Singapore-based Meinhardt Group International has assumed critical importance in India’s massive scale development and building engineering capacities. The company plans to not only take up new projects in India but as a logical corollary, add more personnel to its skilled manpower as it is one of the fastest growing markets for Meinhardt – both in terms of project value and engineering capacity.
The engineering group, which takes up turnkey projects globally, plans to add more than 150 engineers and professionals by setting up three new offices in India over the next 12-18 months. It currently, employs over 300 people in its head office and design centre in Delhi and offices in Gurgaon and Chennai. In term of value of projects, Meinhardt is growing by a significant 20% annually in India, with contracts worth $1 billion in various stages of implementation as of end-2014. The group employs more than 3,800 engineers and professionals in its 40 offices across the world, managing $20 billion worth of projects annually. The group clocks an average growth of 15%-20% annually in terms of value of its projects worldwide.
Group Chief Executive Officer, Omar Shahzad, is bullish on India’s growth story, citing the potential uptick in the economy and also on exporting Indian expertise in engineering from Meinhardt’s offices in India. In an interview with fii-news.com, Omar said “Our engineers in India are also designing overseas projects,” citing parts of the Muscat International Airport was designed by Meinhardt engineers in India. “We will be setting up three more design centres in India and add over 150 engineers and professionals over the next 12-18 months,” he added.
Looking for acquisitions
In addition to this organic growth in engineering capacity, Meinhardt is also on the look out to acquire more engineering companies, which are up to its standards. In 2011, it acquired EiGEN Technical Services in Gurgaon.
According to Omar, “We are in discussions for potential acquisitions and see it as one of the ways to expand the group,” pointing out that this growth is aimed at not only the Indian market but also for exporting Indian expertise as India has a talented pool of engineers though demand for experienced engineers exceeds supply.
Projects in India
Among its growing number of projects in India is the construction of the 182 meter high statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on Sadhu Island, facing the Narmada Dam and when completed, it will be world’s tallest statue.
Meinhardt is undertaking a wide range of engineering services for the government of Gujarat state for this iconic project. The mega development includes a bridge connecting Sadhu Island to mainland, a 3.5 km highway connecting Sadhu Island to Kevadia town, a high-end hotel, convention Centre, memorial garden and a visitor centre building. Another landmark project under the group’s belt is Oberoi Realty’s development of 1.7 million square feet of commercial, hotel and residential space. Meinhardt’s offices in India and Singapore are designing the façade, mechanical, electrical and pumping systems for buildings coming up to the north of Mumbai’s city centre. The mixed use development in Worli consists of a 52-storey tower for residential and a 69-storey tower for offices and a hotel.
Omar cited these developments as two major ones among the growing list of Meinhardt’s Indian projects covering infrastructure, environment, green-building and water facilities. The projects are being undertaken by the central and state governments as well as private sector including real estate developers. He observed that “India’s real estate sector is focusing on providing world class accommodation to the ever increasing middle class and affluent society as well as non-resident Indians who have interest in investing in property assets as well as setting up their own residential units back home.”
This underlines the huge potential of Indian market, though tapping it also implies cumbersome unwrapping of the bureaucratic red-tape. Meinhardt remains unfazed as according to Omar, projects take time to realize and contracts are negotiated over time. “Such procedures are common everywhere in the world and might be perceived even slower in India due to the specific rules for processing of applications, permits and approvals,” he pointed out.
Omar exuded confidence that pro-business policies of the current National Democratic Alliance or NDA government will accelerate development in the country and encourage more foreign investment including from Singapore companies over the next few years. Given India’s massive plans for development, more and more large scale projects are being designed and implemented in the coming years, he stressed “These projects will help scale up our engineering expertise and local capacity with multi-skill and multi-point abilities to engineer varied initiatives of developers.”
Post 2013 disaster in State of Uttarakhand, Meinhardt have been commissioned for restoration and reconstruction of road networks, utility infrastructure and tourist places across the states wherein Meinhardt are providing comprehensive consultancy entailing Master Planning, Architecture, Multi-disciplinary Engineering, Project Management including Bid Process and Site Supervision.
Developing human resources
Meinhardt is also serving the global engineering community. It has an annual programme for training engineers right from the time they come out of school. “We take in up to 50 fresh graduates in engineering from China annually to help build their capacity for handling international scale projects,” Omar said, adding “We call them home grown engineers. We do the same in Singapore and almost every market we operate in as we have identified talent renewal and succession planning as a critical component of our long-term business sustainability”.
Meinhardt is also facilitating where possible, Singapore companies especially small and medium enterprises to assist them in their ambition of getting a global footprint. According to Omar “We are encouraging Singapore companies including SMEs with relevant experience to participate in our projects in India. We find Indian clients generally have high regard for Singapore based companies and a way to fly the Singapore flag when possible.”
He highlighted the Indian government’s invitation to Singapore’s entrepreneurs to invest in setting up of 100 smart cities. Singapore has also taken up projects to help Indian state Andhra Pradesh to build a new capital. The need for a new capital arose after the state of Telengana was carved out that includes the existing capital, Hyderabad.
Separately, Government Investment Corporation of Singapore is also investing in real estate projects in India, which also presents opportunities for Meinhardt. Omar concludes “Going forward, Meinhardt will be more busier than ever in India as the economy picks up whilst dovetailing its design centres in the country to become the Group’s global engineering hub.”
