Turkish firms clinch $4.4 bln Qatari deal

ISTANBUL/DOHA

Yapı Merkezi Board Member Başar Arıoğlu and STFA Board Member Alp Taşkent pose. The two firms combined forces to join a winning consortium.

As part of a five-partner consortium, two Turkish companies won a $4.4 billion underground design and construction contract in Doha, marking the biggest ever deal inked by a Turkish company abroad.

Qatar awarded prominent Turkish contractors STFA group and Yapı Merkez, along with Indian’s Larsen & Toubro, Greece’s Aktor group and Qatar’s al-Jaber Engineering, with the rights to build the Gold Line section of the Doha Metro.

The metro line is being built as part of Qatar’s construction plans ahead of the 2022 World Cup.

STFA and Yapı Merkezi will hold the largest share of the contract, controlling a 40 percent stake in the project.

According to a press statement issued May 6, the deal signed on April 23 is the largest contract ever undertaken by a Turkish company overseas, as well as the biggest project ever conducted by a Turkish company in Qatar.

The project, which connects the east and western sides of the city, forms part of the Qatar Integrated Rail project, and the Gold Line is by far the largest single construction package of the Doha Metro.
About 700 companies showed interest in one of the most important of these projects, the Doha Subway tender, and 70 joint ventures made  of 290 of these companies submitted competency files.

The companies said construction of the 32 kilometer-long tube, which will have a radius of 7.15 meters, is expected to be completed by August 2018.