An initial public offering (IPO) of a further 25 per cent of shares is planned around October, in what will be the largest share sale on the Bahrain Stock Exchange for eight years. 'The holding company groups our construction-related activities,' says managing director Sameer Nass. 'Some companies were left out of the offering because they were joint ventures - like Shaw Nass- or because they were outside the core construction business, like our waste management arm.

'We have been planning to go public for several years and have been working on bringing the company to a level where it is capable of doing so. Family businesses tend to fade after the third or fourth generation and to maintain the Nass company we need to take it public.'

Nass Contractingis carrying out several high-profile jobs in the kingdom, including the construction of the Bahrain World Trade Centre next to the Sheraton hotel in Manama and dredging and reclamation work on the Durrat al-Bahrain resort in the south. 'I've never seen the kingdom's construction industry so buoyant,' says Nass. 'However, we are also looking to enhance our overseas activities - we already have the largest scaffolding services company in Qatar and are looking very seriously at that market. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are also of interest and we have opened an office in Abu Dhabi.'