Arabtec subsidiary wins contract at Opera District

Emirates Falcon Electromechanical Company (Efeco), a wholly owned unit of the UAE’s biggest listed contractor Arabtec Holding, has won a Dh250 million contract for an project in Dubai led by Emaar.

Efeco won the contract from Turkish TAV Tepe Afken Construction, which is overseeing work on two residential towers in the Opera District being built by Emaar Properties, the UAE’s biggest publicly traded real estate developer.

The company will carry out mechanical, electrical and plumbing works for towers A2 and A3, comprising 809 apartments and a shared basement in Plot A of the Opera District in Downtown Dubai, Arabtec said in a statement to the Dubai bourse, where its shares are traded.

Work is expected to start this month and take 34 months to complete, it said.

Arabtec has struggled to maintain profitability in the past two years amid a construction slowdown, but it is bouncing back and won several new contracts last year.

Target Engineering Construction Company, another of Arabtec’s fully owned subsidiaries, won a Dh950m contract in November to build the second phase of Emaar’s Forte residential project – also in Downtown Dubai.

Target was appointed to build the first phase of the project by Emaar in September. “We look forward to working on another project for Emaar Properties as we continue to build on our solid relationships in our core markets,” said Hamish Tyrwhitt, the Arabtec Holding group chief executive.

Arabtec has posted its third consecutive quarterly profit for the three months ended September 30, with a net income of Dh18m compared to a loss of Dh226m during the same period of 2016.