Built to last Developing the GCC holding company Fawaz AlOtaibi on restructuring the family business By Fida Chaaban
AWAB HOLDINGS WEBSITE
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here’s a reason why larger firms tend to adopt corporate structures: it accelerates growth, which is something every generation in a family business should strive for if they want the business to continue,” explains Fawaz Moeid Sadoon AlOtaibi, CEO Awab Holdings. AlOtaibi joined the family business Fawaz AlOtaibi in 2009, directly after completing his Engineering degree at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He returned to Saudi Arabia and quickly took over the family firm. “I didn’t have the chance to work elsewhere because my father wanted to retire, and so he did. I had his full support in running the business, but I didn’t know how! Nevertheless, being an engineer I was trained to solve problems, so I started self-learning the business by reading numbers, asking for reports from management, and observing. Thinking back to that time, I wish I had a mentor. I started a three-year project and failed, and I vowed to never venture into a project or investment without a proper study beforehand. I took what I learned from my failure and realized that I needed a vehicle to be able to manage multiple companies efficiently, so we created the holdings company.” Awab Holdings, then Awab Trading Establishment, was launched in 1977 as a general trading and contracting company. The company transitioned in 2010, becoming purely a holdings company acting as an umbrella owner of several businesses across a diverse
list of industries including automotives, healthcare, information technology, and real estate. “My father was not born into wealth, and from a very early age he had to work along with his siblings to provide for the family, but he also realized the importance of an education so he completed his secondary education. My uncle had a talent for fixing cars, and my father used to help him with the finances. In 1965 they decided to create a company called Takwa, today one of the largest auto spare parts dealers in Saudi Arabia.” A few of the Awab Holdings companies include their real estate development arms like Ousatco in Lebanon and namesake Awab operating in the Kingdom, their company Cepco Medical Services specializing in hospital
preparation, Jubail Motors Company and Takwa Group for automotive spare parts, and Codeit, an IT-consultancy and application company. Each of the aforementioned companies are managed by professionals, and have Awab Holdings as a board member. The holdings group also has a portfolio of investments managed by investment firms on behalf of Awab. Moeid Sadoon AlOtaibi, Fawaz’s father and Founder of Awab, now acts as
OCTOBER 2014
Entrepreneur
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