1. The Edge | 77
construction | business insight
QatarBinLadinGroup
combinesfamilyexperience
and European know-how
Overnight technology sector
miracles aside, the process
of building a company
can take several years or
even decades. But with a
fixed deadline in a highly
competitive sector – such
as construction in Qatar in
the lead-up to the 2022
World Cup, for example –
this luxury of time is not an
option. One solution, though,
is to form an umbrella
company that combines Gulf
construction expererience
with the readiness of large
international firms, explains
Omar bin Ladin, chief
executive officer (CEO) of the
recently formed construction
firm Qatar bin Ladin Group
(QBG) to The Edge’s Miles
Masterson.
CONSTRUCTION SECTOR

2. 78 | The Edge
Omar bin Ladin is also and will be
forever famous for being the fourth son of
former Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Ladin.
He spent a short time with his father,
whom he described as a “war person” in
the organisation’s camps in Afghanistan.
But while he has professed to loving and
respecting his father like any good son and
grieving his recent death, he is also equally
famous for distancing himself from Osama
bin Ladin’s extreme views.
“Thisisnothingtodowithmybusiness,”
at first he reacted sharply to The Edge and
then added that much of his life has been a
learning process, leading him to the point
he is at now, where he ultimately realised
he wanted to contribute to the world and
his adopted country in particular, by being
a businessman and building things rather
than breaking them down. “I am doing
this because my father taught me this, my
uncle, my grandfather so this is something
that is our job,” he said of construction.
“This is what I know how to do in order to
make a living. I am Qatar-based, so this is
also my duty to my country now.”
Qatar, explained bin Ladin, is in
desperate need of capable construction
skillsandsaidhiscompaniescanpotentially
bring fresh ideas and provide innovative
business insight | construction
“Youcannot
builda
construction
companyin
Qatarlikein
SaudiArabia,
whereyouhave
alotoftime.You
have to be ready
in Qatar to do
something fast.”
I
f you try to set yourself up now for
the World Cup, of course you are not
going to be on time,” said bin Ladin in
his quiet and measured manner. “It is not
even 10 years to go now. It is impossible.
But on the positive side, there are many
international companies who would like
to come to Qatar under a group umbrella.”
This is why, bin Ladin revealed, he has
set up QBG rather as a collective of related
international companies.
He explained how he has been working
since 2011 towards creating a Doha-
based conglomerate that will be able to
handle any project as well as offer services
or equipment locally through its affiliates.
Under the guidance of bin Ladin, QBG
hopes to compete for the scores of
lucrative public and private sector
contracts set to be tendered in Qatar
from 2013 onwards, both in preparation
for the World Cup 2022, as well as for the
country’s general infrastructure plans.
The foundation of QBG is a partnership
with Spanish construction giant Coprosa,
who have a 51 and 49 percent stake
respectively in Bin Ladin Company
Group (BCG). This is then augmented
by partnerships with a number of other
firms, many from Europe, but also other
parts of the world, across a spectrum of
construction sector specialties.
“We looked for general construction
partners, electrical and mechanical
engineering companies and heavy
machinery rental companies etcetera,”
Miguel Angel Sanjuan, a Spanish national
who is QBG’s business development
manager, told The Edge. Sanjuan added
that the past year has been one of
much travel – most of it to Europe –
and negotiation for bin Ladin and his
associates to vet potential companies
and secure partnerships with the best.
“It takes a long time. We spent about one
month over there talking to companies,
and have been developing our business
for the past year.”
“Wehavebeencreatingafoundation,”bin
Ladin added. “There were many companies
interested in doing business with us, but in
the end we chose the ones with more than
30 years’ experience, at least. They needed
to be powerful and right to do the job.”
Coprosa, explained Sanjuan, has
been involved in building railways, roads,
underground developments, public
buildings as well as large residential and
other general construction projects in
Europe and around the world. Other
partners, Sanjuan added, include a heavy
material rental company from Europe
that he says already is operating in Saudi
Arabia and is poised to enter the Qatar
market through QBG. “We are bringing
in one hundred pieces of machinery here
to start off with,” he added, “to support
ourselves and to provide for the market.”
The idea, Sanjuan reiterated, is to
create a web of companies that QBG
manages and enables them to “take hold
of the opportunities around us.”
