10 per cent dividend to investors in the coming financial year, said that revenues for the second quarter grew 23 per cent to Dh1.6 billion from Dh1.3bn last year.
business@thenational.ae
