Arabian Business reported that Arabtec Construction, a subsidiary of Arabtec Holding, has won an AED 200 million deal to build the headquarters of the Al Baraka Group in Bahrain Bay.

The 14 storey, twin tower project will span more than 38,000 square meters and will take 20 months to complete.

Mr Riad Kamal CEO of Arabtec Holding described the deal as a successful step in the company's geographic expansion.

Mr Kamal was last week barred from trading in UAE stocks for six months, following an investigation by the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange in trades carried out in May 2009. The ban was due to Mr Kamal selling shares prior to the announcement of project wins.

He added that "I was ignorant of the rules and regulations. We were not aware that you could not trade in the stocks for a period of ten days before or after announcements, and that is what I did."

Arabtec has been at pains to diversify its operations outside Dubai's once booming real estate market, recently announcing a JV with Bahrain's Masawa Holding.

The Dubai based company is bidding for USD 8.17 billion of work outside its local markets. Arabtec in November 2010 posted a 95.6% decline in third quarter net profit to AED 6.8 million, down from AED 166.6 million in the same period a year earlier.

(Sourced from www.arabianbusiness.com)