At a conference for investors in Sharm al Sheikh, Egypt, earlier this month, one company's name was buzzing among delegates as a potential hit for the Emirates: Drake and Scull.
The construction and engineering company has been quietly building up its business over the past two years, launching one of the region's few public offerings of stock and beginning to acquire companies around the region.
Last week, one of its subsidiaries won two construction contracts in Dubai worth a combined total of Dh484 million, and the company is voting today on whether to make forays into Oman and Egypt as part of its expansion strategy. As competitors and their order books are slimming down, and their margins contracting, these recent accomplishments are significant. Yesterday, Drake and Scull's shares rose 3.4 per cent to Dh0.91.
The company is capitalising on the downturn by acquiring smaller firms at competitive prices, and moving into wastewater treatment and telecommunications infrastructure. In December, it paid Dh80.5m to increase its stake in Kuwait's Electrical Contracting to 75 per cent. In November, the company paid Dh145m for an 82 per cent stake in Passavant-Roediger, a wastewater unit of Germany's Bilfinger Berger.
Nabil Ahmed, a Dubai-based analyst at Deutsche Bank, wrote in a recent report that Drake and Scull was "an attractive equity story" because its execution strategy was "well on track" and it financials were relatively strong. For instance, the company's exposure to the challenging Dubai market was just 37 per cent of its backlog in the fourth quarter, compared with 51 per cent in the third quarter.
In one recent report from the Dubai-based management solutions company CMCS, the GCC was described as a safe bet for the next five years as far as construction goes.
At this rate, Drake and Scull should be among the winners when the market picks up.
bhope@thenational.ae
hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950