North businessman floats building group

Apr 1 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

A TYNESIDER yesterday floated a Middle Eastern construction group worth more than £200m on the stock market.

Paul Fraser, from Newcastle, who has spent more than 40 years managing and setting up businesses in the construction industry, is one of the founding directors of Panceltica Holdings Limited.

The Qatar-based business, which raised around £7.5m before being floated on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), saw its pre-tax profits soar from around £0.19m in 2006 to almost £10m last year, while its revenues rose to almost £15m from around £3.5m in 2006. Mr Fraser, 59, has worked in the construction industry in Canada, Lithuania and the UK as well as the Middle East. He set up Onix Construction in Newcastle in the mid-1980s but the company folded during the recession of the early 1990s.

He moved to Qatar in 2003 to take advantage of new opportunities in the construction sector and set up Panceltica Qatar in 2005. The company builds steel frames for buildings.

Mr Fraser said: “The successful flotation of Panceltica today bears testament to the tremendous growth opportunity our business is now presented with. The business momentum currently being generated within the Gulf region will enable the group to implement its growth strategy.

“We look forward to continuing the successful growth of Panceltica as a public company and taking full advantage of the global opportunities provided by the group’s fast track construction technology.”

Panceltica specialises in the fast-track construction of residential and commercial property mainly in the GCC states – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain.

It manufactures and erects lightweight galvanised steel-framed buildings directly on to construction sites, which it says saves time and money.

The group is currently working on a £160m contract to build almost 2,000 housing apartments with community and shopping facilities at Barwa in Qatar.

Its other key customers include the Qatar-government-backed QRE and the Tourism and Development & Investment Company in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Mr Fraser’s son-in-law, William Fatherley, 31, who is also from Newcastle, has been with Panceltica since 2006 and is now the group’s chief operating officer.

He joined the Ford Motor Company after graduating in economics from Durham University, where he worked in a number of management roles.

He was the general manager of Ford Sales at Macrae & Dick Limited before joining Panceltica.