Christian Seifart: “We rely on Ayesa’s corporate strength and its existing local market intelligence of new territories”

Through the acquisition of ByrneLooby, we have added a new engineering sector: the Marine and Coastal Engineering Division. We now offer a comprehensive portfolio of services underpinned by seasoned experience and impressive projects. In this interview, Christian Seifart, Director of this new division, explains all the details.

What the size of the marine offering in ByrneLooby at present?

We commenced developing the marine business 10 years ago and have 45 marine experts between our offices in the Middle East, UK and Ireland. We typically grow by 15% to 20% per annum.

What are the big projects you worked on?

We have worked on projects ranging from commercial ports such as cargo bulk terminals, to beach resorts in the Middle East. Some of our flagship projects include the Al Naseem development in Bahrain.

Has the Ayesa acquisition been positive for you so far and are you working the broader Ayesa team already?

We used the integration between ByrneLooby and Ayesa in the Middle East almost like a test case to determine the opportunities of utilizing the experience and corporate CV to open up new opportunities. This has proven very successful, and we, as Ayesa and ByrneLooby together, have already secured new projects with premier clients including Neom, Red Sea Global and Amaala. These projects are now ongoing and are going very well.

The second observation from the integration in the Middle East is that some of our existing marine & coastal clients are very interested in Ayesa’s wider range of services, including, for example water and process engineering, and we have been invited to much larger opportunities where we, together with other divisions in Ayesa, are participating as a joint team.

The successes in the Middle East are the proof of concept that we can apply the same model in other territories, and I am convinced that we will be very successful in these regions.

What are the next steps for Marine within the broader Ayesa family?

The internationalization of the marine offering into “Ayesa” territories will utilize the existing marine capabilities of our teams in the Middle East, Ireland and the UK, with locally based resources mobilized to project sites as and when required. The initial key target markets include Chile and Panama, and I have already had great conversations with Ayesa’s Country Managers in these areas. The first step will be to target existing clients in these regions to offer our wider capabilities, thereby utilizing existing relationships as the door to new markets.

As a new Division within the Resources & Environment Market, we will rely on the corporate strength of ayesa, and the existing local market intelligence of new territories. I am very much looking forward to seeing the rest of the Ayesa team grow the group’s marine capability into a truly international operation.