Page 62 - magazine Jun 2020

Gulf News

Saudi construction giant Binladin slashes

jobs and pay to cut costs in half

Saudi Binladin Group cut jobs and reduced staff of its 100,000 employees, according to an internal
salaries as Saudi Arabia’s biggest construction firm announcement seen by Bloomberg.
navigates the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The company, which is restructuring an estimated
The Jeddah-based conglomerate put thousands $15 billion of debt, has already started laying off
of employees on indefinite, unpaid leave as staff, including senior managers, and more jobs
it weighs options to lower costs by as much as will be cut, the people said, asking not to be
50%, according to people with knowledge of the identified due to the sensitivity of the matter. A
matter. The group reduced pay by about a third Binladin representative didn’t respond to requests
during the holy month of Ramadan to reflect for comment.
shorter working hours, which impacted about half

Kuwait construction sector facing mass

closures due to COVID-19 lockdown

Approximately 39% of businesses involved in
the construction, contracting and architecture
sector have shut down operations since Kuwait
instituted lockdowns to reduce the spread of the
COVID-19 virus in March 2020, a new survey has
revealed. According to a Business Impact Survey,
published by Bensirri PR (BPR), an independent
corporate, financial and political communications
firm based in Kuwait, nearly 31% of businesses
had a revenue drop of more than 80%, but was
still operating when the survey was conducted.
The Kuwait Business Impact Survey (KBIS)
gathered key insights from 498 Kuwaiti businesses
that were profitable in 2019 across 13 different
sectors, and provides decisionmakers with a
direction to better understand policy decisions
surrounding the future and sustainability of the
Kuwaiti economy in a post-COVID-19 environment,
a statement from BPR said.

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