In Profile: Omar Itani of Turkish groundworks contractor Zetas
Big Project ME sits down for a chat with the managing director of Zetas Zemin Teknolojisi, to find out why business is booming for the Turkish firm
Last year, Saudi Arabia-based Cayan Group announced that it had awarded Zetas Zemin Teknolojisi the enabling package for its landmark project, Cayan Cantara, in Dubai. The high-end luxury residential development marks an important step in the Turkish contractor’s burgeoning expansion plans in the GCC as it looks to become a major player in the region.
Set up in 1988 as a small geotechnical consulting firm in Istanbul, Zetas has seen a rapid amount of growth and change over the last three decades, moving from being an independent firm into a group that provides clients with a fully integrated chain of services under the umbrella of foundation engineering practices. These services include soil investigations, design, consultancy, implementation, monitoring and a recently added division that specialises in the manufacture of special tools and machinery.
Today, the Zetas group of companies has grown into an internationally recognised foundation engineering and contracting company with established group offices across the Middle East and Africa, in countries as varied as the UAE, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Qatar, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Tanzania.
Given the rapid pace of development for the group, Big Project ME caught up with Omar Itani, managing director for the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Lebanon operations of Zetas Zemin Teknolojisi, to find out what makes this Turkish firm tick.
“The UAE office opened in 2003, it then became the hub for Middle East and GCC area operations. We’ve been in the UAE during the golden times of construction, and we’ve been through the slow times. Now, things are looking very busy in a market full of momentum and energy,” he asserts during an interview at Zetas’ offices in TECOM.
“Since establishing the Dubai office, Zetas has successfully completed more than 200 projects in the UAE, mostly medium to large-scale in size. Some projects were very challenging, technically speaking, while others were and are of a very dynamic nature, given that our work often deals with unforeseen underground conditions encountered during construction.”
Since setting up shop in Dubai, the company has branched out into neighbouring GCC countries, while also using the emirate as base for its expansion into Eastern Europe. However, Itani’s primary focus remains on the management of the Qatari, Lebanese and UAE markets, with Oman likely to be a point of major interest in the near future.
“We are mainly focused on underground works with design build type. We’ve got experience in environmental geotechnics, enabling works [deep foundation and shoring systems], cut-off walls, retaining systems and all types of soil improvement projects.
“We’ve recently added two main services to our company. The first is related to the installation of vertical conductor pipes for the oil & gas industry, and we currently have a couple of projects in Abu Dhabi.”
The other new service offered by Zetas is one that Itani has high hopes for, given its initial success for the company.
“We have also introduced a water resources services which involves underground water storage, hydrogeological studies and exploration wells with the capability to drill up to 800m in depth, well construction and development, pumping tests up to 100 litres per second, infiltration tests, geophysical surveys, hydrogeological modelling and reporting. In addition, Zetas has recently completed an internationally recognised project in Liwa, Abu Dhabi, and are about to complete a project in Tanzania, as well as a strategic project in Dubai.
“From that perspective, we’re very optimistic. We’re planning on investing a little bit more into our water resources project division, because we’re unique in this field and we have the know-how and the quality. We’ve successfully completed extremely big projects. They may be only a few projects, but they’re big.
“With big projects, you achieve great knowledge, and with water resource type projects, we’re looking forward to securing opportunities on a government and cities level,” Itani asserts.
This willingness to explore new opportunities and push boundaries was part of Itani’s mandate when he joined the company in 2008. Having come in when there was plenty of positive sentiment around the market, he was soon confronted with some very challenging situations as the industry floundered in the wake of the crash. Despite these difficulties, Itani remained positive and decided to set in motion plans that would benefit the contractor in the long run.
“You know, as with any other company in Dubai, because of the large amounts of projects that everyone was receiving in the early 2000s, everyone was focusing on projects and getting things done quickly. However, there was a lot of room for improvement throughout the industry.
“We have utilised, very effectively, the downtime in the market to improve the entirety of our system. Of course we had a very high standard of quality and health and safety and planning, but we decided to utilise this time to further improve what we had. For example, we focused on improving our safety quality services and also got ISO-certified,” Itani points out.
“In addition, resource management was improved by upgrading our planning and scheduling. Most importantly, however, our health and safety standards received substantial improvement, especially after getting involved in projects related to the oil & gas industry. We moved from good to great while realising that there’s always room for improvement.
“When I joined the company, Zetas was already well established in the UAE and had marked its name on big projects. We were able to secure some big projects during the downturn and that kept us running. In addition, we had good relationships with consultants and clients of smaller projects, so we moved a little into smaller projects during those times. By 2014, it picked up again, and substantially so in 2015. Now, it’s obvious that the market is witnessing a big boost in construction at full thrust.”
While that may be something of a surprising statement, given the fairly gloomy outlook, Itani insists that the figures back him up and calls for more positivity in the market.
“Our target annual turnover based on previous years is in the region of $150 million, and I would say that as of now we’re on the right track, and we’re approaching that figure pretty fast again. We feel that the market has improved a lot, and yes, we do hear different things from here and there, with lots of speculation. However, we believe in what we see, and so far the market has revealed nothing but very good signs of healthy growth.”
Zetas’ order book certain bears this out, with Itani revealing that in Dubai alone, the contractor has 14 projects ongoing or just starting. These include a project currently underway in the TECOM area, along with a couple of projects in Dubailand, one in Mankhool and three projects in Dubai Marina. Also included in their order book is the strategic water resources project for DEWA.
In addition to this impressive list, there are ongoing longer term projects like the oil & gas ones with the government of Abu Dhabi.
“These are long-term projects spanning several years. They are on an on-call basis, so whenever there’s work to be done, we go there. Long-term projects, specifically the oil & gas ones, are actually a big gain for us, in terms of raising the bar and meeting higher standards. It took us a couple of years of preparation to meet those standards, and we’ve done it,” he states proudly.
“In addition to the O&G projects, we have a couple of nice projects in Abu Dhabi. One of them is very challenging in both its technical specifications and standards, while the other is for a private client on Al Reem Island. We also have one project on Dubaitech Al Qudra, in addition to one project in Jumeirah Village Circle and one in Jumeirah Village Triangle. Finally, we also have one project in Business Bay.”
In fact, Itani predicts that the hospitality and commercial buildings sectors will gain the most ground in terms of construction, while residential construction will continue to maintain a steady volume.
“We have seven very high-profile potential projects in the pipeline, five of which fall into the hospitality category. Also, we’ve always considered the Omani market [to be of particular interest], but the country requires a different strategy given the nature and type of their projects.”
As such, the focus for now remains on the UAE and Dubai in particular, and maintaining the momentum the company has started to pick up. While he does expect there to be some slowdown in certain sectors, Itani remains confident that Zetas will continue to come up with redefined strategies and ideas to cope.
“We’re very optimistic, given that the UAE, and Dubai in particular, is defining a strategy to attract more tourists and companies. I believe that the strategy is clear and well defined and that the future planned projects are big and beautiful. People love to come and explore the UAE, and shift their plans to come and live here and see things in Dubai. That is extremely good for our business as well. It keeps us running, and from that perspective, we’re very optimistic,” he concludes.
