Al Masaood Bergum targets major deals

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Al Masaood has won several deals to build labour camps, including at Dubai Waterfront.

Al Masaood Bergum has placed bids for three major labour accommodation projects in Abu Dhabi.

The company is bidding for the contract to build a 40,000-man facility for Aldar Properties; a 60,000-man facility for the Abu Dhabi Ports Authority as well as a deal with TDIC for labour accommodation on its various island developments.

With the cost of constructing a labour complex currently averaging US $10,000 (AED36,723) per worker, the average value of each deal is around $60 million.

The company is also bidding to build a labour camp for an LNG project in Ras Al Khaimah as well as an 8,000-man and a 12,000-man facility for projects in Dubailand.

Al Masaood Bergum was awarded a $63.9 million turnkey contract from Nakheel in August last year for the first phase of construction of its labour accommodation complex - Omran - at Dubai Waterfront.

The company is now working on a 52,000-man proposal as an extension to its existing contract with Nakheel.

"Based on the current specifications for labour camps, the fact that they're turnkey and that they include infrastructure and recreation facilities, as well as spacing requirements laid down by the municipalities, the cost of building a camp is working out at about $10,000 a man," said Steve McConnachie, general manager, Al Masaood Bergum. "In actual fact, you're now building a township.

Al Masaood Bergum also plans to target labour camp deals through its recently formed joint venture, AMB MEAD.

"AMB will construct the camps, while MEAD will provide the facilities management. As a partnership, we're looking at buying land and building the camps ourselves, and then owning and operating them," added McConnachie.

Al Masaood Bergum, which was established through a joint venture of Abu Dhabi's Al Masaood and Italy's Bergum in 1978, specialises in fast track projects in the construction and oil and gas industries.

The company has worked on projects in Qatar and plans to target Saudi Arabia and northern Africa in the future.

"We're in quite advanced discussions with a Saudi investor who has very large investments in the UAE," said McConnachie.

"The resources and systems we have are of interest to companies doing large housing projects. We would make the move to Saudi Arabia through a partnership agreement.

"You need to partner with someone who has the local knowledge, which would then allow us to expand into other areas. The next move for us after Saudi Arabia would be northern Africa.

"A company of our size in a developing economy needs to move as the economies move, which is one of the reasons we're going into different disciplines."

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