UAE’s Arabtec soars 14% as ex-CEO said to up stake

Shares of Dubai-listed Arabtec Holding surged 14 percent on Monday, hitting their highest jump in over a year after reports said the builder's former chief executive Hasan Ismaik is planning to up his holding in the company.

Bloomberg cited an unnamed source familiar with the matter who said Ismaik had already started buying shares. There was no mention of how large the stake would be, and a spokeswoman for the company declined to comment on the matter.

Arabtec’s shares closed at AED 1.44. The stock was the second-biggest contributor to gains made by Dubai’s DFM General Index, which ended the session 2 percent higher, its highest level since November.

Ismaik currently holds around 12 percent of Arabtec, according to data compiled by Argaam.

Shares of Arabtec are still down by 80 percent from their peak.  In 2014, a restructuring of the company helped trigger a stock selloff that wiped out a fifth of Dubai’s benchmark index.