Winning is easy

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Sulaiman Al Fahim has a big smile on his face, and so he should. The CEO of Hydra Properties just can't stop winning - everything he touches seems to turn to gold.

Last year, he was hoping to have US$2bn of projects under his belt, mostly from the UAE. The plan was to go global in 2009.

"We are doing that now. Within the next five years, you will see 90% of our projects are overseas. We have an international name, and now we are an international company," he says.

In the past six months, Al Fahim has been globetrotting from the US to Australia, stopping off along the way at almost every possible property hot spot. Many deals are in the pipeline, and the future has never looked brighter.

"Everywhere we are looking the market is growing," he says, adding: "You look at Bulgaria, and it has just joined the European Union, which means the market there is rising, and we have a lot of good things lined up. We have just signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Pakistan, and there is also a lot happening in Latin America and the Far East."

The company has just announced plans to build a US$500m (AED1.8bn) tourism destination in Mazatlan on the Northern Pacific Coast of Mexico.

Hydra Waves will comprise a five-star hotel with 500 rooms, 1000 apartments, a 1000-seat modern conference centre, a shopping centre and a ballroom.

"In this project, we are also looking at attracting the business community and will be setting up a conference centre that will seat 1000 people. Since shopping is a major draw for the inbound tourists and visitors, we are building a shopping centre that will cover 9290 sq m and cater to their needs."

So what is the big attraction in working abroad? "There are many factors to consider, but one of the key aspects is that what happens in places like Latin America doesn't affect the market in the UAE, and likewise.

So we don't have all our eggs in one basket. This is why there is so much we plan on doing in places like Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Costa Rica. Also, millions of Americans are moving there to work, so there is great boom."

Al Fahim says he has not encountered any great problems in shifting the majority of his interests abroad. "The international market has great transparency which is a great thing for investors. The rules and regulations are clear. Of course there is competition, but then we have a huge advantage. Whereas most developers just develop a tower, we build cities and communities. Nobody else is doing that abroad," he says.

So confident is Al Fahim of his overseas work, he is even considering listing the company in either London or New York within the next three years, to gain investor confidence.

The company's success on the foreign market doesn't however, detract from its local achievements. If anything, they highlight it. He explains: "Our business plan has said we won't go overseas for another two years, but things were going so well here, we had to go earlier. You look at Abu Dhabi, it is going crazy over there. I never thought I would say Abu Dhabi is moving too fast, but the pace of sales are amazing. We have a huge project there called Golf Walk, and the first phase sold out in less than a day, even before we had time to complete our sales brochures!"

Hydra, thanks to designs from Arabian Concept Development, claims to be "unique" in the industry, with every single apartment and office inside every building it is constructing different to another. Each one, including the impressive Hydra Towers being constructed in Business Bay, oozes with "personal touch".

"Some people I know are saying that the property market will crash but I don't think it will. And I know that if there is any correction then Hydra won't be affected. It is all to do with supply and demand. I know who my customers are, I know what they want, and I know what their demands are," he says.

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