Arabtec’s shares embarked on a roller coaster ride yesterday. While retail investors appeared to be fretting about the fate of the former chief executive’s stake, institutional investors were looking ahead to Thursday’s board meeting as an indication of what to expect from the company’s new managers.
Arabtec plummeted as much as 9.8 per cent during the early part of yesterday's trading before recovering to close down 1.7 per cent.
“There’s no explanation for the reaction today,” said Marwan Shurrab, fund manager and head of trading at Vision Investments & Holdings in Dubai. “It’s retail going up and down and it all depends on mood and sentiment. There’s no fundamentals behind it.”
The volatility on Arabtec’s shares yesterday was because of a “perception of no clear deal on the ex-CEO’s stake and a spillover from[Sunday’s] trade”, said Amer Khan, a senior executive at Dubai-based Shuaa Capital.
It was the second trading day of losses since the company’s major shareholder, Aabar Investments, said it was “studying different options for its stake but that any talks on a deal would remain confidential”.
Last week, reports said that Aabar was in talks to buy at least part of the 28.8 per cent shareholding owned by the former chief executive Hasan Ismaik, who resigned last month, followed by the redundancy of hundreds of Arabtec staff.
In a statement on the Dubai bourse website yesterday, Arabtec said its board of directors would meet on Thursday to review and approve: the minutes of the previous board meeting, reports and recommendations, and the financial statements for the second quarter along with “any other business”.
“Arabtec will be discussing the business performance, maybe restructuring and talking about the strategy itself”, said Tareq Qaqish, the head of asset management at Al Mal Capital in Dubai.
“Aabar is the strategic investor so if they want to discuss the increase of their stake, it won’t be discussed during Arabtec’s meeting, but Aabar’s. Therefore I don’t expect to see any surprises during the meeting,” Mr Qaqish said.
“What is really important from our point of view is to see how the new management will take the company going forward. But in terms of volatility of price and [the future of Mr Ismaik’s stake] I don’t believe we will see news coming out of that meeting.”
Yesterday Arabtec's shares erased some of their losses during the second half of the trading session, as investors bought up what they saw as a laggard stock. Arabtec closed down 1.7 per cent at Dh4.38 a share on the Dubai Financial Market. Dubai's main equity index ended 2.5 per cent up, at 4,724.05 points.
“What helped Arabtec today was the market,” Mr Shurrab said. “It was able to rebound and fall into positive territory, which helped Arabtec enormously because it was limit down and hence had the biggest potential to recover.”
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Biography
Favourite drink: Must have karak chai and Chinese tea every day
Favourite non-Chinese food: Arabic sweets and Indian puri, small round bread of wheat flour
Favourite Chinese dish: Spicy boiled fish or anything cooked by her mother because of its flavour
Best vacation: Returning home to China
Music interests: Enjoys playing the zheng, a string musical instrument
Enjoys reading: Chinese novels, romantic comedies, reading up on business trends, government policy changes
Favourite book: Chairman Mao Zedong’s poems
In numbers
1,000 tonnes of waste collected daily:
- 800 tonnes converted into alternative fuel
- 150 tonnes to landfill
- 50 tonnes sold as scrap metal
800 tonnes of RDF replaces 500 tonnes of coal
Two conveyor lines treat more than 350,000 tonnes of waste per year
25 staff on site
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
What is hepatitis?
Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver, which can lead to fibrosis (scarring), cirrhosis or liver cancer.
There are 5 main hepatitis viruses, referred to as types A, B, C, D and E.
Hepatitis C is mostly transmitted through exposure to infective blood. This can occur through blood transfusions, contaminated injections during medical procedures, and through injecting drugs. Sexual transmission is also possible, but is much less common.
People infected with hepatitis C experience few or no symptoms, meaning they can live with the virus for years without being diagnosed. This delay in treatment can increase the risk of significant liver damage.
There are an estimated 170 million carriers of Hepatitis C around the world.
The virus causes approximately 399,000 fatalities each year worldwide, according to WHO.
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Stars:Kristen Bell
Rating: 1/5
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Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Squid Game season two
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Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
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The biog
From: Upper Egypt
Age: 78
Family: a daughter in Egypt; a son in Dubai and his wife, Nabila
Favourite Abu Dhabi activity: walking near to Emirates Palace
Favourite building in Abu Dhabi: Emirates Palace
Match info
Uefa Champions League Group C
Liverpool v Napoli, midnight
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
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- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
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