Drake & Scull buys Saudi firm

Dubai-based Drake & Scull International (DSI) announced on Wednesday in a statement on the Dubai bourse that it has fully acquired Saudi Arabia’s International Centre for Contracting Co. (ICC) for an enterprise value of SR128m.

The announcement follows a string of consecutive project wins in the first quarter of 2011 in Oman, Egypt and Saudi Arabia for a combined valued of Dh2.62b, the company said.

ICC is a Grade 1 classified prominent contactor based in Riyadh with offices across the kingdom in Jeddah and Dammam. The company has a healthy backlog which stood at Dh800m as of December 2010. Under the terms of the deal, ICC will be consolidated under Drake & Scull Construction (DSC KSA), a wholly owned civil contracting subsidiary of DSI.

“With the completion of this latest acquisition, DSI has reached the milestones it set to achieve since its listing in 2009. The strategies conceived at the end of 2008 have been highly successful despite the uncertainties and challenges the construction industry has faced,” said Khaldoun Tabari, CEO of DSI.

“The acquisition of ICC reinforces our position as the leading regional provider of integrated end-to-end contracting services with a clear focus on growth in the Saudi Arabian Market. We are delighted to have the resources – both human and technical – on the ground in Saudi Arabia that will allow us to service several prestigious projects and target prominent clients in this promising and lucrative market.”

Tabari concluded: “With the last acquisition DSI’s current project portfolio stands at Dh8.3b, “We are confident that the investments made over the last 24 months will yield positive results  as we move forward into Q2 2011.”

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