OMS Group is an integrated subsea cable installation and maintenance provider. The company offers services to turnkey submarine cable installation including project management, permit acquisition, wet plant logistics and storage, cable transfers, cable landing, and outside plant construction. Deputy Group CEO Richard Sun explained more to Hannah Barnett.
Though based in Malaysia, with supporting offices in Indonesia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Singapore, OMS Group is very much an international enterprise. This is evident in the work it does, connecting a vast network of submarine cables, linking countries around the world along the ocean floor.
But the company’s international credentials also extend to the manner with which it operates. “We are global and neutral, meaning we can serve east and west,” said Richard Sun, Deputy Group CEO. “As an independent private company, we are able to serve any telecommunications (Telco) or Over the Top (OTT) service provider. We are not bound by certain national constraints, and we do not have vested interests.”
A history of expansion
OMS Group has been operating under several guises since it was founded by its current chairman, Datuk Lim Soon Foo, 30 years ago. The company began providing onshore services like customs clearance and agency logistics. Over the years, it grew through experience, developing its engineering and technological capabilities, to where it is today.
Now OMS Group operates ten vessels, comprised of five cable ships, two cablelaying barges and three anchor handling tug support vessels. It also has six ROVs and five ploughs. The company achieved a turnover of USD $203 million last year and continues to grow steadily.
Perhaps the most significant milestone is the most recent: in 2022, OMS Group embarked on a new business expansion
with the construction of a hyperscale data centre, set to deliver 50MGW midway through 2023 and another 50MGW in Q1 of 2024.
“We are already a significant contributor in the installation and maintenance space for submarine cables,” said Mr Sun about the project, “we also had the investment into the infrastructure, and ownership of the cable-laying stations with backhaul connectivity. The final piece was constructing the data centre, to really be an end-to-end, PoP to PoP infrastructure solutions provider.”
Also in 2022, OMS Group launched its fifth subsea cable ship, CS Cable Vigilance. The company’s fleet now accounts for around 10% of global cable ships. Alongside this, OMS Group has expanded its maintenance operation areas and is now present in three zones: the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Southeast Asia region, and has
recently finalised a South Pacific Marine maintenance agreement, which covers all the Pacific Islands and the east coast of Australia.
It is certainly a busy time to be in in the fibre optic submarine cable space. “A lot of equipment suppliers are fully packed in terms of their manufacturing capabilities,” Mr Sun confirmed. “Certainly on our side, our installation schedule is very busy. Our big installation vessels are fully booked for quite a number of years.”
Significant projects
During the Covid pandemic, OMS Group completed the Converge ICTSI Domestic Submarine Cable Network (CDSCN), spanning 1,824 kilometres and connecting 22 landing stations throughout the Philippines.
CDSCN includes 48 fibre cores running on 400G and 800G. A project of this magnitude usually requires maintenance personnel to travel from site to site, which was impossible during the strict lockdown in the Philippines at the time.
But OMS Group is not the sort of company to be put off by a challenge. As Mr Sun explained: “We said to our customer: ‘We can get this done, it will probably cost a bit more, but are you willing to get this across the finish line?’ And they agreed.”
The company deployed all its shallow water assets – some acting as floating hotels for its teams – in order to get government permission for the work to go ahead. “Our teams spent the entire project on board the vessels, going to the beach
to do the work, and then hopping back,” Mr Sun explained. “It was quite an achievement for us, completing so many cable landings under those conditions.”
The company also contributed to an impressive submarine cable system called SX Next, a 15,857km network connecting Sydney, Auckland and Los Angeles, with branching units linking the Pacific Islands of Fiji, Tokelau and Kiribati. “It great to be able to bring connectivity to such a remote area and have them join the digital world. We are quite a proud of that too,” said Mr Sun.
OMS Group is fully integrated across the value chain when it comes to installations and does all permitting, beach team operations and LAN cable laying itself. “If a customer contracts different teams
separately, like a shallow water team and a beach team, and then one is delayed, they'll need to pay extra for the other,” explained Mr Sun. “We're able to de-risk our projects, essentially for our customers, and provide that one-stop-shop installation solution.”
Business relationships
Like any successful business, OMS Group values robust relationships with its partners and suppliers. “I think the important thing about our partners is that we've always maintained a long-term approach,” Mr Sun said. “Even if others come out and commercially offer a better rate, we prioritise, above all, long-term relationships and loyalty. As well as, of course, quality in terms of the work performed.”
Engaging in transglobal projects on the scale OMS Group does also comes with its own bureaucratic obstacles. One of the main challenges is obtaining government permits when laying a large international cable system and traversing several jurisdictions.
“It means we have a lot of discussions with governments and give them industry recommendations as to how they should address any issues,” explained Mr Sun. “And certainly, if there's any change, as soon as we are informed, we are hands-on doing the job. So we will try to use our expertise to alleviate the risk. And that way, we also know which projects may face risks, and perhaps change vessel planning in anticipation of these risks.”
There is not much stopping OMS Group as it continues its upward trajectory. The company proudly spans international borders.
“I think we're very versatile,” reflected Mr Sun. “If you look at maintenance specifically, there is the potential for some exciting developments. As we expand and move forward, having a maintenance solution that addresses the
need for global, (as opposed to regional) networks will make the next few years quite exciting.”
It is this sort of opportunity for growth and international expansion, not constricted by borders, that makes the cable laying space such an exciting sector to be a part of.
“Being independent means we can make business decisions quickly,” Mr Sun concluded. “For example, our investment into the data centre was made quickly, and it's proven to be a great new commercial unit. It excites me to be able to go out and look at new business opportunities knowing that on our side at least, decisions can be taken quickly. It makes us extremely dynamic in this market.”
