Habtoor Leighton to move 50% of operations outside UAE
Contract bids in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Qatar
Al Habtoor Leighton is bidding on a string of contracts in a drive to move 50% of operations outside the UAE by Q4 2012.
The contracts include two US $2.67b dollar deals (SAR 10b) in Saudi Arabia and the firm also hopes to announce onshore projects in Iraq by the end of 2011.
Al Habtoor won its first contract in Iraq last year and its first in Saudi Arabia in 2009.
There are further plans to bid for work on Qatar’s USD 36 billion railway and metro project, according to Reuters; Al Habtoor has already bid on the UAE rail network, pioneered by Etihad Rail.
Chief executive and managing director Laurie Voyer, told Reuters the firm may pitch on tenders for tunnelling, track work and station construction; elements successfully delivered in previous project in its parent company’s native Australia.
“We would think that in the next 6 to 12 months there will be a couple of substantial orders. I’d be surprised if it’s not in the scale of SAR 5 billion to SAR 10 billion. The contracts would likely be infrastructure and development projects,” Voyer said about the Saudi contracts.
