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Losses loom ahead for firms like Arabtec, after a marked slowdown in the construction sector and a fall in oil prices.
According to a report in The National, the UAE's largest listed contractor saw a surprise AED279.8 million first-quarter loss.
Company shares plummeted 9.8% in early trading yesterday before recovering ing in the afternoon to close 3.53% down at AED2.42 after Arabtec reported the loss, which compared with a AED137.9m profit a year earlier.
The results, which missed analysts’ expectations, mark the second consecutive loss Arabtec has reported after the company announced a AED94.4m loss for the final three months of last year.
Global Investment House had forecast Arabtec would make a quarterly profit of AED95 million, while SICO Bahrain had estimated a profit of AED20.2 million, Reuters said.
The company said that the loss would not affect Arabtec’s capacity to work on its ambitious backlog of projects, with a further AED1.7bn of projects awarded during the first three months of the year.
