Contractors from across Europe and Asia were invited to submit expressions of interest for the planned creation of a super contractor by Saudi Aramco and the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

MEED reported in early October that local and international contractors were invited to submit interest for the planned super contractor, which would be 25 per cent owned by Saudi Aramco, 25 per cent by PIF, 25 per cent by a local contractor and 25 per cent by an international contractor.

MEED can now reveal 17 of the international contractors that were invited to submit expressions of interest in the super contractor company. According to sources close to the scheme, contractors invited included firms from Belgium and Italy in western Europe, Turkey and eight companies from Asia.

Companies invited to express interest in the super contractor included:

• Besix (Belgium)
• China Railway Corporation (China)
• Daelim Industrial (South Korea)
• Daewoo E and C (South Korea)
• GS E&C (South Korea)
• Hyundai E and C (South Korea)
• J&P (Cyprus)
• MNG (Turkey)
• Nurol C and T (Turkey)
• Posco E&C (South Korea)
• Royal Bam (Netherlands)
• Salini impregilo (Italy)
• Samsung C and T (South Korea)
• Sinhoydro (China)
• Strabag (Austria)
• TAV (Turkey)
• Tekfen C&I (Turkey)

It was previously reported that the following local contractors submitted expressions of interest at the end of September: Al-Bawani, Al-Mabani General Contractors Company, Al-Muhadib Contracting, Al-Rashid Trading & Contracting Company, Al-Yamama, Azmeel Contracting, El-Seif Engineering Company, and Nesma & Partners Contracting Company.

Once established, the contracting company will be tasked with delivering infrastructure projects across the kingdom and will fill the void left by the traditional heavyweights of Saudi construction: Saudi Binladin Group and Saudi Oger – both of which have had financial difficulties in recent years and have been forced to scale back their operations.

Certainty of delivery and the availability of contracting resources is becoming a growing concern in the kingdom as the National Transformation Plan (NTP) and Vision 2030 rapidly move from economic restructuring towards actual projects and construction work on site.

In recent months there has been a string of awards for airport public-private partnerships (PPPs), and other PPP deals have been tendered. More recently the PIF has launched a series of major new development schemes such as the Red Sea Project, New Jeddah Downtown, an entertainment city on the outskirts of Riyadh, as well as projects in Medina and Mecca.

Combined these projects involve building billions of dollars of new infrastructure, and more project launches and tenders are expected over the coming months.