Oman Economic Review – July 2019

$200mn on Renaissance Village Duqm
(RVD). It took time and we had our share
of heartaches, when things got delayed
with the refinery etc., but today, we see
a very clear path to full occupancy over
the course of this year. The point is how
many private company’s in Oman can
build something like a RVD and provide
an end to end service.

The reality is that today Oman’s capital
markets have advanced, there are
Sukuks, debt like instruments, real estate
investment opportunities, fixed income
etc. Through Topaz we demonstrated
that we could tap the London and New
York markets issuing Reg 144 bonds.
So we are seeing that there are less
limitations on our growth and we will no
longer be reliant on our balance sheet
only. Overall, we want to have sticky long
term revenue attached to us for 20 to 40
years. There is student housing, white
collar facilities, military requirements

• the list is endless and our appetite to
  deliver the service is voracious.

We have won a waste management
contract and we are going to increase
our presence in that space. We have
rolled out a programme for home care
maintenance and it has taken off well
and will go national. There are related

things on the environment and clean

energy side, which fit well into our suite

of services. For example, in Fahud we

built an entire car park with solar panels

for our PDO project there on our own

account. We did it as a good corporate

citizen who believes in clean energy and

wants to lead the way in contributing

to the communities we serve.

Renaissance has risked going into asset

heavy businesses in the past. But going

forward, you would prefer to be in

asset light businesses. Does this mark a

major rethink on your business model

and has this been triggered by your

experience with Topaz?

All this is relative. Risk is a part of

entrepreneurship. If you do not buy a

ticket to a ballgame you will never be

part of the experience. That’s important.

Secondly, how can one be chastened

if one has built a company which is

amongst the top three in the world. On

the other hand, every entrepreneur

realizes that he or she is not going to

win at everything. When I talk about

being asset light, I look at it on a very

large scale. Not many people would

look at a company which has the

Duqm Village or all the PDO PACs on

its balance sheet as asset light. We are

talking of being asset light relative to the

growth ahead and consistent with the

Western peer group to which we aspire.

The point will always be to expand in

areas whose time has come and at this

time IFM pure play is the place and

space in which we will excel and grow.

The fact that it happens to be relatively

asset light is not the main driver.

Once the

government made a

decision and formed

SEZAD, we rallied

behind them, put

up a facility without

assured occupancy,

as we believed in

their vision and

spent $200mn on

Renaissance Village

Duqm