'Oman a sweet spot for future investments'

Muscat: Companies that invest in Oman’s future project will hit the investment ‘sweet spot’, because of the returns they will get on their projects, the chairman of the Renaissance Group has said.
One of Oman’s largest companies, Renaissance Group has been involved in projects in Oman over the last 15 years. With there being a greater need for private companies to set up more projects, and the country looking to diversify its economy, Renaissance Chairman Samir Fancy feels now is the best time for private companies to commit resources to investment plans in 2020 and the future.
Explaining the various opportunities Oman would provide in future, Fancy said: “Oman will offer us our greatest opportunities and this is our home-town, so it is a win-win for us. We have proved over a dozen projects over 15 years that these guys have delivered...that’s their business. The end-to-end service is ours. We take care of anything that the client wants.”
“You can extend this to anything: to railways, to airports, ports, schools, hospitals, in fact, whatever the government or any other client is prepared to take off its direct responsibilities, we are ready to handle because we are an integrated facilities manager,” he went on to say. “If, for example, we work with an oil company, then the oil company must focus on bringing up the oil. Everything else around it is what we can do.
“Today, governments, corporates and institutions seek to outsource all non-core services to skilled facilities management professionals,” Fancy explained. “Now, it is a question of seeing, believing and trusting our track record. We can share the investment opportunities with trusted partners, who in turn can trust us to conceive, design and deliver the services. That’s where we are going.”
Having worked across the country with clients such as Petroleum Development Oman on projects in several locations, including Qarn Al Alam, Fahud, Marmul, Bahja and Nimr, as well as overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, among others, Renaissance feels that companies that deliver quality results will be able to secure sound investments that will help the country in the future.
“We’ve been able to prove the concept to banks and other stakeholders and investors,” revealed Samir Fancy. “Let’s take, Duqm as an example – where the investors that joined us were Royal Court Affairs, Bank Muscat, the Ministry of Defence Pension Fund, and the Al Khonji group – they see that when Renaissance does a project, it is delivering end-to-end services, which provides the solutions they need.
“In future, there will be more investors who come forward to invest with us, because our ultimate job is to deliver the services,” he said. “That’s what we are good at, but when you have a nascent model, then it takes time for people to become believers. That’s why we are in the sweet spot right now because people can see that everything Renaissance said they would do, they did, they delivered, they met the standards, they were on time, they met the quality, and the project was delivered within the costs."
“In our early projects we funded everything,” Fancy went on to say. “But with a proven track record of our business model, these blue-chip investors have partnered with us in ownership of the property. As a private sector company, there is always going to be a limit on your balance sheet capabilities. So, while we shall always deliver the concept and the operation, Renaissance shall become relatively asset-light over time, as more and more co-investors join us to invest in the assets for new projects.”