Dubai – Mubasher: Arabtec Holding announced on Tuesday that its subsidiary Arabtec Construction has been awarded an AED 1.04 billion contract in Saudi Arabia.

The 28-month-long project entails the design, construction, completion and maintenance of 380 villas in addition to all external works. The overall plot area of the project is 454,500 square meters, while the total build-up area reaches 166,200 square meters, Arabtec revealed in a filing to the Dubai Financial Market (DFM).

The Saudi market is one of the biggest and most important investing environments in the region for the UAE builder, where it implements many housing and multi-purpose projects.

On Sunday, Arabtec announced its financials for 2014 and reported a net profit plunge to AED 241.258 million in 2014, compared to AED 468.259 million in 2013. The housing firm turned to losses in Q4-14, logging AED 114 million against AED 90 million in the previous quarter and AED 101 million in Q4-13.

The DFM-listed firm attributed its profit decline to high, non-recurring, general administrative expenses amounting to AED 749.9 million, compared to AED 429.3 million in 2013, an increase of 74.7%.

Arabtec chairman Khadem Al-Qubaisi said his company plans to continue focusing on attractive markets in the GCC region, especially Saudi Arabia, in addition to considering opportunities in other markets.

Arabtec Holding’s subsidiary, Target Engineering, recently won several contracts totalling AED 930 million from Saudi Aramco in the Gulf kingdom’s oil and gas sector. 

Arabtec’s capital amounts to AED 3.14 billion divided on 3.14 billion shares at par value of AED 1 per share.