Dubai state-owned developer Nakheel confirmed on Monday it had cancelled a construction contract with South Korea’s Samsung C&T that had included the building of shopping malls.

In a statement, the developer said it had taken the decision to reschedule or cancel a number of supplier contracts as a result of a delay to its $3bn mall expansion programme.

At the end of last month it announced it was putting the design work and site preparation for the programme on hold for 12 months because of the global financial downturn.

Samsung said on Friday its $1bn order from Nakheel to build apartments, shopping malls and other commercial structures in Dubai had been cancelled.

(Published on http://www.arabianbusiness.com on 06 April 2009)