Prof. Dr. Eiko Räkers and Jamal S. Al Baeejan at the signing ceremony in Abu Dhabi on 28 September 2017.
Since 1989, the TÜV NORD GROUP has been represented in the Gulf states by TÜV Middle East (headquarters in Abu Dhabi), and FAHSS (headquarters in Dammam in Saudi Arabia). With the foundation of DMT Middle East (headquarters in Bahrain), the business activities in the region will be further strategically expanded. The new company, a joint venture of TÜV Middle East and DMT, brings together the classic services of testing, inspection, certification and training offered in the region with the engineering services of DMT.
Dr Dirk Stenkamp, Chairman of the Board of Management of the TÜV NORD AG: “The Middle East is a diverse market of great strategic importance to us. Which is why we’ve redoubled our efforts since 2013 to develop new business relations in this region. Therefore, I’m personally very delighted that the customer and partner contacts and our persistent negotiations have led to the founding.”
Dr Stenkamp has been cultivating close relationships in the Arab region for many years and has made them into a strategic priority of TÜV NORD. “Anyone who has worked here successfully knows that developing new business takes time and patience in the Arab world. A basis of trust can only grow slowly and it requires a high degree of personal commitment on the ground. We have created this basis.” Under the local guidance of George Kechribaris, Regional Manager Middle East, and Jamal Al Baeejan, CEO of TÜV Middle East, relations with our co-shareholder, the Saudi TASNEE group, have also been continuously developed.
The DMT Group has been offering services in the exploration, engineering and consulting fields, alongside special investigations and the sale of equipment, in the Middle East for nearly 20 years. The launch of DMT Middle East will enable it to further reinforce market access to the region and develop its own local capacities under the DMT brand name. In the newly established joint venture, DMT will contribute the product portfolio, references and the brand name. The contribution of TÜV Middle East will be to provide local market access and the experience of almost 30 years of successful activity in Oman, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait.
TÜV Middle East and DMT signed the shareholder agreement on the foundation of DMT Middle East W.L.L. in Bahrain at the end of September. “Introducing the new brand name of ‘DMT’ with its century of expertise will be the culmination market that we stand for high quality and services in the region,” says Jamal Al Baeejan.
All the business activities of the DMT Group in the region will be channelled through the new company, DMT Middle East. The branch will in the first instance align its own business development with projects in the development of infrastructure in subsoil. These particularly include projects for the expansion of underground and overground railways, water supplies and sewerage, power lines, supply lines, and other private and public building projects. Construction contracts worth over USD 50 billion are anticipated in the Emirates in 2017 alone: examples include the Abu Dhabi Metro, the expansion of Al-Maktoum Airport and Expo 2020 in Dubai.
“The foundation of DMT Middle East is an important milestone in the further expansion of the DMT Group and the development of the DMT brand as an international engineering and consulting enterprise. I’m delighted with the good cooperation with TÜV Middle East we’ve enjoyed so far and have high expectations of the growth and economic success that will result from this collaboration,” says Prof Eiko Räkers, Chairman of the Board of DMT.
George Kechribaris also emphasises the importance of the launch: “The process of reaching the shareholders agreement to establish DMT Middle East has been a rather lengthy one, but the agreement itself is a landmark for both shareholders (TÜV NORD and TÜV Middle East) as, for the first time, the TÜV NORD GROUP, via DMT Middle East, is assuming the management control of a legal entity in the Middle East Region and is now free to grow the full range of DMT business hand in hand with TÜV Middle East and for the benefit of both shareholders.”
After the formal establishment of the company, the running of the business will start from Dubai before the year is out.