Dubai contractor Arabtec’s Q2 profit beats forecasts

Dubai contractor Arabtec, which raised over $650 million in a rights issue in July, swung to a second-quarter profit on Thursday helped by growth in its key markets and expense reductions.

Arabtec, which is building a branch of France’s Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi, made a second-quarter net profit of 92.4m dirhams ($25.16m), compared with a loss of $3.16m in the corresponding period in 2012, it said in a bourse statement on Thursday.

The earnings beat average estimate of five analysts polled by Reuters who expected a quarterly profit of $14.2m.

“Our businesses have delivered a strong performance in the first half of 2013, particularly in the UAE and in Saudi Arabia,” said Hasan Ismaik, newly-appointed chief executive of Arabtec Holding.

The contractor said selling, general and administrative expenses dropped by 29 percent in the second quarter.

Arabtec has won a series of contracts this year, especially in oil-rich Abu Dhabi where its top shareholder and state investment firm Aabar is based.

It also won new contracts in Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and has an order backlog of $6.6 billion, it said in the statement.

The company said that its agreed joint venture with Korea's Samsung Engineering that was announced in April is still in the process of being finalized.

Arabtec shares fell 2.8 percent in Dubai bourse on Thursday ahead of the results. They have risen 34.4 percent year-to-date.