As part of a plan to go public within five years, the Al Bawardi Enterprises Group has sold 50 per cent of Emdad, its oil and gas supply and services subsidiary to prominent UAE businessmen, a senior company official said.

There are plans to sell stakes in other group companies, but in the meantime Emdad is expanding in the GCC and North Africa to service the oil industry.

"Nine prominent investors have signed up and the private placement is closed with the target capital paid. In three to five years, the company plans to be listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Market (ADSM)," Emdad General Manager Mansour Alami said.

To keep pace with the changing new world economy, create wealth and develop the local stock markets, it is important for old family-owned and private companies to transform themselves into public companies, he said.

Emdad is the group's oldest company. It has several major contracts, but two recent ones are a multi-phase pump project in Abu Dhabi and an insitu expoxy pipeline coating venture.

"Both contracts are for oil operating companies in Abu Dhabi through our overseas principals. The projects, secured in the last two months, are the first of their kind in the region," he said. According to Alami, family-owned companies need a transition period and it is crucial for companies to work within a specific timeframe to develop their competence to the international standards needed to survive in the new economy.

Moreover, the UAE private sector is less than three decades old, and most of the companies belong to the first and second generations. "If one looks at the history of some other countries, the transition took place after the ownership and management reached the third generation. Besides, the stock market here is still in its nascent stage. But there is potential for many companies to benefit in future."

Winner of the Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award in 2000, Emdad counts among its clients Adnoc and the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (Adwea).