Lebanon Construction: Tabet Construction in Lebanon

Interview with Guy Tabet, General Manager of Tabet Construction

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How do you assess the current trends in construction in Lebanon and what are the long-term prospects ?

Based on what has happened economically and especially in the gulf, we have two visions.  First, all these Lebanese in the disapora will one day come back to Lebanon and they will need infrastructure.  Second, there is a niche ; and I am targeting to restart the project in Lebanon to optimize the prices for this niche.

"As for the Lebanon luxury market , I’m not at all optimistic.

We are suffering in that aspect actually."

What do you think about speculative investment in the market and is there going to be a saturation point ?

I think we have a crisis because of so much speculation.  Our industry is very sensitive.  There is no second and third market.  Our political people must implement a new strategy in Lebanon, and from that side you can have  speculation.  Otherwise we are suffering a lot economically.  The corruption and the speculation are two main dangers.  And speculation is on the land only.  I’m very afraid of speculation.

Can you chart the growth of your group and share with us some of the key performance indicators ?

We’ve worked in construction for more than 65 years.  We worked in very difficult countries and we delivered.  In the Congo we have four or five projects, and we worked with Turkey and the Indians.  We have a strategy and a good staff.  We’re not so familiar with the international management of construction ; we are more realistic.  If you want something you can get it, but can you realize it ? That is a different question.  We have at least $10,000,000 worth of equipment, so we can compete, we have 500 laborers and 42 engineers.  All of these people are ready to move everywhere because I treat them the way I treat myself.  From day one we have never stopped.  My strategy today is to be fair with our clients, to respect them.  Our target is now to go to Saudi Arabia and create a new kind of business, which is to build and manage labor camps, as well as some two star hotels.

What is the appeal of Tabet Construction ; what are your business ethics and values and how do you communicate these values ?

I try to be involved in every project we sign.  The client gets the feeling that we’re there and we are very supportive.  I try to convince some people from here to get involved in the infrastructure work but one of the critical issues is the corruption.  Our reputation communicates our support for the client.  I think clients need reasonable contractors, which means if you want to build the projects and have access to the bank, the bank  needs to know who your contractor is and what their strategy is, and whether or not they’ll be able to deliver.  We are here to help and this is our strategy. 


How would you define your expansion plans, your strategic targets for 2012, and what kind of developments are you going to announce ?

We are going to restart in Africa.  We have four big projects.  Lebanon is a good engineering and procurement platform for Africa because we can control here.  We have bought two companies ; one of them very well-established in Africa.  Our strategy is to participate on a project in Africa.  Also, we are finalizing  some kind of district cooling system in Bahrain . In Iraq we also have a lot of future opportunities. 

What is your vision for 2012 ?

My vision is to take the best project with our old clients and not to move forward blindly.  We want to plan and implement strategy,  not just build.  We now have a cement factory in Mali.  We have the engineering but we need to implement more and more.