The arrest of a senior official will not affect profits or operations, says Tamweel

Business activities and financial strength not affected by the arrest of Abdulla Nasser Abdulla, the deputy chief executive yesteday.

DUBAI//Tamweel says the detention of its deputy chief executive will not affect operations or profits, on a day when the financial firm suffered a 4.05 per cent loss on the Dubai Financial Market. "This investigation will have no impact on the operations and financial strength of Tamweel," Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed, the chairman of Tamweel, said in the statement on Wednesday. "Tamweel will advise its stakeholders of further developments on the ongoing investigation as and when these are made available to the company," he added.

The statement appeared to be an attempt to calm nervous investors, who have fled the stock since Tuesday and knocked more than eight per cent off its market value, after confirmation that Abdulla Nasser Abdulla, the deputy chief executive and chief executive of Tamweel Properties & Investments, was in custody related to an ongoing industry-wide corruption investigation. Sheikh Khaled said that the company's activities continued as planned and were in line with market performance. He assured shareholders that the investigation would have no impact on the "previously disclosed financial results, including most recently for the first-half of this year."

He added that for the remainder of the year Tamweel would forge ahead with its business activities, and Tamweel's fully owned subsidiaries, including its property business, international operations and escrow business, would continue to operate in line with their long-term strategic plans. [e-mail]