A second-quarter net profit of Dh183 million (US$49.82m) was recently announced by Arabtec Holding, the largest construction firm in the UAE. It is important to note that a decline by 33 per cent, from Dh273m in the same period last year, has been seen in Q2 net profit.

The company specified via a statement, "Net profit for the second quarter was up 14 per cent from the first quarter, resulting in a profit of Dh345m for the first six months of the year."

The downturn has hit Arabtec's order book really hard and the company's value has been reduced to nearly Dh31bn due to cancelled projects in the UAE, compared to its value of about Dh39bn at the end of 2008.

Furthermore, delayed payments from property developers to the tune of Dh3bn also hit the company.

However, it should be mentioned that the company has been quick to adjust, by finding work in other GCC construction markets. The company set up Arabtec Saudi Arabia in March, from which it expects to produce a Dh1.47bn profit this year.

Riad Kamal, the chief executive of Arabtec Holding said: "The revenues and profits for the second quarter of 2009 are good considering the difficult times that the real estate and construction sectors are experiencing in the UAE and the GCC as a whole, and are in line with our expectations for 2009."

He concluded: "These results were achieved in very difficult markets, and are attributed to the steps taken last year and still continuing, by the management of the company in relation to, more integration of our business units, reducing costs and improving productivity and efficiency, and to our continuous geographic expansion strategy in new attractive markets."