Interiors-focused specialist aims to expand activity in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain as Dubai market slows

Mivan is targeting more interiors work in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain as part of a plan to offset an impending slowdown in work in Dubai.

The Northern Irish company formed a joint venture with Dubai-based hotel and leisure fit-out firm Depa back in 2005 to take advantage of a booming commercial market.


Abu Dhabi
Mivan sees opportunities in the Abu Dhabi market

But with the Dubai market slowing down, the firm is looking at increasing its workload in nearby Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.

A Mivan spokesman said that the jobs it is targeting in Abu Dhabi included commercial, resort and hotel work as well as government buildings and offices.

It has just started on one of its first contracts in the emirate, a £3m scheme to build a dozen mock-ups for offices and the stock exchange at Abu Dhabi's financial centre at Al Suwwa island.

The spokesman added: “Before Dubai started to slow we always were looking at the UAE as a whole, not just Dubai. It would be silly just to focus on Dubai.”

Mivan worked across Iraq in the eighties and helped build Saddam Hussein international airport but pulled out of the country after the first Gulf War back in 1991.