Thorny issues start to take heavy toll on Leighton - The National

Leighton Holdings is having a challenging time in the Middle East, facing a possible breach of its ethics code surrounding payments connected to work at a project related to oil exports in Iraq.

In addition, the Australian construction company's joint venture, Habtoor Leighton Group (HLG), based in the UAE, has struggled to collect payments and its book value has been written down, resulting in Leighton suffering an A$153.9 million (Dh608.6m) loss in the Middle East and Africa in the six months to the end of December.

The possible ethics breach is related to Leighton's subsidiary company, Leighton Offshore, "in connection with work to expand offshore loading facilities for Iraq's crude oil exports", the company said.

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