Group Five replaces £275m of cancelled orders in the Gulf with local public contracts

A South African contractor which lost R4bn (£275m) in cancelled orders in Dubai has said it has replaced most of them with public contracts in its native country.

Group Five was forced to lay off hundreds of workers in the region because of the downturn in the emirate.

In a statement accompanying its half year results to December 2008, the company said its civils business had been hit the hardest by the disappearance of the work:

“Although the cancellation of contracts had no impact on the results for the period under review, the impact will affect 2nd half 2009 and 2010 in the form of lost revenue and future operating profit.”

Revenue in the first half at the company was up a third to R6bn (£411m) while operating profits were hiked 35% to R377m (£25.9m).

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