Drake & Scull International, the Dubai engineering and contracting company, posted a 21 per cent increase in first-quarter net profits as it diversified away from its home market.
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Net income rose to Dh51 million (US$13.8m), Drake & Scull said yesterday.
The company reported profit of Dh42.2m in the first quarter last year.
Since the company's initial public offering in 2008, in which it sold 55 per cent of its shares and raised Dh1.2 billion, Drake & Scull has aggressively branched out across the Middle East and North Africa.
This year alone, it has won projects in Oman, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE totalling Dh2.65bn.
The company has also been involved in a string of acquisitions.
Last month, it bought International Centre for Contracting (IC), a Saudi Arabian contractor, for 128m Saudi riyals (Dh125.3m), its second acquisition in the kingdom in a year.
Its backlog of orders stands at Dh7.5bn, with half of this in Saudi Arabia, 17 per cent in Abu Dhabi, 10 per cent in Dubai and the rest in its other markets including Kuwait, Qatar and in Europe.
"The scale and diversity of our operations in the region enabled us to achieve robust financial results driven by a strong performance across all our operating segments," said Khaldoun Tabari, the chief executive of Drake & Scull.
IC's revenue climbed 67 per cent to Dh645m, Drake & Scull said.
Shares in Drake & Scull climbed 2.9 per cent to Dh1.07 yesterday. The results were released after the market closed.
