Drake & Scull International, a regional leader in engineering and construction services, said it has, in close co-ordination with its subsidiaries, completed the first phase of the restructuring plan related to the creditors' claims process.  

 

The embattled Dubai contractor had in September announced a top-level executive shake-up amid mounting losses and the looming debt restructuring plan naming regional experts to the top posts. 

 

Munir Mansour, a highly seasoned leader with more than four decades of experience in the industrial and contracting industry in the UAE, was named the CEO, while Peter Lalor, an industry veteran with over 14 years of experience in corporate strategy, finance, legal and commercial management in Middle East, became the chief financial officer.

 

Like many construction firms, Drake & Scull International too had been hit by a slump in the regional building industry over the past few years. It had then attributed the losses mainly to cost overruns in secondary markets such as Oman, Qatar and Jordan, as well as rising debt servicing costs.

 

In its recent filing to the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), the Emirati group pointed out that despite the ongoing restructuring process, it was business as usual in the organisation with both the group and its subsidiaries woking on its ongoing UAE projects including the Al Reem Mall project in Abu Dhabi as well as several water and energy projects.

 

Drake & Scull International said it had called upon all its creditors (financial and commercial creditors) to register proof of their claims and hand them over to the appointed expert by the Financial Reorganization Committee.

 

After the appointed expert had reviewed, documented, and registered all claims, the report containing the list of creditors and claims amounts has been delivered to the committee last month.

 

Now we are gearing up for the second phase of the restructuring plan which will begin after the go-ahead from the committee, said Dubai group in its filing.

 

The company said it will present the restructuring plan before the creditors at its General Assembly Meeting next month and voting thereon.-TradeArabia News Service