Dubai-based contractor Drake & Scull International (DSI) has announced the appointment of Yousef Al Mulla as its group chief executive officer. He will take over from Fadi Feghali, who was awarded the role in March this year.
The decision was revealed after a board meeting on Tuesday (14 August). The announcement added that Mr Feghali will assume a new, unnamed position within DSI.
Al Mulla was previously the chief executive of Abu Dhabi-based Square General Contracting and has served as the managing director for the Transemirates Contracting Company.
The decision follows a history of losses and boardroom reshuffles at DSI.
After making a loss of $321m in 2017, the company reported a further loss of $50m for the first half of 2018, for which it blamed "cost overruns in non-performing subsidiaries in Oman, Qatar and Jordan".
Former DSI group chief executive officer Fadi Feghali
DSI’s share value has fallen almost 80% this year, and last month the Bloomberg news agency reported that it had just appointed its fourth chief financial officer in three years.
When Feghali was appointed to group chief executive officer, he was going to lead a "comprehensive organisational overhaul" of the business. The company said this would involve "scaling down operations in non-core businesses and non-performing business streams and increasing focus on core markets and profitable business streams".
Recently, former DSI chief executive Khaldoun Al Tabari rejected allegations that he and his daughter owed DSI $272m, saying: "It comes as a surprise that such baseless allegations are raised now, nearly two years after I have stepped down from my position."
Top image courtesy of Drake & Scull
