Facilities Management: Still a Growing Business

Wahid Attallah, Chairman, Sungwon OBO said: “The financial crisis has actually helped improve the business value of Makateb as real estate companies and big-time developers are putting a premium on cost-efficient and high-quality maintenance and management solutions for their existing properties. Buildings, facilities and other properties need to be maintained and managed; considering the actual size of the property market in the UAE and across the region, there is more than enough cushion to prevent us from being negatively affected by the crisis.”

Steve Woo Young Choi, Vice-Chairman of Sungwon OBO commented: “Dubai and the rest of the UAE remain strong as a facilities management market mainly because of the country's enormous development activities in the past several years. Despite the slowdown in real estate development, there are already several existing properties and many more that are poised to be delivered within the next year or two, clearly representing a healthy growth potential for Sungwon OBO and the rest of the facilities management sector. This is the prime reason why we have been eager to invest in this market and partner with Makateb.”

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Leveraging the healthy growth prospects, Sungwon OBO aims to achieve a growth of between 15 per cent to 20 per cent within the next three years, pointing out that companies that provide core services are expected to withstand the downturn because of the strategic and critical importance of their services to the economy.

The company revealed that UAE's facilities management sector remains a popular destination among international investors, citing the newly formed partnership between Makateb and Sungwon Development, the pioneering facility management company in South Korea which is now the Facilities Management Division of Makateb.

In line with this, Steve Woo Young Choi, President of Sungwon Development and the Vice-Chairman of Sungwon OBO, has visited Sungwon OBO's offices in Dubai to discuss growth strategies for the new fiscal year.

· aneela@khaleejtimes.com