Jakarta: Drydocks World, the Dubai yard giant that had to offload much of its southeast Asian empire following the financial crisis, is now back in the hunt for acquisitions in the region. The chairman of the group Khamis Juma Buamim has been attending an investment summit in Jakarta and hinted his firm would be keen to invest $150m in the nation. Drydocks World had three yards in Southeast Asia, two in Indonesia and one in Singapore, but massive debts forced it to offload the majority stakes to Robert Kuok-controlled PaxOcean recently.
In an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands, "transport becomes critical to ensure the connectivity is good," Buamim said, adding his company was looking at areas such as offshore oil and gas as well as tourism. [08/11/12]
