Dubai engineering firm Drake & Scull Int. awaits final court approval on restructuring plan

Dubai: The Dubai engineering firm Drake & Scull International is still awaiting court approval to go ahead with its restructuring plan. The concerned court had on April 20 appointed an expert to decide whether Drake & Scull has complied with the restructuring requirements.

The accumulated losses now stand at Dh4.92 billion.

“Once the Court process is successfully completed, it will then allow the Company to issue the mandatory convertible sukuk, complete the rights Issue to existing shareholders and resume the trading of shares on the Dubai Financial Market,” said Shafiq Abdelhamid, Chairman. “We are grateful for the patience of our shareholders as we seek to restructure the company, thereby protecting as far as possible their investments and the livelihoods of many hundreds of families.”

One major hurdle was cleared by the company when its creditors gave their approval to the turnaround and how it was sought to be achieved. The company slipped into a full-blown crisis after recording a series of devastating losses, which was kept under wraps by the previous management.

Back into losses

For the first three months of 2022, Drake & Scull had a net loss of Dh52 million against a profit of Dh115 million a year ago. This stemmed from liquidating bank guarantees and interest charges, ‘whereby these expenses will be reversed upon successful completion of the restructuring’.

Revenues too were down, at Dh24 million from Dh46 million. Loss from continued operations came to Dh53 million from a profit of Dh116 million.