There have been a lot of decisions that I have miscalculated and I did not go for. But this is part of life. You win some, you lose some," admits Khaled Esbaitah, CEO and managing director of rising Kuwaiti property and development star Al Mazaya Holding. And he has every right to talk that way.

From the confines of his angular shaped office in Dubai's Gate building, a mere stone's throw away from one of the company's own prize properties, Sky Gardens, which has now reached its 20-storey halfway stage, the Harvard schooled engineer is refreshingly candid about what he has and hasn't got right since taking over in 2003.

"One particular project was Business Bay in Dubai and we were not a major player there because I did not calculate it right," he shrugs nonchalantly, rapidly swivelling his leather chair to face a PowerPoint presentation predicting that Mazaya will hit profit levels of 100% by the end of the year.

What doesn't become clear until later in our conversation is that Esbaitah did have something to lose when the company began planning its future almost four years ago with a significant portion of his own personal net worth injected into the property business.

He took a risk, and came out on top, as did his shareholders. "I can honestly say that the greatest decision in my life was to incorporate Mazaya. I can tell you now that anybody who invested one dollar three years ago is now worth 20 dollars.

We have made a real fortune for our shareholders."

Nowadays his risks are more calculated with all the company's projects measured and decided upon alongside a solid business plan backed by a steering committee that meets twice a week to, as Esbaitah says, "help him run the business on a unanimous vote of management".

"We have a five-year plan that ensures growth for us. I don't want any surprises. It is my job and my mistakes," he adds.

Fortunately he hasn't made many of those, and its rapid progression up the property industry ladder shows just that. Mazaya Holding, backed by a capital injection of US$54.5m by research and investment bank Global Investment House (GIH), also its biggest shareholder, was born four years ago with a distinct concept in mind.

The founding members wanted a real estate development and investment business with the possibility of branching out into portfolio management and various investment vehicles that would compliment the holding organisation.

The origins of its funding began with an Initial Public Offering (IPO) that targeted a total of US$136m, however Mazaya's expectations were soon raised when GIH took interest, backing the business model, tripling its capital and placing Esbaitah on top of the Mazaya pile.

A board of five representatives, including Esbaitah, chairman Rashid Yaqoub Al-Nafisi and two GIH members was created and, as the CEO says, it immediately "started eyeing up" home-grown as well as regional projects. The company then moved at lightning pace to undertake its first challenge - building seven commercial properties in Dubai's Healthcare City.

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Once that was settled Mazaya set about spreading its wings across the rest of the region, recently investing US$817m in Dubai with US$136m spent on purchasing land, pushing further projects in Kuwait as well as recently entering the Lebanese market in downtown Beirut.



Once a regional presence was established at the end of 2004 Esbaitah saw the opportunity to list and establish a numerical as well as physical presence.

"We carried out all the preliminary requirements to be listed and at the beginning of 2005 we were ticking on Kuwait stock market. A year later we started the necessary procedure to be listed on the Dubai Financial Market and we're now ticking in both markets."

Several regional subsidiaries have also sprouted up from the original mother company including bases in Bahrain, Dubai and Kuwait, with Jordan the next target. Mazaya's total basket of products represents 75% in real estate development, while the rest is divided between the operation of development management, trading stocks and investments. Just a "little bit to compliment our balance sheet," says Esbaitah with confidence.

Since then Mazaya's market cap has grown to almost US$700m and has a significant operational revenue figure from all its projects worth a staggering US$3bn. Not only that, with the continued financial muscle and backing of GIH it has around US$101m in capital to call on when the need arise.

So perhaps it's about time the rest of the region began taking note of Kuwaiti companies and the monetary power and influence many of them have, and that they are beginning to spread across the rest of the Middle East.

Esbaitah thinks about this for a split second and then determinedly agrees.

"Because of their [Kuwaiti companies] experience in the stock market and capital growth I wish someone would take more note of them", he says.

"Some of the small to medium companies are reflecting excellent investments and they are at a good price like us. This will be awakened by continued growth and we hope to lead the way."

And with the introduction of a single, unified Gulf currency in 2008, Esbaitah says the GCC region is increasingly becoming one country.

"We are free to move around without passports, the new currency will reaffirm this and our investments are fully protected.

What more could we want?" One of the things he could do without is the constant personal pressure that he admits can become excessive at times.

His secret to overcoming it? You would assume a holiday or three, but not Khaled Esbaitah. "I do feel a lot of pressure, I can't tell you otherwise.

"I lose a lot of sleep and I have a big job on my hands. Just like any other CEO in the region I feel the pressure of time, there is just not enough time due to lack of maybe finding the right way to be organised," he says. "I've been looking for the right PA. My secret to success is the right PA and I cannot find her or him. I respect my present PA but unfortunately she's doing three other jobs already; poor lady."

The corporate pressure that Esbaitah faces, on the other hand, is more measured and can be more easily controlled.

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Believing and investing in a "forecastable" market, playing the long game and dispelling rumours of downturns and potential collapse are the key elements in the property market, he adds.

"I think I have a calculated amount of risk and that keeps the pressure bearable", quotes Esbaitah.

We believe in the market but we don't believe there might be a bubble that will burst one day - it's just not like that. It is a market that can have a downturn and an upturn again and the whole thing is demand driven", he says.

"We only look at tangible projects that can be delivered at certain times, looking to deliver them with quality rather than racing with time and worrying about the bubble. Even if the worst case happened and there was a downturn our projects would generate revenue from rental agreements and from the assets."

With regional stocks reaching record lows, local companies hugely undervalued and investors collectively losing billions of dollars, Esbaitah says he counts himself "lucky" that Mazaya has a balance sheet concentrated on real estate assets.

"Real estate is an asset that's always there on your balance sheet unlike stocks that can be re-evaluated immediately and daily trading affecting your balance sheet." He says that he doesn't look at the stock market on a daily basis, reserving himself for a sneaky peak just to make sure his shareholders are happy. I'm not sure I believe him the way local financial markets are performing, however, he does have a few words of advice for regional investors.

"In more mature markets they always compare two different types of people. One that bought and sold everyday and one that bought and held.

"A survey carried out once checked on these people every five years, and they always found the guy who bought and sold has blood pressure, heart problems and is broke and the other guy is enjoying a wonderful life and his assets are growing.

It should be looked at like that in the region instead of an in-out game everyday because if there's a downfall it will hurt."

Downfall isn't a word in Esbaitah's dictionary, development is. And with consistent quarterly profits rises every first, second and third quarter up to 2006, an 84% earning per share in Q3 of this year, net income growth, total shareholder equity and total assets virtually doubling, Mazaya is indeed on the right track.

And Khaled Esbaitah has every right to talk that way.