Former Drake & Scull CEO returns to lead growth plans

Unsplash/Agnieszka Kowalczyk

• Al Saleh was CEO from 2017-19
• DSI on restructuring plan
• Company back in profit

Construction engineering company Drake & Scull International (DSI) has reappointed a former CEO to lead it.

The company said it is entering “a new chapter of growth and development” following its debt restructuring earlier this year.

Muin Al Saleh, who was CEO between 2017 and 2019, returns to the Dubai contractor in the same position. 

He plans to “focus on driving operational growth and efficiency” and “optimise cost management across its core business sectors”, Drake & Scull said on Thursday in a filing to the Dubai Financial Market. 

In the years since he left DSI, Al Saleh was general manager at electromechanical company Sharqawi Co and most recently general manager at facility management company Al Majal Al Arabi Group, both in Saudi Arabia. 

His appointment comes after the company’s shares resumed trading in May this year following a six-year suspension after losses exceeded 75 percent of its capital.

Creditors and shareholders approved a restructuring plan last April in a legal battle that almost resulted in DSI being liquidated. 

The plan included the write-off of 90 percent of debts while the remaining 10 percent would be funnelled into a sukuk, or sharia-compliant bond.

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In its third-quarter results DSI announced profits of AED5.9 million ($1.6 million), a significant swing from a net loss of AED34.9 million ($9.5 million) in the same period last year. Revenues in the third quarter reached AED21.5 million ($5.8 million), up 13 percent from 2023.

Sheikh Theyab bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, DSI chairman, said the results “reflect the positive impact of the restructuring process”.

“The progress we have made in reducing the debt burden and enhancing liquidity, coupled with the management’s continued implementation of resolute measures to control administrative and operational costs, has laid a solid foundation for future growth,” he said in the filing to the DFM earlier this month.