Drake & Scull makes management changes as part of restructuring

Former Arabtec CFO hired as advisor to the construction firm's board

Drake & Scull's management shakeup follows a second-quarter loss. Rich-Joseph Facun / The National

Drake & Scull International (DSI) has made a series of appointments and management changes as the Dubai-based contractor pursues a capital restructuring programme.

DSI hired Ziad Makhzoumi, a former chief financial officer of builder Arabtec and an ex-chief executive of Fakih IVF, as an advisor to its Board of Directors, the company said on Monday.

Other senior appointments and changes include appointing Muin El Saleh, previously the chief executive of Makkah & Madinah Holdings, as the new managing director of the company’s UAE operations; Fadi Feghali, the former managing director of Al Husam Group, now is DSI’s new managing director for international operations; Musa Ibrahim, the former general counsel of Tabarak Investment, is now group chief legal officer; Ismail Mohammad has been appointed as the deputy general manager of DSI unit GTCC in the UAE, and Saher Ghazi Kamal, has been appointed as acting managing director for Saudi Arabia.

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DSI's board of directors decided in August to end the tenure of Wael Allan as the chief executive, a post he assumed in October after the long-standing chief executive Khaldoun Tabari stepped down.

The company's net loss attributable to equity owners in the three months ending in June narrowed to Dh182.7 million compared with Dh207.6m in the year-earlier period, but still missed analyst forecasts. The net loss brings the company’s accumulated losses to Dh1.89 billion as of June 30.

Revenue fell 18 per cent to Dh660.3m from Dh805.5m a year earlier.

The company made Dh68m in one-off provisions and impairment charges in the second quarter.

Under the capital restructuring programme, the company is proposing to write off 75 per cent of its shares to extinguish losses of Dh1.71bn, followed by a Dh500m capital injection by Tabarak Investments, currently the biggest investor in DSI and which is likely to own around 50 per cent of the company after the restructuring.