Hyder unlikely to recoup all funds from Nakheel

Hyder Consulting Plc, a UK engineering-design company, said it may only recoup 70 per cent of the money owed by Dubai developer Nakheel PJSC, as a lack of finance hurts construction in Dubai and the Arabian Gulf.

The company is owed about £1 million (Dh5.8 million) by the state-owned developer of Dubai's palm tree-shaped islands, for which it expects to receive "about 70 pence in the pound," Chief Financial Officer Russell Down said at a press conference in London yesterday.

"It doesn't put us off Dubai," Chief Executive Officer Ivor Catto said at the press conference. "There's been a very good time in Dubai, but now there's a recession."

The company has been working in the Middle East for 45 years, Catto said.