Arabtec confirms filing for bankruptcy in Dubai Court

Dubai contractor Arabtec Holding has confirmed that it has submitted its bankruptcy petition to Dubai Court.

In a filing to Dubai Financial Market (DFM) dated March 18, it issued an update regarding its ongoing bankruptcy and liquidation process.

It said that its subsidiaries included in the filing were Arabtec Construction, Austrian Arabian Readymix Concrete Company, Arabtec Precast and Emirates Falcon Electromechanical Company.

On March 1, 2021, an application was made to join two additional entities working under the umbrella of the holding company – GSI Steel Construction Contracting LLC and Gulf Steel Industries FZE – to the bankruptcy and liquidation process.

It added that as part of a court hearing dated February 18, 2021, the bankruptcy judge decided to appoint a panel consisting of seven experts to look into the bankruptcy application, whereas their tasks shall be limited to the preparation of separate reports for each of the subsidiaries in addition to the preparation of a consolidated report on the holding company, evaluate its financial position, and determine whether its in considered indebted, as well as consider the possibility of restructuring.

The experts convened the first meeting with the legal representatives of Arabtec Holding and the joining parties (Global Advocacy & Legal Counsel). It said that the matter is still under consideration with the panel, and their report has not yet been issued.

In February, the CEO of Arabtec, Wail Farsakh, resigned after less than a year in role. He was primarily focused on restructuring Arabtec’s construction business.

Read: CEO of Dubai contractor Arabtec resigns amidst its ongoing liquidation

The struggling construction company’s shareholders announced on November 30 that they were going for liquidation after failing to find any strategic investors.

Arabtec had previously said that it had hired deNovo Corporate Advisors and Lumina Capital Advisers to sell off some of its subsidiaries including Target Engineering and Arabtec Engineering Services (AES).