The Big Five preview: TAV Construction
TAV Construction’s Gulf regional director Yusuf Akcayoglu comments on hosting his first The Big 5 seminar: ‘Using win-win contracts to benefit developers, main contractors and MEP contractors’ Yusuf Akcayoglu joined TAV Construction, the world’s third largest airport contractor in 2004. He has been the Gulf regional director since 2007, spearheading TAV’s airport and high-rise developments […]
TAV Construction’s Gulf regional director Yusuf Akcayoglu comments on hosting his first The Big 5 seminar: ‘Using win-win contracts to benefit developers, main contractors and MEP contractors’
Yusuf Akcayoglu joined TAV Construction, the world’s third largest airport contractor in 2004. He has been the Gulf regional director since 2007, spearheading TAV’s airport and high-rise developments across the Middle East. It is the first time he has presented at The Big 5.
The Turkish company has more than US $104 billion worth of projects currently under contract and has worked on airports in Doha, Istanbul and Cairo.
What is your seminar about?
A psychological barrier remains after the financial crisis and since then we have been working on a build-operate-transfer model (BOT). Our company was the first initiator of it in Turkey, we have now used it on seven projects and we want this model to be used in the Gulf.
Once you do the forecast, let’s say for an airport; for how many passengers can travel, the calculated revenue, estimated profit. Then you send the project to the financial institutions to raise money and begin.
BOT is be the win-win situation because the motto behind it is; the earlier completion, the earlier the revenue generation. Delivering things quickly is one of our distinctive qualities.
How do you deliver projects on time?
Firstly we are a specialised company, focussed on airports. We have very good people in the business, plus in major sub-contracting packages. We purchase with repetitive procurement so our suppliers and sub contractors know what we want and we work well together.
We also seek design build contracts rather than build only as in our experience they can be delivered more efficiently. Construction is all about on time and on place, installation and delivery.
What are the main issues facing the industry?
There are no tenders; it’s very competitive and the profit margins are almost gone. The companies are struggling now to keep their staff in work and not lose their talented people. Keeping staff busy is always a challenge.
Luckily we have projects in Qatar and Muscat and so far in Dubai our projects are doing well.
Of course it’s a little bit of luck but in the mean time we are always careful to look after our clients and keep our people busy.
Do you have any tips for first time visitors at The Big 5?
In Dubai the materials and concepts are very different from Europe and other emerging countries.
For suppliers, they must keep in mind that their presence should be in the region full time. Sometimes they just trade and leave, but this doesn’t work. They need to have their warehouse and samples and quality standards and comply with the market standards.
For the contractors, we have done things by trial and error that cost us money. For a company to switch on a project here, of course the first one may not make money, so they want repetition, so the contract department must be very strong and standards must be high.
Why should people listen to what you have to say?
Our experiences are from real life; we are the people taking the risks so if a project goes wrong everybody else gets their fees but we don’t. I think the subject is interesting to a lot of people, especially how to manage a project where there are conflicts with the client.
What’s the future for TAV?
In 10 years’ time we want to see our company number one in the world for airport construction. Currently the Engineering News Record ranks us at number three.
Akcayoglu will be joined by fellow panellists Samer Arafa, executive vice president and member of the board for AL-Arrab Contraction Co and Sougata Nandi, executive director, TECOM Investments. The discussion will be held Tuesday November 23 at 12:30pm.
