The UAE’s largest listed construction company Arabtec Holding has appointed the chief executive of the interiors contractor Depa as its chief executive.
In a statement to the Dubai bourse yesterday, Arabtec said that Hamish Tyrwhitt will take on the new role as well as continuing to head Nasdaq Dubai-listed Depa, in which Arabtec has a 24 per cent stake.
Arabtec said that Mr Tyrwhitt, who worked for 27 years at the Australian construction company Leighton Holdings, had replaced the company’s acting chief executive, Saeed Al Mehairbi, who will remain an Arabtec board member.
Arabtec shares rose by 2.3 per cent in trading yesterday on the news while Depa shares remained flat.
Depa said, in its stock market announcement, that it and Arabtec had “signed a settlement and cooperation agreement, which addresses the companies’ existing relationship, and positions Depa as one of Arabtec’s preferred partners”.
Ibrahim Belselah, Depa’s chairman, said Mr Tyrwhitt’s appointment to the Arabtec job was unanimously approved by the Depa board of directors. “Hamish is capable of running both companies concurrently without compromising either role,” he said.
Mohamed Al Rumaithi, Arabtec’s chairman, said Mr Tyrwhitt had the experience necessary to “further strengthen the company’s strategic and financial positioning and achieve its full growth potential”.
But analysts cautioned that Mr Tyrwhitt will have a tough job on his hands.
“Having a new chief executive from the construction industry makes good sense and there will be synergies between the two companies which Mr Tyrwhitt can explore,” said Tariq Qaqish, the head of asset management at Almal Capital. “However, this sort of arrangement is not common between companies. Arabtec is a giant company which needs a lot of detail and although Depa may be less hectic on a day-to-day basis, it is still spread out over a wide geography.”
Earlier this month Arabtec posted its eighth successive quarterly loss. The company has been undergoing a restructuring following the departure of former chief executive Hasan Ismaik, who left the company in mid 2014 amid a share price crisis following a period of aggressive expansion.
And, with the low oil price having an effect on economies across the Middle East, contractors in the region are struggling to make profits.
“Arabtec is a difficult company to operate,” said Sanyalak Manibhandu, the head of research at NBAD Securities. “The contracting industry is going through a very difficult period at the moment and it is not going to get better over the next 18 months to two years. The company really needs to make a statement to tell shareholders what its strategy is going to be to overcome these obstacles.”
Mr Tyrwhitt, a dual British-Australian national, became group chief executive of Leighton Holdings in 2011.
In 2014, after the company was taken over by Hochtief, which is owned by the Spanish construction giant ACS, he moved on and became as chief executive of Indonesian coal mining company Asia Resources Minerals before being appointed chief executive of Depa Group in April of 2016.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
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