Arabian Construction Company to build Jordan's tallest building

By Hamdan Al-Mheiri in Dubai
For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-08-20

[AS-ARCHITECTURE STUDIO] When completed, the Rotana Hotel Tower will reach 188 metres.

Maher Merehbi, chief executive officer of the UAE-based Arabian Construction Company (ACC), announced Tuesday (August 17th) that the company was selected to build the Rotana Hotel Tower, located in Abdali, in the centre of Amman, Jordan.

ACC won the 342 million dirham ($93.1 million) contract from the Emirates Tourism Investment (ETI) company based in Abu Dhabi.

"We are very pleased with this latest contract and to now have the opportunity to build a tall tower in Amman after building many state-of-the-art, iconic high rises across the Middle East, including the UAE, Lebanon and Qatar," Merehbi said in a statement.

When complete in 2013, the tower will be the tallest building in Jordan, rising to a height of 188 metres.

The total area of the Rotana Hotel project, classified as a five-star hotel, will be 66,800 square metres. It will consist of seven underground levels with capacity for 180 vehicles in addition to rising 50 levels above ground. The hotel is expected to include 425 guest rooms, a gymnasium, health spa, swimming pool, and several restaurants.

Growth rate of the Saudi GDP will be 4% in 2010

Saudi Arabia's Samba Financial Group predicted in a report published Wednesday (August 18th) that the rate of GDP growth in Saudi Arabia will be 4% this year. The report also said that the annual inflation rate will be fixed at 5% by the end of 2010.

Another report, released Sunday (August 15th) by CB Richard Ellis for Real Estate Investments, said that the kingdom will need to create four million jobs. Despite an anticipated growth rate and incentive programmes exceeding $400 billion in value, the kingdom might not be able to fully address unemployment issues.

Dubai stock market drops to lowest level since June

On Sunday (August 15th), Dubai's stock market dropped to its lowest level since June 30th because of a series of lower-than-expected quarterly results from real estate companies and fears that the global economy might not recover as soon as expected.

Union Properties shares fell to their lowest level in 10 years. Deyaar Development shares lost 1.3% of their value. The two companies announced their losses for the second quarter on August 12th.

Markets in Qatar, Muscat, Kuwait and Bahrain also declined following the drop in US markets and falling oil prices.

Egyptian Investment Bank announces purchase of private bank

The Financial Group EFG–Hermes, an Egyptian investment bank specialising in the Arab world, announced on Tuesday (August 17th) that it would buy 65% of the shares of Credit Libanais, a private bank.

The group will pay $542 per share and pointed out that they have the option of buying an additional 25% of the shares during the next two years for the same price. The group said in a statement that it expected the transaction to be profitable in a year.

Health resorts in Dubai show increased profits

Paul Arnold, president of transaction services and real estate consulting at Ernst & Young in the Middle East and North Africa, said revenues for hotel spas in Dubai increased by 45.5% in the first quarter of 2010.

He said hotel guests booked 61% of spa treatments while non-hotel guests or day spa visitors comprised the remaining 30%.

The percentage of hotel guests visiting the spas on a monthly basis ranged between 60% and 62%, an increase from the 48% to 58% recorded during all 12 months of 2009.

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