Turkish MEP company targets $272m in 2012 projects

Burak Kizilhan says AE Arma-Elektropanc aims to win $272.2m worth of MEP projects in 2012 (ITP Images)

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AE Arma Elektropanç aims to win MEP project tenders worth around $272.2m in the GCC over the course of 2012, the business development manager of the Turkish company said on Sunday.

In an interview with MEP Middle East, Burak Kizilhan said that the company has prepared tenders worth $4bn over the last three months, with the expectation that it will win around 8% to 10% of them.

“There are a lot of projects here, in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries. At the moment, we’ve got 24 ongoing projects across three continents. Of that, we have five ongoing projects in the UAE, so it makes up approximately 20% of our total order book,” he explained.

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He added that the MEP contractor aims to target projects such as luxury hotels and high rise towers over the coming year.

“We specialise in hotels, shopping malls and residences. To be honest, all the hotels we’ve completed so far have been five star hotels and we’ve even completed a seven star hotel in Turkey. I would say that hotels and high-rise buildings are our core market,” Kizilhan said.

With a flurry of construction work taking place in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the Turkish born, British educated electrical engineer said that AE Arma-Elektropanç was looking to establish itself strongly in both markets.

“We have an office in Qatar, but for Saudi Arabia, it’s going to be next year, by the third or fourth quarter. We’re now looking for country managers and workers at the senior management level. As per our company procedures, we hire the country manager first, who is then responsible for everything else.”

However, he highlighted the complications in entering the Saudi Arabian market, which were a result of its distinctive business practices.

“First of all, it’s about getting manpower (into the country). That’s the most difficult bit for us. We’ve actually been looking for a country manager for about four or five months, but nobody is willing to go there. It’s actually not so bad once you go there, (but the perception has an impact).”

“The second thing is that the main contractors get the project and give it out to other contractors; I would call them sub-contractors. It creates a difficult situation; none of our markets operate like this."

"There are only two or three main companies that distribute the projects, which makes it difficult even for the main contractors, so if you consider us as sub-contractors, then it’s going to be even more difficult!” Kizilhan concluded.