Hill International, the United States-based project manager which last year made over 35 percent (2016: 41 percent) of revenues from its Middle East operations, has said that its shares will be re-admitted to the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, October 18 after the company had brought its account filings back up to date.

The company's shares had been suspended from NYSE since August 14 and had traded on the OTC Pink market after NYSE said it would take steps to de-list the company since it had fallen behind with filings. The company's management had been working on a restatement of prior year accounts filed for 2016, 2015 and 2014 by a previous management team.

Accounts were brought up to date on Monday when the company declared results for the first six months of 2018, which showed a net loss of $15.6 million, compared to a profit of $41.5 million in the same period last year when it benefited from a gain of $40.6 million from the sale of its Construction Claims business.

Revenue declined by 6 percent year-on-year to $226 million, with the Middle East operations providing 33.5 percent ($75.71 million) of the total.

In a press release accompanying its six-month filing, Hill International said that the loss was due in part to lower revenues as projects in the Middle East and the U.S. wound down, but also because it suffered a $7.9 million loss as a client in Kuwait (the Public Authority of Housing Welfare) pulled a performance guarantee bond related to one of its projects.

Notes to the accounts state that the company "is taking legal action" to recover the full amount, but added that its case had been dismissed by the Kuwait First Instance Court last month. The company has filed an appeal.

The company also said in its press release that losses were partially offset by the recovery of a historic bad debt from a Libyan client, resulting in a net benefit of $3.2 million.

Raouf Ghali, who was appointed as the company's CEO in August, said: “Over the past year, management has been focused on the profit improvement plan and getting the company current with its SEC filings. Now that these things are behind us, we will refocus our efforts on growing the business profitably for Hill’s shareholders."

Hill International also announced on Wednesday that its interim chief financial officer, Marco Martinez, retired yesterday. He has been replaced as interim chief financial officer by Gregory Wolf, who has been working at the firm since January.

(Writing by Michael Fahy; Editing by Shane McGinley)

(michael.fahy@refinitiv.com)

© ZAWYA 2018