But the £500m fixed-price contract will send alarm bells ringing in some quarters of the industry, with some comparing it to the fixed-price nature of the Wembley deal that put a dent into the Australian firm’s profits when it was delivered late and over-budget.

However a Multiplex spokesman told B&E that under no circumstances should the projects be compared.

He said: “The problems with Wembley are well known, but this is a totally different project. It’s a pre-construction contract at the moment; it’s not the full contract, but I don’t think we’re going to go down that route, it’s not really Wembley related. Multiplex have a global expertise in building towers, they’ve actually built over 300 towers in the last 45 years. There really is no relevance to Wembley here at all. That was a national stadium; it was a unique project with national pressures. Towers are Multiplex’s bread and butter.”

It is understood that Arab Investments, which bought the project from the German fund manager Difa in May, has chosen Multiplex over several rivals.

The spokesman said: “Arab Investments have worked with Multiplex in Dubai and they believe Multiplex is one of the few companies in the world that can do this project.”

Construction work will begin early next year, with completion due in late 2009.