Reuters reported that Dubai construction firm Al Habtoor Leighton, an affiliate of Australia's Leighton Holdings is eyeing two contract wins in Saudi Arabia worth up to SAR 10 billion by year end.
The firm also hopes to announce onshore projects in Iraq by the end of 2011 and will bid for work on Qatar's USD 36 billion railway and metro project as it aims to have 50% of its work outside the United Arab Emirates by the end of 2012.
Mr Laurie Voyer CEO & MD of Al Habtoor Leighton said that "We would think that in the next 6 to 12 months there will be a couple of substantial orders. I'd be surprised if its not in the scale of SAR 5 billion to SAR 10 billion. The contracts would likely be infrastructure and development projects.
Saudi Arabia is facing a massive housing problem due to rapid population growth and an inflow of expatriate workers coming to the kingdom which is rolling out USD 400 billion infrastructure spending plan.
Dubai builder Arabtec said that it is looking to eventually more than double its workforce to 25,000 in Saudi Arabia. Construction firms have been rapidly expanding operations outside the United Arab Emirates, where house prices in Dubai, the emirate hardest hit by the financial crisis, plunged some 60% from their peaks in 2008 and billions of dollars worth of projects were put on hold or cancelled.
Mr Voyer said that the firm expected to increase its current order book to AED 25 billion by year end from AED 20 billion currently as it looks to win more contracts in the Gulf Arab region. Al Habtoor won its first contract in Iraq last year and its first in Saudi Arabia in 2009.
He said that the firm is keen to participate in Qatar's railway and metro project, tenders for which are expected to be out in the next two months. For the Doha metro there is lot of registration for interest and industry sounding going on at the moment. We are staying near the front line on that. We will participate in this.
He said that the company may look to pitch for tenders on tunneling, track work and building stations all of which Leighton has traditionally done in Australia. The company has already bid for the UAE's AED 40 billion rail network called Etihad Rail. It's being evaluated at the minute.
(Sourced from Reuters)