Apart from Qatar, bin Ladin explained,
he is also looking to spread the affiliated
network of construction firms he has
created to other locations, including
Sudan and Malaysia. But for the time being
their main focus, and urgency, remains
local. “Because of the World Cup the time
we have in Qatar is short,” furthered bin
Ladin. “You need to be ready to join this
race, but you cannot build your company
like in Saudi Arabia where you have a lot of
time. You have to be ready in this country
to do something fast.”
The reputation of the bin Ladin family
name in the construction sector on the
Arabian Peninsula of course precedes
Omar bin Ladin. In 1931 the patriarch
of the bin Ladin family Mohammed bin
Ladin – his grandfather – left home in rural
Yemen for the newly formed Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia (KSA). Here he befriended
the country’s founder, King Abdul Aziz
Al Saud, founded Saudi bin Ladin Group
(SBG) and was awarded numerous
contracts to extend and restore most of
the holy Islamic sites across the country.
ThisleadtoMohammedbinLadinlanding
dealstoextendanetworkofhighwaysacross
KSA and numerous other large and lucrative
public sector contracts, which formed
the basis of a multinational, multibillion-
dollar construction conglomerate that now
employs more than 180,000 staff and
has a presence in various guises in Qatar,
including in the form of Qatari Diar Saudi bin
Ladin Group (QD-SBG).
However, in creating QBG, Omar bin
Ladin insisted that he is wholly independent
and any ties are in name only to the KSA-
based bin Ladin construction businesses.
“

3. The Edge | 79
conversation. “If there is a problem or
difficulty you need to be there, you cannot
just sit in an office. We have to check
everything, you go to everything, every
area, and make sure things are working the
right way. Sometimes you will see things
that your own people may not see. This is
one of the responsibilities that I have. No
one will succeed if you don’t visit the site
sometimes and take care of these sorts of
things with your own hands.”
construction | business insight
approaches to pressing problems. As an
example, he cited a potential solution
for issues such as traffic congestion and
safe passage for pedestrians. “We have
some new ideas to cut the traffic down 50
percent at the roundabouts,” he said.
“We came with an idea to build special
bridges with our partner Coprosa. The same
thing might normally take two or three
years to solve, but we can do it in around
eight months, with very low costs and
without disruption to traffic.”
Though, thus far QBG has only
completed one small project in Qatar and
has yet to secure a large contract, with his
family’s solid reputation in construction
and international partners, coupled with
ideas and solutions such as the above
– which Omar bin Ladin said have been
well received – he is confident that they
will soon land their first big deal. “The
timing right now is very good and now we
are comparable to a lot of companies,”
he continued. “I have been doing this for
10 years now and I have no problem in
handling it. This not difficult, you just need
to have the right company and the right
people to do the job.”
Nevertheless, setting up his business
in the manner that bin Ladin has done so
has not been without challenges, some of
them ongoing. Apart from the time it has
taken to set everything up, another of the
reasons he went the umbrella route rather
“Thisiswhat
Iknowhow
todotomakea
living.IamQatar-
basedsothisis
alsomyduty to
my country now.”
than build everything up organically,
Omar bin Ladin explained, that small
construction companies find it hard to fit
into the large project-based construction
environment in Qatar – unless they are
happy to fight for subcontracting scraps.
He also feels that many international
companies, without the protection and
experience afforded to by a local umbrella
partner such as BCG, struggle to gain a
foothold in Qatar and as a result often
pull out after a few months, which in turn
is not favourable for the local industry.
Omar bin Ladin opined that this, added
with well-publicised reasons such as the
price of materials and labour recruitment,
means the Qatari construction industry as
a whole faces many challenges.
Overall, as an industry construction in
Qatar, Bin Ladin says, can be sometimes
be disorganised and needs to improve
its efficiency as a whole sector, if it is to
meet its goals of well-constructed and
integrated projects for 2022 and beyond.
Nevertheless, he remains optimistic and is
hoping his company will ultimately secure
larger projects in the future.
When it comes to his own management
styleasCEOofamultinationalconstruction
company, Omar bin Ladin says it is not all
about deals and industry politics, and he
can often be found on-site in a hard hat.
“Sometimes you have to do that,” he
closed, smiling for the first time in our