Saudi builder Khodari says projects worth $83.4m delayed

Saudi Arabian construction firm Abdullah Abdul Mohsin al-Khodari and Sons said on Thursday that the total value of its delayed work as of Dec. 31 last year was SAR312.7m ($83.4m), a slight improvement from the previous quarter.

As builders in the kingdom rely on the government for most of their contracts they’ve suffered as the pace of construction has sagged in the past two years, partly as a result of lower oil prices squeezing state revenues.

Khodari, which earlier this month reported a widening fourth-quarter net loss, previously said that the value of projects delayed as of Sept. 30 was SAR362.2m.

It gave a variety of reasons for the delay, including excessive time taken to issue visas or insufficient numbers of visas issued, delays in the appointment of consultants or the reviewing and processing of invoices.

Delays in the payment of approved invoices or design changes and the halting of work because of lack of money were also to blame, it said.

In Thursday’s statement, the builder estimated the total value of its backlog of uncompleted work as of Dec. 31 at SAR2.85bn. That is down from the SAR3.01bn estimate it gave for the previous quarter.

The builder’s total contract value was SAR7.85bn, it said. That compares to SAR7.78bn estimated for the previous quarter.