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Following Hasan Ismaik’s resignation as Arabtec Holding’s chief executive officer late last week, reports say that hundreds of employees have been fired from the company over the weekend (June 19-22, 2014), including from senior management positions.
The company’s value has dropped by 9.9% on the Dubai Financial Market, reducing the stock’s price by $435.5 million (AED1.6 billon), as per reports in The National.
Big Project ME understands the company’s management is being “reshuffled” in a move that has not impacted employees from Arabtec’s construction or engineering departments.
However, a report by Bloomberg states Shohidul Ahad-Choudhury, the company’s head of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) “has been dismissed” following Ismaik’s resignation, as have “hundreds of employees” and “a number of managers”.
Calls by Big Project ME to Arabtec’s communications manager and media relations manager both went unanswered, while an employee of the company’s media department refused to confirm or deny reports.
Bloomberg stated that it had made “calls to Ahad-Chaoudhury’s personal mobile yesterday,” which were not returned, while a number listed on his business card was out of service.
Hasan Ismaik’s resignation from the company was followed by an announcement regarding the appointment of Mohammad Al Fahim as the acting-CEO of Arabtec. Al Fahim is a board member at International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), which is the parent investor group of Aabar Investments, the group that owns 21.6% of Arabtec Construction.
No official statement regarding employee dismissals has been released by Arabtec yet.