UAE: EFT, TVI Sign Agreement on Fully-Automatic Parking Area

SHARJAH, 14 March 2007 -- Emirates Financial Towers (EFT) -- consisting of 26 floors of Grade-A office space, retail offices, and residential units -- have signed a $120 million agreement with TAV (Tepe Akfen VIE Investment Construction and Operation) to work on the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) project.

This contract comes after a number of agreements made by EFT with several other well-known companies, including Projacs International, the largest Pan-Arab project management firm for the project management, Al-Qurg Engineering Consultancy for the construction supervision works, and MAG Robotic Systems to develop the first-of-its-kind high-tech parking facility in the Middle East.

This system has been designed to contain 1,200 fully-automated parking spaces and will be the largest of its kind worldwide.

"Today, we are witnessing a new alliance with a very important company in the domain of construction. We have chosen TAV because of its high record of achievements, which are consistent with our goals to develop EFT to the highest professional standards and to the deadlines given", Hani Abu Auida, EFT chief executive officer, said.

"We are very proud that TAV's name will now be associated with the EFT project as it is will be one of Dubai's most distinguished projects, based in its international financial center, the future heart of the emirate. This project is a significant addition to our portfolio and will be one of our biggest projects within the UAE,"said Ani Ray, TAV regional director.

TAV Tepe Akfen VIE Investment Construction and Operation had beaten 5 other competitors for this project.

Tepe Group and Afken Holding are a conglomerate of several large Turkish companies with combined interests in institutional, industrial, civil and commercial construction, industrial and commercial products manufacturing, facilities management and other sevices.

TAV has many projects in Turkey, the UAE and other countries -- with its most prominent development related to airport construction.

The value of its completed projects is around $561 million, while the value of its ongoing construction projects is around $1.3 billion.