UAE-based Metito plans to launch an IPO and is exploring inorganic growth opportunities by forming strategic partnerships, a senior official has said.
"It is our aim to go for an IPO by 2010," Bassem El Halabi, group Business Development Director, told Emirates Business yesterday. "We are in the midst of finalising partnerships with European companies in the field of solid waste treatment. These will be announced around September."
Metito specialises in desalination, water and wastewater treatment and operates in 14 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia. It has set up an engineering support office in the Indian city of Pune where 100 engineers and support staff will be based by the end of the year to support the company's operations worldwide.
"Last year's turnover was around $105 million (Dh386m)," said El Halabi. "This year our target for Metito alone was $145m to150m. We discovered a few days ago at a board meeting that we had already exceeded those figures.
"We are now looking at a $250m target for 2008 and growth of more than 10 per cent in 2009. With our new partnerships we have great expectations," he said.
The company recently formed a joint venture, Flovac Middle East, with Australian-based Flovac, which specialises in vacuum sewage systems. "These systems are specifically suited to this part of the world. This partnership has been a success and we have secured several projects in the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar," said El Halabi.
Last week Metito announced the completion of an advanced, international-standard reverse osmosis polishing plant that will process 18,000 cubic metres of treated sewage effluent (TSE) every day and drastically reduce the water requirements of the Palm Jumeirah's cooling system.
The contract included the design, detailed engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning of the plant on the trunk of the Palm. Metito Overseas will operate and manage the complex for five years.
The plant takes treated effluent and converts it into high quality, organics-free industrial water that is suitable for feeding the district cooling system. This innovative solution represents an environment-friendly breakthrough that will reduce district cooling water requirements by around 6.5 million cubic metres per year.
The location of the plant brought many challenges. Because of the high value of land on the Palm the space available for buildings and associated facilities was extremely limited. Metito overcame this issue by housing the plant in a circular building 17 metres below sea level – which brought with it a new set of challenges related to the geometry, space limitations and underground conditions.
"The Dubai Water and Electricity Authority and the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority are no longer providing water for district cooling systems – they are giving priority to consumers due to the shortage of water," said El Halabi.
"Contractors have been given deadlines to change their designs to either build more desalination plants or use TSE, which costs less and is easily available. Nakheel was thinking ahead of time by building this reverse osmosis plant. We came up with a design in which we constructed the multi-storey plant below sea level on a man-made island – that was quite a challenge.
"So you have treated water reservoirs, on top of which are the wastewater plants, then comes the polishing unit and at the top level the reverse osmosis purifying system, which changes the water to potable quality. The whole idea is to use this water for district cooling." Additionally, much time and effort was spent ensuring that zero tolerance of odour emissions was achieved.
Scarcity of fresh water
The Middle East, which has five per cent of the global population, has just one per cent of the world's accessible fresh water. Gulf countries have relied on desalination which provides almost 80 per cent of the region's potable water.
"There is a scarcity of water in this part of the world and one cannot deny that fact," said El Halabi. "The two leading countries in the reuse of sewage treated water for potable purposes are Namibia and Singapore. The latter pumps the treated sewage water to their drinking water reservoirs and mix it.
"Singapore is creating an awareness campaign. In order to reduce its dependency on Malaysia for most of its water it came up with a drive to build more recycling plants. Here you have a psychological barrier."
Once people learn the origin of the water they prefer to use it for cleaning or irrigation purposes – but not for drinking or washing.
"In Singapore the quality of that water is higher than World Health Organisation standards. We have to educate people that this water is better than which comes through the taps."