It's a Nass world

Samir Nass, Deputy chairman and managing director of the Nass Group.

From civil contracting to marine dredging, the Nass family has built a small empire of companies to serve Bahrain’s construction industry. Construction Week’s Benjamin Millington was invited into the home of the group’s managing director and heir to the empire, Samir Nass, to discuss the company’s future.

Coverage of the financial crisis has been extensive and opinions on its severity varied, but managing director and vice chairman of the Nass Group, Samir Nass, isn’t pulling any punches.

“I think we’re only at the beginning of the downward business cycle and it could continue for the next eight years,” says Nass.

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FEATURED COMMENT Ever the pragmatist, Samir has done well to keep a level head on his shoulders, and steer his company away from 'artific   1 Comments Read more comments »

“For the construction industry there’ll be huge price corrections, competition will be fierce and we’ll all be in a much more aggressive market.

“I see a very grim picture coming up in the next five years and a lot of people are going to be hurting very soon.” It’s an ominous warning from a man with his finger firmly on the pulse of Bahrain’s construction sector.

Nass is not only the managing director of Bahrain’s largest contracting firm, he’s also a board member of other influential organisations including the Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI).

So if his predictions are correct, is the Nass Group, which had a 2008 turnover in the range of US $900 million (BHD340 million), going to be able to maintain its stability through the tough times? “To tell you the truth, I don’t know. At this stage things are not clear and we are monitoring the situation,” he says.

But plans are also in place to minimise the damage and a restructuring programme is on the drawing board, which will involve merging some department’s common areas to make them more competitive.This will inevitably involve some job cuts, “removing the fat” that goes unnoticed during the good times, as Nass put it.

Just how much the firm will have to downsize its workforce of 12,000 is unclear, but at this stage he says it will be minimal with small trims made here and there, to make the company more efficient. What Nass is certain of is that the high-end wages will be slashed.

“Every morning I open my email to find many CVs being posted to me from project managers with huge capabilities and experience and asking a lot less than what we’re paying today,” he says.

“At the end of the day I have to compete as a contractor and provide my client with the product they want, at the best price. I can’t afford to employ people at three times the salary of the market, when I can get someone at market price with the same capabilities or better.”