Stock - Arabtec
It is now officially the end game for Arabtec as the UAE court appoints trustees for each of the subsidiary companies facing liquidation. Image Credit: Clint Egbert/Gulf News

Dubai: A UAE court has appointed trustees for each of the Arabtec Group companies facing liquidation, and who will now review the accumulated debts and a record of all creditors. The Court has also mandated that all procedures stipulated under the Bankruptcy Law must be done within 35 days from the date of the trustee appointment notification.

Initial reports by the trustees need to be handed in within two weeks. This decision sets the stage for the liquidation of the UAE’s biggest construction company – and will also be the benchmark for future proceedings under the country’s newly revised Bankruptcy Law.

Stay on Arabtec asset sales
In its new order, the UAE Court has stay all "judicial procedures and execution procedures" on the companies' assets until a restructuring plan is approved. Or for 10 months from the date of the decision to open the
bankruptcy proceedings.

Each trustee overseeing an Arabtec Group entity facing liquidation shall submit a request to the court on the contractual and legal interests.

The Dubai Court of First Instance also instructed each trustee to prepare an "initial separate report" on the assets of each entity and its rights with third-parties. They must also list all managers and members of the board of directors and shareholders for the two years preceding the bankruptcy application.

The trustees must also submit their opinion on the management and the preservation of the company’s assets. It was on June 16 that the court in Dubai accepted the petition to open bankruptcy proceedings for Arabtec Holding and these subsidiaries:

1. Arabtec Construction llc

2. Austrian Arabian Readymix Concrete Co.

3. Arabtec Precast

4. Arabtec Constructions llc

5. Emirates Falcon Electromechanical Co.; and another entity under the same title

6. Emirates Falcon Electromechanical Co. 

Leading to the liquidation
It was last year that Arabtec's board of directors and a majority of shareholders decided to wind down operations after successive years of heavy losses.