In June, he saw a painstakingly negotiated with Aabar Investments collapse over what he called, “media speculation”. If the deal had gone through, it would have given Arabtec the financial muscle needed to expand throughout the Middle East and possibly beyond.

In April, Arabtec had announced that Aabar was poised to buy out a 70 percent stake in the real estate developer in a deal estimated at $1.7bn. Despite this setback, Arabtec had a profitable year in 2010. Its Saudi arm signed a $1.33bn deal with the Saudi Binladin Group within the residential real estate sector. The contract will cover the construction of 5,000 new villas in the Eastern Province over 48 months.

The year 2011 hasn’t started too shabbily for the developer either, in February, it signed a $241m contract to help build two colleges in Kuwait, while in January, it signed a two deals worth $97m in Abu Dhabi and Egypt.

Kamal said the firm also planned to raise $150m through the sale of five-year convertible bonds, which would be used to “support the company’s expansion plans to the new markets and increase its working capital.”

Personally though, Kamal hasn’t been having such a good time, having been slapped with a six month share dealing ban after an investigation by the Abu Dhabi bourse. He was charged with selling Arabtec stock less than ten days before making company announcements. He claimed ignorance of the rules but termed the ban a learning experience. He added that he didn’t profit from the 2009 transactions.

Kamal founded Arabtec Construction in 1975, and was CEO of the company until 2009.