A subsidiary of Dubai contractor Drake & Scull International said on Wednesday it had won a 290 million dirham ($79 million) contract to build and operate a cooling plant in Saudi Arabia.

Drake & Scull Water and Power (DSWP) will engineer, procure, construct and operate the district cooling plant in Riyadh which will have a capacity of 35,000 tonnes.

"The design and build project is scheduled to start immediately and will take 18 months to complete," the company said.   

"As of September this year, DSI's projects in Saudi Arabia contributed to 29 percent of the company's total backlog, including the backlog consolidation of recently acquired Drake & Scull International Saudi," it said, adding it wanted to increase that figure to 50 percent by 2011.

Drake has been rapidly expanding outside Dubai where house prices have plunged 60 percent since their peak in 2008 as a result of the financial crisis.   

It specialises in mechanical, engineering and plumbing businesses, and reported a sharp 45 percent drop in quarterly profit last month, below expectations. - Reuters