Arabtec is set to scoop the US$1.1 billion main contract to build a new terminal at Bahrain International Airport.
In a statement to the Dubai Financial Market, the company said it had received a letter of intent from Bahrain’s ministry of transport and telecommunications to award the contract to Arabtec Construction and its joint venture partner, TAV Construction of Turkey.
The project, which is being funded by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, involves building a new passenger terminal, the main services building and an aircraft bay. Contractors were first invited to bid on the project in August 2014.
The award was one of several to be announced by Bahrain Airports Company at the end of the country’s annual international air show. Other deals included one with China’s CIMC for passenger airbridges, one with the Dutch group Vanderlande for a baggage-handling system, a contract for people movers and escalators with Kone and one for security systems with US-based L3 Communications.
Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed, Bahrain’s transport minister, and Mohammed Al Binfalah, the chief executive of Bahrain Airports Company, said the terminal would increase the airport’s capacity to 14 million passengers a year.
Saeed Mohamed Al Mehairbi, Arabtec’s acting chief executive, said: “Arabtec has extensive experience in airport projects, currently performing the construction of Abu Dhabi’s Midfield Terminal. Such major projects have a strategic importance for the development of the region’s capabilities and the continuing growth of the GCC.”
TAV Construction is a specialist in airports and tall buildings. It is working in a joint venture with Arabtec and with Consolidated Contractors Company to build the $3bn Midfield Terminal at Abu Dhabi International Airport, and is part of a consortium that delivered the Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz International Airport at Medina in Saudi Arabia last year.
The consortium, which includes the Saudi contractors Saudi Oger and Al Rajhi Construction, has a 25-year concession to run Medina Airport.
Arabtec’s shares gained 10 per cent on the news. It is the group’s second major contract award announced in the past two weeks, following a Dh2bn award from Aldar Properties on January 11 to build 1,017 villas at the West Yas project on Yas Island.
mfahy@thenational.ae
Follow The National's Business section on Twitter
