Qatar’s Ezdan Holding cuts 15% of its workforce: Bloomberg

CAIRO – 15 November 2017: Qatar’s Ezdan Holding Group QSC has cut its workforce by almost 15 percent, as the gulf country’s largest publicly traded real estate developer restructures its operations, Bloomberg news agency reported.

The company cut 220 jobs, mainly pertaining to maintenance staff and some management

International Rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) cut its long-term corporate credit rating on Ezdan to junk, downgrading it to BB from BBB-, with a negative outlook.

S&P cited a weakening of the company’s financial-risk profile because of deterioration in the country’s operating environment as a result of the boycott imposed by four Arab states on Qatar.

Valued at 21.2 billion riyals ($5.5 billion), Ezdan is controlled by its founder, a Qatari royal, and related entities, and only has about six percent of its shares available for trading by outside investors, according to Bloomberg.