Arabian Business reported that Dubai’s Arabtec Construction has signed AED 750 million contracts in India to build 3 mixed use projects.

The UAE’s largest construction firm said that the deal is the first contract for Arabtec’s JV in India with Raheja Developers Limited which is currently under formation. The Dubai based builder holds 63% stake in the venture.

Arabtec confirmed that it has received a letter of intent from Raheja Developers Limited to build 3 projects over the next 48 months and which have a total value of around AED 750 million.

The Raheja Revanta Project, located in Gurgaon, Haryana will include a high rise apartment tower and around 1,000 low rise buildings. The Raheja Phoenix Project located at Shadipur depot in New Delhi comprises a 50 storey residential tower, a shopping mall and 2,800 affordable housing units.

Finally the Raheja Shristi Project also located at Gurgaon in Haryana will see the construction of 300 residential high end apartment units. Arabtec currently has a backlog of projects worth around AED 15 billion in all of its markets by the end of the year but it is increasingly looking to expand overseas to diversify away from Dubai's once booming property sector.

The construction firm was among dozens of contractors that bore the brunt of Dubai’s property collapse in late 2008. More than half of developments in the city were scrapped or put on hold in the wake of the financial crisis, leaving construction firms scrabbling for cash as project finance dried up.

Arabtec last month said that it has yet to receive 60% of the money it is owed for projects completed before the onset of the global financial crisis.

Mr Ziad Makhzoumi CFO of Arabtec Holding said that “There are two sets of payments, payments due from work we have completed now and payments due from work we completed before. Close to 40% has been paid and continues to be paid. So we hope that within a year or so most of the outstanding payments will be up to date.”

(Sourced from www.arabianbusiness.com)