Dubai - MENA Herald: EFS Facilities Services, a global leader in delivering integrated facilities management services across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Turkey, today announced its significant progress in the regional integrated FM services industry in the first half of 2016.
Financial highlights
The company reported a surge in contract wins for a combined value of AED 200 million, secured since the start of the year, which resulted in a growth of the contracts backlog to an all-time high of AED 3.2 billion. In terms of contract awards per market, the UAE constituted well over 60 % of the cumulative awards, with the remaining share distributed among other major markets such as Kuwait, Bahrain, KSA and India. The substantial backlog is expected to secure EFS’ projected revenue stream in the midterm, while enabling the company to pursue strategic expansion in lucrative markets and business sectors. In terms of the ongoing contracts backlog, the UAE continues to be EFS’ primary market and the mainstay of EFS’ growth, with a resurgent Egypt market and the growing Saudi Arabian market following closely in terms of backlog share. The company also achieved a turnover of 21% CAGR revenue growth in the last five years.
Commenting on the results, Tariq Chauhan, Group Chief Executive Officer stated: “EFS Facilities continues to grow from strength to strength as we consolidate our leadership position in key markets across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Turkey. Since the beginning of the year, our aggressive business development activities have helped us secure major contracts in the region worth a combined AED 200 million in value. We currently manage over 250 million Sq. Ft. of space for more than 300 multinational clients across 20 markets and have achieved an industry leading 95% client retention rate on the strength of our quality oriented services delivery. The AED 150 million FM services contract secured for a renowned oil and gas multinational conglomerate’s facilities in the UAE and KSA, as well as the AED 15 Million FM services contract to manage the facilities for the global leader in IT consumer electronics, computer software and online services, enhance our credentials as the trusted Integrated FM services provider in the region.”
EFS Facilities Services continues to refine its sustainable business model that has delivered steady growth in profitability while mitigating the increased pressure on margins and rising competition in the Integrated FM services sector. The company remains steadfast in its focus on efficiently optimizing its operating margins by significantly streamlining operating costs, while reinforcing its working capital to generate a free cash flow.
Operational Highlights
EFS’ positive growth in 2016 continued the sustained momentum registered by the company during a very successful 2015. Mr. Chauhan elaborated: “H1 2016 is one of the most important periods in EFS’ history since inception in 2000. We crossed the milestone of AED 3 billion in contract backlog for the first time, while expanding our services portfolio to include more than 75 service lines spanning 15 business verticals in 4 business sectors. We diversified our comprehensive services portfolio through the acquisition of a security services firm in the UAE and launched our operations in Turkey. We also established a waste management division in the UAE while entering into strategic partnerships with industrial leaders whose skill sets and know-how complemented ours.
We have not rested on our laurels and have been proactive in our pursuit of high margin growth opportunities. Our recent foray into Sri Lanka marks an important chapter in the deliberated expansion of our global footprint. We have expanded our value added bespoke services portfolio by establishing new business verticals focusing on security and housekeeping this year.
Our track record of achieving 95% client retention is an indicator of our client centric business approach which operates on a platform of service excellence and innovation, mutual respect, trust and transparency, where we devote ourselves to embracing our clients’ business objectives and aiding them in achieving their goals.”
Regional Outlook & Strategy
The company also unveiled its ambitious strategy to achieve growth in a volatile macro environment. Mr. Chauhan stated: “We believe that the regional FM industry is poised to enter a period of significant growth. In spite of economic slowdown, the regional FM industry outlook remains bullish and is largely dominated by UAE and Qatar, due to the opportunities presented by Expo 2020 and the 2022 FIFA World Cup respectively. We believe EFS has well positioned itself as a preferred service provider of choice to leverage the diversity of our versatile services portfolio, based on the strength of our technical foundation and workforce.
We believe that the priority markets in terms of potential growth for EFS remain the UAE, India and Egypt which are currently dealing with a considerable demand and supply gap for professional FM services. We are exploring promising acquisition avenues in India to boost our presence, as well as expanding on our scope of Joint Venture activities for the Palm Hills development in Egypt.
The source of our strength remains our motivated, skilled, experienced and dedicated 12,000 strong workforce who lead the industry by example through their commitment to service excellence. Hailing from over 35 nationalities, EFS professionals have established our reputation as a global leader in Integrated Facilities Management and we will continue to invest in the training and development of our people to enhance their leadership skills, competence and create a structured career progression path that encourages them to innovate.”
EFS aims to achieve persistent growth over the next five years by operating on a platform of Sustainability, Prudence and Deliverance. The company will focus on maximizing client satisfaction with an improved focus on service innovation, operating efficiencies, client engagement and asset lifecycle management. Mr. Chauhan added: “We are committed to ensuring that we remain prudent in our operations. Our operational model will be refined to achieve optimization of operating costs, improved P&L by rationalizing overhead costs, efficient risk management and cost engineering through financial foresight.
We believe that our collaborative client engagement, industrial partnerships, operational efficiencies, and entrepreneurship driven management culture will empower us to achieve our long term objectives. We are confident that our bold strides and ambitious vision will inspire us to achieve substantial progress in the second half of 2016.”
