Galfar eyes share of RO 2 bn worth of project opportunities in Oman

Leading Omani engineering and construction services contractor Galfar says it is keenly eyeing opportunities linked to the implementation of new projects worth an estimated RO 2 billion due to come on the market over the next three years.

Galfar CEO Dr Hamoud Rashid al Tobi (pictured) said the publicly traded company, which is listed on the Muscat Stock Exchange (MSX), is also working actively to diversify its business model to include, for the first time, projects procured under the Public Private Partnership (PPP), Design Build Own Operate Maintain (DBOOM) and Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) models.

Having emerged from a transformation exercise that has spawned in a leaner, streamlined and focused contracting company, Galfar has sets its sights on achieving a minimum turnover of RO 200 million annually, he stated.

Speaking at the MSX Investor Roadshow held in Muscat last week, the CEO affirmed: “We believe this is doable because, as of today, we carry half a billion Omani riyals worth of order book in hand. That’s $1.3 billion worth of jobs in hand. And we also have identified an addressable market with screened opportunities worth RO 2 billion coming up in the next three years.”

Dr Al Tobi further added: “At Galfar, we aim to maintain the same market share of 10 to 15 per cent, based on which we aspire to acquire RO 300 million worth of new jobs every year to fuel our pipeline of projects and our future growth.”

Key to sustaining the company’s order book is a strategy to supplement its longstanding focus on conventional contracting projects with opportunities to be delivered under the DBOOM and EPC models – a trend being witnessed in the Oil & Gas sector, of late.

“We have done a comprehensive gap analysis to see what is required for us to go from the present level to the next level. So we are looking at DBOOM projects and EPC projects within Oil & Gas as a diversification stream. We’re also looking at renewables and we have already identified several opportunities that we are working on.”

Equally promising is the PPP route that a number of government entities are currently adopting to deliver key projects. “We are currently discussing several PPP-based opportunities in ports, roads and even civilian schools, notably the package of 42 schools, which is the first PPP project expected to be kicked off by the government. And Galfar is one of the shortlisted qualified companies for that project,” Dr Al Tobi stated.

Additionally, Galfar is looking to expand its footprint to include key regional markets, notably Saudi Arabia where $1 trillion worth of project opportunities have been announced. To this end, Galfar is currently taking part in the Saudi Infrastructure Expo to showcase its capabilities to facilitate its entry into the Saudi market, the CEO added.