Dubai-based contractor Drake & Scull International (DSI) said it is circulating its debt restructuring proposals among its 600-plus creditors for approval as it reported a jump in its first-quarter profit.
The company reached an agreement with a group of its biggest lenders on its restructuring plan earlier this year. It is currently in the process of finalising the deal through the circulation of legal documents among the creditors, Drake & Scull said in a statement to the Dubai Financial Market on Sunday.
“Once the creditors receive the documents they will be asked to submit their vote to approve the restructuring plan,” Shafiq Abdelhamid, chairman of DSI, said.
“When approved by two-thirds (by value) of the creditors, with the support of the FRC (Financial Restructuring Committee), DSI will then approach the courts to obtain their approval which will bind all creditors and allow the rights issue process to be initiated.”
The financial restructuring would be the second the company has undergone in the last four years. In 2017, a capital restructuring took place that saw Dh1.7 billion worth of shares cancelled to expunge historic losses and Dh500 million invested by private equity firm Tabarak Investment for a strategic stake in the company.
The company reported its accumulated losses had fallen to Dh4.79bn as of March 31 from Dh4.9bn at the end of last year as it reported a net profit during the first quarter of Dh115.3m, compared to a loss of Dh29m in the same period last year. Revenue rose 16.5 per cent to Dh45.8m and the company wrote back Dh166m of liabilities which it says it no longer needs to repay.
"The group assessed during the period that certain trade payables and accrual, amounts due to customers on contract, advance from customers recorded in earlier periods were no longer payable and has, accordingly, written back such amounts under other income," it said.
Total assets at the end of the quarter slid 6 per cent to Dh546.2m compared to the end of December last year. Total liabilities also fell 3 per cent to Dh4.34bn during the period, according to the company.
The company secured contracts worth Dh376m to build several projects in India, Tunisia and Palestine, it said in April.
Fireball
Moscow claimed it hit the largest military fuel storage facility in Ukraine, triggering a huge fireball at the site.
A plume of black smoke rose from a fuel storage facility in the village of Kalynivka outside Kyiv on Friday after Russia said it had destroyed the military site with Kalibr cruise missiles.
"On the evening of March 24, Kalibr high-precision sea-based cruise missiles attacked a fuel base in the village of Kalynivka near Kyiv," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine confirmed the strike, saying the village some 40 kilometres south-west of Kyiv was targeted.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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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
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More on animal trafficking
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Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
