Yasser N. Zaghloul, CEO, National Marine Dredging Company (NMDC) • Interview

Having completed its recent merger with the NPCC, the combined group is set to be an engineering, procurement and construction powerhouse in the region.

Yasser N. Zaghloul CEO, NATIONAL MARINE DREDGING COMPANY (NMDC) What have been your major takeaways from 2020, and what is your overall perspective of how resilient the UAE has been?

Resilience during this tough period is a key success factor for all businesses. Challenges and changes could lead to a regeneration of the system. If we focus only on growth, expansion, and diversification without looking at resilience, that could lead to fragility. To be able to withstand diversity during this tough period is the main success for sustainability. The ability to change and adapt for experienced people is not easy unless they think differently. This is crucial for success. In the global active market, NMDC is present in the UAE, Egypt, and the GCC, which are the main active markets worldwide at the moment. This makes our lives slightly easier than others, though if we do not have the right response to these changes, we will not cope. The most important thing during this period for the NMDC group is our 20,000 employees. We have to make ourselves a family across the group. The team immediately came up with realistic planning for different scenarios of what could happen. We were successful last year during a difficult period and to date we are doing great and have started to grow already. With the merger, we expect more growth and success ahead. I believe the main driver was our resilience.

What does the merger with the National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) mean for both organizations as well as the country?

It means that we are stronger together. NPCC has an extremely strong history in the oil and gas sector. NMDC meanwhile is strong in dredging and marine, so together now we can build the real infrastructure for the market we are working in, whether it is in the UAE, Egypt, or anywhere else. We are working, for example, on infrastructure for ports, oil and gas, navigation, real estate, expansion, and all of these things. NPCC is working well in the oil and gas sector, and this is the main driver for the economy in many countries. Together, we come by a complete and comprehensive solution for clients and a strong source of development for the economy. Together, we are building the right infrastructure for the economy to grow.

What are your growth and expansion plans for the future?

During the tough period in terms of investment and consolidation, we have to be extremely careful, study it well, and make sure that we are successful. If you look at the pros and cons, then together as a group through more investment and expansion we can optimize more on the burden side, though we are also exposing more risk to the group. That is why all plans have to be extremely well rationalized during this tough period. The consolidation and merger are done after extensive studies. Once we come together, the first goal is to optimize the structure to be more resilient with less burden so that we are stronger. With the experience and history of both organizations, we have a strong group. Once we are together, automatically we are growing vertically and horizontally. Vertical means the group has more activity so we can go to the client in the near future to talk to the client and come with one solution from A to Z. We are horizontally expanding by sharing our market as well as getting stronger to penetrate new markets for both of us.