Dubai: The Dubai based contractor Drake & Scull International is producing marginal gains in chopping down its collected losses, which has lowered to Dh4.89 billion Dh5.005 billion as of December 31, 2019.
There are other advantages too – total profit increases at Dh21 million over Dh8 million in 2019. Net profit attributable to shareholders was Dh109 million, improved by one-offs like the profit from throwing off a subsidiary for Dh354 million. (Net profit in 2019 was Dh234 million.)
“The company still exists and is keen on the continuity of operations through ongoing projects,” said Munir Mansour, CEO. “The restructuring process has reached its final and advanced stages, as the expert appointed by the Financial Reorganization Committee – Aronite LLC – have published in local newspapers invitations to creditors to attend the creditors’ meetings which will be held on February 25.“
The newest numbers will likely secure Drake & Scull’s chances of convincing its creditors and banks to expand its payment schedules, and that it can bring back to being operationally sound. Persuading and the backlog remains “stable” at Dh403 million, from operations in the UAE, Germany, Algeria, Kuwait, and Iraq.
Rough recent history
The company has been through 2 hard years, beginning with the losses. Then arrived internal investigations that appeared the numbers provided weren’t all that transparent. In the summer of 2019, the company finally showed its total losses were in the region of Dh5 billion-plus and also provided investigations into the previous management.
The cases are now with Abu Dhabi Prosecution and also chased in Jordan, where the founder of Drake & Scull, Khaldoun Tabari, is now based.
“With relation to civil cases filed in UAE against Khaldoun Al Tabari and others, the company has obtained several judgments in its’ favor before the First Instance Court,” the company said in a statement. “The rest of the cases are still under review before the courts.“