Renaissance Services - Oman's multinational
A brief report from Reuters published in Trade Arabia a week ago announced that Renaissance Services expected to sell one of its business divisions by the end of December and another two in 2008. Reuters emphasised that neither possible buyers nor a selling price had been quoted.
Of course, this isn't really news. Both the chairman's and the CEO's reports for 2006 refer to divestment of the Technology (IMTAC), Media and Communications and Education and Training arms of the group in order to concentrate on the core business of services to the oil and gas industry.
It will be news when we learn who the new owners are and what they paid for the businesses.
It's quite easy to see how the three peripheral groups don't fit into the picture. These businesses focus very much on business within Oman and therefore the opportunities to expand and the profits to be made are many times smaller than in the oil and gas service services, which are international in scope.
The financial results for the nine months up to the end of September 2007 show that the marine, engineering and contract services groups collectively made something like 100 times more income compared with that earned by the combined operations of technology, media, communications, education and training. Now I'm not at all sure that I've read the balance sheet right, but if you want to check figures, this was what I worked out from page 6 of the interim report for 2007.
Overall, there was a growth of 14.3% in net profit compared with the same period in 2006.
This doesn't mean that the technology, media and training businesses are failing, although Renaissance did close down a training company in 2006. Far from it. Rather, the group is focusing on developing these businesses to market them as attractive, viable companies to potential buyers. The 2006 company report acknowledged that Renaissance had a strategic plan to concentrate on core business and that it was considering divestment with the full knowledge, and presumably cooperation, of employees and managers.
The Media and Communications group publishes several magazines, including Oman Economic Review, runs PR, events' organisation, media representation, website design and advertising units as well as having an interest in an advertising company in Qatar.
The Education and Training Group boasts both NTI (National Training Institute - ISO 9001:2001 certified), which offers vocational training in Health and Safety, driving and road safety, languages, IT, management and finance etc, while NHI (National Hospitality Institute) aims to equip young Omanis with skills in the hotel and catering industry.
A sentence in the CEO's report for 2006 interested me. "Within ETG, NTI also closed down its loss-making technical training facilities engaged in government-funded vocational training." The CEO went on to say that training for the oil and gas industry was profitable and had high growth potential. The training company which Renaissance closed had also relied heavily on its bids for government funded training.
Why wasn't this government-funded training profitable? Did payments come in? Were margins too small? Were expectations too high? Were there restrictions and constraints? And if so, in what way?
Your comments are welcome.
Of course, this isn't really news. Both the chairman's and the CEO's reports for 2006 refer to divestment of the Technology (IMTAC), Media and Communications and Education and Training arms of the group in order to concentrate on the core business of services to the oil and gas industry.
It will be news when we learn who the new owners are and what they paid for the businesses.
It's quite easy to see how the three peripheral groups don't fit into the picture. These businesses focus very much on business within Oman and therefore the opportunities to expand and the profits to be made are many times smaller than in the oil and gas service services, which are international in scope.
The financial results for the nine months up to the end of September 2007 show that the marine, engineering and contract services groups collectively made something like 100 times more income compared with that earned by the combined operations of technology, media, communications, education and training. Now I'm not at all sure that I've read the balance sheet right, but if you want to check figures, this was what I worked out from page 6 of the interim report for 2007.
Overall, there was a growth of 14.3% in net profit compared with the same period in 2006.
This doesn't mean that the technology, media and training businesses are failing, although Renaissance did close down a training company in 2006. Far from it. Rather, the group is focusing on developing these businesses to market them as attractive, viable companies to potential buyers. The 2006 company report acknowledged that Renaissance had a strategic plan to concentrate on core business and that it was considering divestment with the full knowledge, and presumably cooperation, of employees and managers.
The Media and Communications group publishes several magazines, including Oman Economic Review, runs PR, events' organisation, media representation, website design and advertising units as well as having an interest in an advertising company in Qatar.
The Education and Training Group boasts both NTI (National Training Institute - ISO 9001:2001 certified), which offers vocational training in Health and Safety, driving and road safety, languages, IT, management and finance etc, while NHI (National Hospitality Institute) aims to equip young Omanis with skills in the hotel and catering industry.
A sentence in the CEO's report for 2006 interested me. "Within ETG, NTI also closed down its loss-making technical training facilities engaged in government-funded vocational training." The CEO went on to say that training for the oil and gas industry was profitable and had high growth potential. The training company which Renaissance closed had also relied heavily on its bids for government funded training.
Why wasn't this government-funded training profitable? Did payments come in? Were margins too small? Were expectations too high? Were there restrictions and constraints? And if so, in what way?
Your comments are welcome.
