The end of the contracting giant in the Dubai market ... UAE Arabtec officially declares its bankruptcy

Arabtec Holding - the largest contracting company in the UAE - announced its official bankruptcy Monday, and submitted an application to the court in this regard.

The company listed on the Dubai Financial Market said in a statement, "We will submit an application as soon as possible to the competent court to declare the company bankrupt and liquidate it."

Arabtec added that it will go ahead with its previous plan by submitting an application to declare the company bankrupt and liquidate it, after the shareholders refused to continue the company in its current activity, and to seek restructuring.

The company’s statement came after a meeting held by the shareholders yesterday to discuss the proposal of a group of investors to cancel a decision issued last September to submit a request to liquidate the company.

Arabtec said, in an email, that the board had concluded that it was no longer reasonable for the company to continue operating outside of a formal bankruptcy process.

She added that it is in the interest of the company's shareholders to put it in a state of liquidation due to bankruptcy, which needs approval from a court, at the earliest opportunity.

Shareholders, including the Abu Dhabi government fund, Mubadala Investment, voted last September to liquidate Arabtec, after its losses had increased due to the Coronavirus crisis.

The company said that the pandemic had negatively affected projects and raised costs, and added that it would not submit any requests to the courts related to any of its other subsidiaries.

Arabtec's move to liquidate comes after it incurred net losses in the first half of the year amounting to 794 million dirhams (216.2 million dollars), which exacerbated the accumulated losses to form 97% of the paid-up capital of 1.5 billion dirhams (408 million dollars).

The company, which was founded in 1975, employs more than 45,000 employees who will be affected by the liquidation decision.

The company, which was listed on the Dubai Financial Market in 2005, has built the most famous landmarks in the Emirates, such as the Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.