Construction firm expects slowdown to hit deals

CONSTRUCTION DEALS: A senior manager of Al Habtoor Leighton Group expects contracts to be harder to come by as the economic slowdown continues. (Getty Images)

Al Habtoor Leighton Group has more than 24 billion dirhams ($6.5 billion) worth of contracts in the pipeline over the next two years, it has said.

But the construction company expects it to become more challenging to secure future orders going forward because of a slowdown in the real estate market, a senior manager of the group told Arabian Business.

However, the UAE-based group says is still hopeful of picking up future contracts and expects to add to its order book soon with projects in the public and private sectors in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the senior manager, who asked not be be named, added.

“With our order book we will be busy for the next year to two years but, although there will be less projects around, there are still opportunities about and we are hopeful we will still be able to pick up work,” he said.

“We have additional projects we are currently negotiating on that we hope to secure in the not too distant future.”

It announced on Monday it had won a 1.5 billion dirham share of a contract for the design and construction of the new Zayed University campus in Abu Dhabi for Mubadala Development Company (Mubadala).

“It’s important in that it shows we are still winning work in what’s going to be a more challenging period and there’s still opportunities available,” the senior manager said.

The Al Habtoor Leighton Group was established in September 2007 following the merger of Al Habtoor Engineering with the Gulf operations of Leighton International. Leighton is Australia’s largest construction company.

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