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Al Habtoor Eyes Gulf Expansion

DUBAI - Dubai-based Al Habtoor Leighton Group is eyeing expansion into Kuwait, Oman and Libya this year shifting its focus from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and sees its order book rising 36 per cent over 12 months, an executive said.

Construction firms have been rapidly expanding operations outside the UAE, where house prices in Dubai, the emirate hardest hit by the financial crisis, plunged some 60 per cent from their peaks in 2008, and billions of dollars worth of projects were put on hold or cancelled.

“I think the business over the next couple of years will change for us away from the UAE,” Laurie Voyer, the firm’s chief executive and managing director told Reuters on Wednesday.

“I expect in the next two or three years the surrounding Gulf countries will contribute about the same as what the UAE has done for us in the last couple of years.” Al Habtoor, an affiliate of Australia’s Leighton Holding, will generate about 50 per cent of its revenues over the next two to three years from the UAE, particularly in Abu Dhabi, down from 80 per cent currently, Voyer said.

Revenues from Qatar are expected to rise to around 25 per cent from 20 per cent, with the remainder coming largely from Saudi Arabia where the firm is already operating, and opportunities in Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, he said.

Construction firms in the UAE having been securing more work in Qatar recently to take advantage of a market which is set to grow 7 per cent to about $5.6 billion in 2010, according to investment bank The First Investor.

“We are already well established in Qatar so that’s probably going to be the easiest (area) for us to expand into,” he said. Al Habtoor’s total order book is expected to rise to around Dh30 billion ($8.17 billion) over the next 12 months from around Dh22 billion.