Drake & Scull scoops Dh110 million wastewater plant contract

Subsidiary Passavant Energy & Environment wins contract in Moldova

A German subsidiary of Drake & Scull International won a Dh110m wastewater services contract in Moldova as the group presses ahead with restructuring debts. Rich-Joseph Facun / The National

Germany's Passavant Energy & Environment (PE&E), a subsidiary of Dubai-listed construction services firm Drake & Scull International, won a Dh110 million contract to undertake rehabilitation works on a wastewater treatment plant in Moldova.

The project win is DSI's second contract award in 2018 as it works to restructure hundreds of millions in corporate debt after being hit hard by a slowdown in Arabian Gulf economies.

“Backed by DSI management’s support and global footprint, PE&E is well positioned to utilise the growth opportunities for its water and wastewater treatment solutions across its key markets in 2018,” DSI said in a statement to media on Sunday.

As part of the contract, PE&E will conduct rehabilitation works for the wastewater plant and for new sludge treatment facilities in Moldova’s capital city Chisinau.

The contract is a consortium arrangement with European contractor Ludwig Pfeiffer. PE&E’s share amounts to 50 per cent of the total project contract value, DSI said.

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“We are delighted to start 2018 on a positive note, with the contract award for the Chisinau Wastewater Treatment plant,” said Fares Khatib, chief executive of PE&E.

“Our wastewater and sludge treatment technologies have improved the quality of core infrastructure in several cities through the various WWTP installations we have successfully delivered globally.”

Based in Frankfurt, PE&E operates in key markets across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, China, India and Vietnam.

The DSI group’s total bank debt at the end of the third quarter of 2017 had reached Dh2.92bn.

DSI last year reached an agreement with a group of nine lenders to refinance Dh566m of corporate debt. Under the deal agreed in the fourth quarter of 2017, the banks on average have extended the maturities by three years on loans, representing 56 per cent of the company’s total corporate general debt, DSI said in a statement to the Dubai stock exchange, where its shares are traded, in January.

The company also said in the same statement it expects to finalise restructuring of approximately Dh1bn of debt raised for projects in Saudi Arabia by the end of March.