Dubai’s Emaar Properties hires contractor to restore fire-ravaged hotel

Shares in the company fell on Sunday morning, the first day of trading since the incident on Thursday night.

An independent Abu Dhabi financial broker, Mitesh Sunder, told 7DAYS: “As an investor, if there has been no official comment, I’m going to need more reassurance from Emaar on the protection of their revenue”.

The company said the building was insured and that the investigation into the cause of the blaze is ongoing.

Emaar, which is about 30 percent owned by the Dubai government, dropped as much as 4.4 percent, before paring its slide to 1.9 percent at 12:23 p.m. local time, the biggest contributor to the DFM General Index’s 0.5 percent loss. The fire is covered by insurance and Emaar sees “no material impact” to the company because of the blaze, according to a company statement on Sunday.

Emaar Hospitality is not a listed company. “Emaar is building quite a lot of Address hotels, and there are people getting concerned about properties like this in terms of health and safety, so that’s where the real issue comes in – it’s more about sentiment rather than monetary impact for the group as a whole”, he said. The gauge sank 25% a year ago, the most since 2008.

“Cash is king in a time of uncertainty and so fund managers may be sitting on ample liquidity until markets stabilise”, said Muhammed Shabbir, head of equity portfolios at Dubai-based Rasmala Investment Bank.

“If you look at the underlying fundamentals for Emaar as a group, they’re actually not that bad”. Teva said it expects to get $658m in proceeds from the purchase of underwriter options. Dubai blue chip Emaar Properties fell 0.7 percent, heading for its fifth straight session of declines.

A huge fire broke out in the luxury Dubai hotel late on December 31, 2015, injuring 16 people, just a few hours before the emirate celebrated the New Year with a spectacular fireworks display nearby. No casualties were reported.

“A team of worldwide consultants has already been mobilised by DUTCO Group, who are now on site and working round-the-clock”, the company said in a statement to the media on January 3. Cleaning work has started with the mechanical, electrical and structural assessment of the building and restoration also underway. Construction will commence afterwards.