Arabtec Holding, a leading construction company in the Middle East, has registered a 97 per cent jump in its net profit for the first half which rose to Dh113 million ($31 million) from last year's Dh57.4 million ($15.6 million).

Announcing the results for the six-month period ended June 30, Arabtec Holding said the revenue increased by 13.3 per cent to Dh4.8 billion from last year's figure of Dh4.2 billion. The group’s backlog stood at Dh16.1 billion, supported by Dh34.6 billion of tenders submitted or under preparation.

A leading contractor for social and economic infrastructure, Arabtec said this was the group's sixth consecutive quarter of profitability.

During the second quarter, the Emirati group continued to focus selectively on countries that offer a strong, sustainable pipeline of construction and infrastructure opportunities including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt.

Arabtec said it was actively pursuing a number of infrastructure opportunities through its operating companies, evidenced by the recent award of the strategic sewerage and drainage infrastructure project in Jebel Ali from Dubai Municipality.

In the second quarter, trade and other receivables got reduced by Dh223 million with a 17-day improvement in debtor days, producing positive net cash from operating activities of Dh206 million.

On the solid performance, Group CEO Hamish Tyrwhitt said: "I am delighted to report a strong first-half performance which has seen Arabtec deliver six consecutive quarters of profitability. It is also pleasing that we are now seeing a reduction in trade receivables and debtor days reflecting the group’s ongoing efforts to improve the resolution and collection of receivables."

"We continue to make good progress on simplifying our business model through better tools and processes and outsourcing non-core business activities, as well as applying innovative approaches to enhance our work and delivery capabilities," remarked Tyrwhitt.

"We are also taking positive steps towards ensuring better economic, social and environmental sustainability across our operations, and therefore I am pleased to announce the release of our first Sustainability Report marked by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)," he added.-TradeArabia News Service