Former Arabtec chief Ismaik nets nearly $50m from share sales

Hasan Ismaik remains Arabtec’s largest shareholder, with a stake of 27.9 per cent of the company.

Hasan Ismaik's remaining stake at Arabtec is worth $1.36 billion at current prices. Sammy Dallal / The National

The former Arabtec chief executive Hasan Ismaik has earned US$48 million from the sale of shares in the company over the past month.

Mr Ismaik has sold 41.8 million shares, at several different prices, and at an uneven pace over the eight trading days since July 23, data compiled from the Dubai Financial Market and Bloomberg News show.

The shares sold equate to 0.9 per cent of the company and 4.3 per cent of his stake.

Arabtec had a market capitalisation of US$5.02 billion as of the close of trade yesterday.

Mr Ismaik sold tranches of shares worth between $850,000 and $13.6m on July 24, July 27, July 31, August 3, August 4, and August 5.

He remains Arabtec’s largest shareholder, with a stake of 27.9 per cent of the company.

At current prices, his remaining stake is worth $1.36bn.

When the company’s share price hit an all-time high of Dh7.74 in May, Mr Ismaik’s stake was worth $2.58bn – meaning it has lost about $1.2bn in value in the past three months.

Mr Ismaik has sold parts of his stake on seven of the 12 days of trading since July 24. The Dubai Financial Market was closed for three days at the end of July or Eid Al Fitr.

Aabar Investments, which said last month that it was reviewing its options regarding the size of its holding in Arabtec, does not appear to have increased its stake from 18.9 per cent.

The relatively small sales volumes suggest that Mr Ismaik has been selling shares on the open market, rather than placing his stake with an institutional investor.

Bloomberg previously reported that Mr Ismaik was in discussion with Arabtec to sell half of his stake for between Dh5 and Dh6 per share.

This would be a significantly better deal for Mr Ismaik than selling on the open market, and would have netted him an extra $14.6m.

Arabtec declined to comment.

Mr Ismaik left Arabtec abruptly on June 17, precipitating a crisis in the company’s share price, which plummeted to less than half of its May value.

He has also left the board of Depa, an interiors firm commissioned by Arabtec to furnish a number of properties built by the construction company.

He owns a 49 per cent stake in the German football team TSV 1860 München.

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