Exclusive: Murray & Roberts slam downsizing reports
South African construction firm dismisses reports that it is ‘in trouble’
Recent media reports that Murray & Roberts Holdings, the builder of Dubai’s Burj Al Arab hotel, has dismissed about 28% of its employees in the region, are wide of the mark, company officials have said.
Reports that the South African firm had ‘resized itself to market conditions’, failed to reflect the true situation, the company’s human resources director, Johan Fourie insisted.
“Like any contractor in the Middle East we have projects finishing all the time and there are always people we let go at the end of these cycles,” he told Big Project Middle East.
“It’s true that there has been a reduction of 28% in our work force, but the reduction has taken place over a two year period,” he added.
“There is an implicit suggestion in these articles that Murray & Roberts Holdings are in trouble in some way but the truth is far from that. We are tendering all over the place and look forward to being a major force in construction for some time to come.”
Murray & Roberts are South Africa’s second-largest construction firm, and were part of the consortium that built the Burj Khalifa tower project.
The contractor also worked on the $817mn Zayed University campus in Abu Dhabi and a $598.9mn Abu Dhabi hospital project.
It was also involved in the construction of a number of stadiums for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
