Dubai-based Arabtec Holding has appointed Raja Ghanma as CEO of Arabtec Construction.

Ghanma previously served as the firm’s chief operating officer and has been with Arabtec since 1995.

On 18 June 2014, the company’s CEO, Hasan Abdullah Ismaik, resigned as Arabtec’s share price fell from a high of AED9.9 ($2.7) on 7 May to close at AED4.4 on 17 June.

Ismaik had been driving forward an ambitious strategy that aimed to turn Arabtec into one of the 10 largest construction companies in the world by 2018. The plan was to do this through inking multibillion-dollar construction contracts; forming joint ventures that would take the firm into new sectors, such as oil and gas and heavy infrastructure; taking complete ownership of subsidiaries; and targeting companies for acquisition.

Following Ismaik’s departure, much of this strategy appears to have been abandoned and the company has retrenched senior executives and a limited number of staff to boost productivity and reduce costs.