The Business Year

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As the grip of the market tightens around the necks of many suppliers, the fastest to react are well positioned not only to weather the storm but make important gains in market share

Michael Simm

Executive Vice President - Middle East and Asia Pacific, Penspen

Penspen has been present in Abu Dhabi for 38 years, and our office here delivers services across the Middle East region and also oversees our operations in Asia Pacific. The Middle East accounts for around 30% of the company’s global revenue, employs approximately 350 people, and represents one of our leading engineering and project management markets. Three years ago, Penspen started a transformation process initiated by the company’s new global CEO; we revisited our mission and direction as a company and identified key markets and regions where we planned to focus on. Abu Dhabi is an important market since this is the heart of the oil and gas industry and central to Penspen’s Middle East strategy.

Brian Dawes

Regional Manager - Middle East, Applus Velosi

The recent fall in oil prices proved that our strategy to diversify into a broader range of services and industry sectors was the right direction for the company. We have successfully introduced new services for power, construction, and infrastructure, as well as reinforcing our support for the core oil and gas sector with new, technology-driven services, such as our proprietary range of advanced non-destructive testing techniques. Overall, we shifted to more technical service lines in comparison to previous ones. Part of this success was in direct response to a greater emphasis on productivity than in the past. We have always been a relatively low-cost organization; however, everyone was squeezed when the price of oil fell and all our customers were seeking lower prices. We continue to win new business, but market rates are generally lower so we have to do things more cost effectively.

Richard Peckover

Regional Director-Middle East & Africa, Richard Peckover

ALE has been established in Abu Dhabi for around 23 years. As our main base in the Middle East, we have been able to expand into Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, and Iraq from here. We have permanent establishments in those areas with a regional center in Abu Dhabi. We employ around 600 people, and the major sectors we cover are heavy lifting, transportation, and engineering for oil and gas, power, and petrochemical markets in the region. Over the years, we have seen a considerable increase in market competition with a much more aggressive pricing environment; however, we have maintained our strategy of ensuring the quality of our services and our prompt delivery to stay on top of our field. As the market has tightened, there have been less projects but that has only improved the quality and value of our offering. We have grown our network of partners and reduced delay margins to the smallest possible levels.

Rashed Saif Jabr Alsuwaidi

Chairman, Horizon Energy

2015 and 2016 were tough years for us because of the drop in oil prices, changes at ADNOC, and reduced government spending. We have three primary sources of revenue in Abu Dhabi. The oil sector, which is the backbone of the national economy, is the first. The second is the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which has done especially well in recent years and is regarded as one of the best investment institutions because of its transparency, decision-making, and clean image. The third source of revenue is VAT and is much smaller than the other two. The slump in old prices forced ADNOC to reduce costs and take decisive action to rebalance the budget. Immediately, it requested subcontractors to reduce their prices by roughly 25-35%, causing some contractors to leave and others to slash workers. However, we are looking forward to tendering for major projects in 2018 and are optimistic about 2017.

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