UAE conglomerate Al Habtoor Group has officially announced that it has no relationship with leading construction company Al Habtoor Leighton, also known as Al Habtoor Leighton Group (HLG).

The HLG is not a subsidiary of Al Habtoor Group and neither is it involved in the company's day-to-day operations, said a statement from the group.

The Al Habtoor Group's core focus is on hospitality, automotive and real estate sectors, as well as car rental and education, Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, the founder and chairman of the group, was quoted as saying in the statement.

The family-owned company had in November last year declared plans to sell its stake in HLG with its chief saying it wanted to focus on its core businesses.

Several international and regional companies were interested in buying the stake in the venture, Al Habtoor had told Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television in that interview.

A regional construction giant, HLG was formed in 2007 following the merger of the UAE's premier building contractor, Al Habtoor Engineering with Gulf Leighton, the original operating company of the Cimic Group, Australia's largest project development and contracting group, in the Gulf region.

The company, which employs more than 21,000 people according to its website, has operations in the UAE, Oman, Iraq, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.-TradeArabia News Service