Dubai : The Dubai-based construction company who built the world’s tallest building and other engineering marvels in the United Arab Emirates has announced its end. On Thursday it made an announcement of the company going into liquidation amid a coronavirus pandemic.
Arabtec Holding PJSC made the announcement after emails circulated Wednesday among developers suggesting the firm’s end had come. The firm last year incurred losses of hundreds of millions of dollars and had a huge debt. It has tried its way out of the chaos left by Dubai’s 2009 financial crisis but failed to do so. In 2009, its property market collapsed and the city ultimately received $ 20 billion in bailouts from Abu Dhabi, the Emirates’ oil-rich capital. In 2014, its shares prices declined by 60% in the Dubai trade Market. The coronavirus pandemic has further weakened the position of Arabtec as it has halted economic activities.
Arabtec chairman, Waleed al-Muhairi, said in a statement- The National that after years of setbacks, Arabtec’s projects were severely hit by the economic fallout of the pandemic. “Despite efforts to pursue legal and commercial entitlements and a restructuring of the company’s finances and operations, the situation in which Arabtec finds itself today is untenable,” he said.
The Dubai Financial Market halted trading on Arabtec shares late Wednesday. Among Arabtec’s biggest investors is the Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund Mubadala.
Arabtec was established in 1975, has built both skyscrapers and the infrastructure needed to pump oil and natural gas in this OPEC-member nation. It helped build the Burj Khalifa, the centerpiece of modern downtown Dubai that at 2,717 feet (828 meters) is the world’s tallest building.It also built the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace hotel and a major centerpiece of Dubai’s upcoming Expo 2020 world fair.