UAE's Arabtec revenue growth to slow this year

DUBAI (Reuters) - Arabtec Holding Co ARTC.DU, the UAE's largest construction firm by market value, said on Tuesday it expects revenue this year to grow 40 percent, slower than in 2007.

"We expect revenue in 2008 to grow by 40 percent to 6 billion dirhams ($1.63 billion) ... driven by more projects," Chief Executive Officer Riad Kamal told Reuters by telephone.

Revenue soared 52 percent last year to 4.27 billion dirhams and profit more than doubled to 535.2 million dirhams, according to Reuters data.

"Profit growth depends on many factors, such as the cost of building materials, wages and possible delays in deliveries, which are out of our hands," Kamal said.

Arabtec made its second-biggest quarterly profit ever in the fourth quarter as profit margins improved and as it expanded regionally. [nL20681017]

The firm operates nine units in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, and said in January it won its first project in Syria, from Emaar Properties EMAR.DU.

Gulf Arab economies are expanding on a five-fold jump in oil prices since 2002, which has spurred a real estate and construction boom.

Still, construction firms are facing higher building-material costs and labour strikes over wages triggered by rising inflation.

"The rising cost of building materials will have an impact on our growth, but we are trying to minimise that," Kamal said, without being more specific.