Dubai: Dubai-based Zabeel Investments, which boasts a property portfolio worth Dh12.4 billion, has launched a joint-venture construction company with Turkish firm Sembol Construction Company.
The new organisation, ZSML, is a 50-50 joint venture between the two companies and is expected to reach turnover worth Dh3 billion within two years.
Crucially for the UAE's real estate sector, a new player in the construction industry could ease pressure on the country's strained contractors, whose order books are often over-flowing with contracts in Dubai and increasingly Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah.
ZSML has already been awarded projects worth Dh2 billion, including contracts to build the Palm Deira Sales Centre and Zabeel Investments' luxury hotel development on the crescent of Palm Jumeirah. Both are set for completion in 2008.
Diversification
"We won't work on a project unless we know that we can deliver on time and within budget," said Fettah Tamince, chairman, Sembol Construction Company, without specifying how the company will avoid the delays which have plagued UAE real estate projects.
Sembols's previous projects include The Pyramid of Peace in Astana, Kazakhstan.
For Zabeel Investments, the move displays the company's faith in the UAE's construction industry, said executive chairman Mohammad Ali Al Hashimi.
"Our decision to launch a 50/50 joint venture fits perfectly with our diversification and investment plan," he said.
"Construction is a viable sector, now and for the foreseeable future, and this strategic partnership will play a role in Dubai's evolving dynamism."
According to statistics provided by the company, the GCC is experiencing Dh14.7 billion of new construction projects per week.
Al Hashimi insisted that neither ZSML nor Zabeel Investments will be restricted from working with other contractors or developers.
