Barwa Real Estate Co held the second employee Town Hall to discuss the accomplishments and progress on executing the new corporate strategy, which was announced last year. The meeting also discussed the various initiatives in process in the company to achieve the strategic goals and improving the business efficiency.
The meeting was attended by all Barwa’s corporate and subsidiary employees.
Opening the Town Hall, Abdulla Abdulaziz Turki al-Subaie, board member and group chief executive officer, said: “We had our first Town Hall meeting last October, where I had the opportunity to share with you the new corporate strategy and corporate goals. Today, I am happy to share with you the key accomplishments that the company has achieved as a result of executing the strategic priorities and various initiatives that are being implemented and those in the pipeline that are targeted to be completed before the year-end.”
Last year was the most challenging year for Barwa, reinventing the group’s strategic direction and setting the execution priorities, leading its way for disciplined and sustainable growth, said al-Subaie.
Different from previous years, Barwa’s last year financial results showed strong operating income growth and cost efficiency as signified by an increase in operating income by 132% and decrease in general and administrative costs by 38% compared to the previous year. The sharp focus on inculcating good financial discipline and risk management culture is visible by the group restructuring the financial obligations resulting in a decrease of 35% in financial costs last year. The improvements in financial results continued, as demonstrated by the first quarter 2012 results which showed decreases in general and administrative expenditure by 55% and finance costs by 57% compared to the first quarter of last year.
Barwa’s new corporate strategy is based on an integrated business model focusing on growing the core business while optimising and leveraging synergistic businesses that are an appropriate strategic fit. Some of the operational accomplishments and initiatives presented included strengthening the corporate governance, improved business reporting and performance management, implementing a new organisation structure, establishing individual development plans and professional development plans, employee recognitions and internal audit finding implementation among many others. The company is also developing an IT strategy aimed at improving the IT infrastructure and aligning all the business units.
A presentation on local real estate projects was also made showing the progress of current developments and an overview of the new real estate developments. Three major projects: Barwa Commercial Avenue, Barwa City and Barwa Al Sadd are starting operations this year achieving occupancy levels that have exceeded the original targets.
The meeting started by offering condolences to the families of the victims who lost their lives in the recent fire at Villaggio Mall. The Group CEO also announced establishing a committee to review the fire and safety programmes, procedures and arrangements in all the company’s assets and to submit the report and proposal.
The meeting also honoured Waseef, Barwa’s asset, property and facility management subsidiary for obtaining the ISO 9001, 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certifications. All the employees who participated in the Cityscape Qatar Real Estate summit were given certificates. The Group CEO was presented with a special memento signed by all employees honouring him for receiving the Master Class CEO of the year award during the third Middle East Business Leaders Summit and Award organised by a Federation of GCC Chambers and Industry held recently in Dubai.
Source: http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=509961&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16
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