VDM secures foothold in Dubai

VDM Group Ltd subsidiary, Van Der Meer Consulting, has been awarded an initial $3.5 million contract to provide significant structural engineering expertise to the Dubai Waterfront Development.

The company will subcontract to the UK-listed WSP Group as structural consultants on a skyscraper, which is understood to contain over 160 floors and reach a height of 1,000 metres. 

Known as the Tall Tower project, the building will be the focal point of the Dubai Waterfront Development, the world’s largest man-made development and spearheaded by Al Nakheel Properties.

The new city will eventually house around two million people and site works are due to start in June. 

VDM Group principal of international operations Anil Hira said in a statement it was a great achievement for the company to be appointed, and he expected it to be the start of the company’s increasing involvement with its full range of consultancy services as the project evolved.

VDM Group chief executive John Farrell said the project was the next step in the group’s strategy of expanding the consultancy business internationally, using Dubai as an operations base.

“This project will launch us into a new level of engineering consultancy in the region and represents a significant milestone in the three years of work by Anil and his team in establishing VDM in the Gulf region,” Mr Farrell said in a statement.

VDM recently released its half year earnings figures, reporting a net profit after tax for the half year ending December 31 of $5.1 million, a 182 per cent increase over the corresponding period in the previous financial year.

The profit result was driven by a 428 per cent increase in revenue to $112.69 million.

Mr Farrell said each of VDM Group Ltd’s three divisions - consultancy, construction and resources and infrastructure services - performed well in buoyant market conditions, which were continuing to test the labour and management capacity of companies within the group.

He said the results indicated the growth path that VDM Group had taken prior to and after its listing on the ASX in February 2006, and anticipated its full-year net profit would exceed $10 million.