WRITTEN BY DON CAMPBELL

I spoke with AMS Properties Business Development Director Rupen Samani regarding the operational approach of his company and their priority of creating something special.

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“The company was set up twenty years ago by my father,” Rupen

explains, “Ten years ago it was rebranded as AMS Properties and is now run by myself and my brother Ronal, with dad keeping an eye.”

Rupen, who studied in the UK and briefly worked in a sports management company in London has brought a hunger to see AMS Properties grow and expand and has seen the company develop new ambitions and create new brands in a range of other markets.

He goes on to tell us that AMS Group own a number of other market leading brands, for example Lanor, who are for lack of a better description the exclusive franchisee for Regus, the global office space rental company and VIVA Global, of which Rupen is CEO, who are the agents and distributors for major brands such as Jägermeister, Campari and Corona.

However, it is through the real-estate development arm of AMS Properties where he sees the major growth taking place, “We acquire the land, create the design, bring in the finance, administrate and originate a project,” he says, “And bring in a main contractor, project manage ourselves and complete the project in its entirety. I’m a big believer in paying for experience.”

As a real-estate developer, AMS Properties employ only about fifty people but when counting the number of contractors and sub-contractors they work with the number of employees escalates into the thousands and at any one time they can be dealing with a

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Kenya is one of Africa’s fastest growing economies. A healthy percentage of high education, a strong telecommunication sector and a wealth of natural heritage have made this country the gem of East Africa. A ripe land hungry for development and open for new opportunities- there is one company that has had its finger on the pulse of this land for over twenty years and has become the go-to-organization for foreign investors wanting to get a foothold development in Kenya, AMS Properties.

host of in-house and external consultants and contractors.

“How we are different,” Rupen specifies, “Is that we look at what market the project is in and we create the project design around what the market needs. Additionally anyone can build a shell but it’s the way in which AMS finishes the development with particular fixtures and fittings to take us to the next level.”

This takes experience and Rupen believes strongly in the importance of learning on the job

An associated company of M/s Seyani Brothers & Company (U) Limited, one of the leading Civil Engineering & General Building Construction Company in the East African Region, Parbat Siyani Construction Ltd is registered as CATEGORY “A” class of contractors by The Ministry of Roads & Public Works, Kenya and GRADE-1 contractors by National Construction Authority, Kenya. The company is equipped with technical expertise, great potential and advanced technology, and has undertaken a number of large and medium sized projects which include Multi/Storied Office blocks, Residential Apartments, Residential, Banks, Embassies, Hotels, Schools, Colleges and Factories along with Electrical and Mechanical services. Other than construction, the company has diversified its portfolio into manufacturing sector, where it undertakes manufacturing of Cement Concrete Products, Structural Steel Fabrication, Joinery Works and Furniture items.

PARBAT SIYANICONSTRUCTION LTD

PARBAT SIYANICONSTRUCTION LTDGeneral Building & Civil Engineering Contractorswww.seyani.com

 

PARBAT SIYANI CONSTRUCTION LTDP. O. Box 10748 - 00100 1st ParklandsNairobi, KenyaTel: +254 20 2658134 |Mobile: +254 731 337 001 /40Fax: +254 20 2658136

E-mail: pscl@seyani.com

PARBAT SIYANI INTERIORS LIMITEDP. O. Box 10748 - 00100, 1st ParklandsNairobi, KenyaTel: +254 20 2658134 |Mobile: +254 731 337 001 /40Fax: +254 20 2658136E-mail: psi@seyani.com

SEYANI BROTHERS & CO. (T) LIMITEDP.O. Box 105404, Plot: 41Mikocheni Light IndustryDar es Salaam, TanzaniaTel: +255 22 277 1138Mobile: +255 762 467 261Fax: +255 22 277 3285Email: sbct@seyani.com

SEYANI BROTHERS & CO. (U) LIMITEDP.O. Box 21745, Plot: 1469,Ggba Road, Nsambya, Kampala, UgandaTel: 041 266 142 / 266 218 | 071 789 003Fax: 041 269 640 / 266 142Email: sbcu@seyani.com

SEYANI BROTHERS & CO. (R) LIMITEDP.O. Box 399, Plot: 1934Gaculipo Industrial AreaKigali, RwandaMobile: +250 7886 22700Email: sbcr@seyani.com

VISION: To be one of the innovative, entrepreneurial and empowered team in the “Construction Industry” creating value and attaining global benchmarks.

POLICY: We are committed to fulfil our economic, environ-men-tal and social respon-sibilities while conducting business. We conserve natu-ral resources and build social equity and achieve sustaina-ble growth through a culture trust and care to serve all our clients

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“WE BUILD DREAMS INTO REALITY”

WE Are Proud To Be Associated ToAMS Properties

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ONE WEST PARK, AMS PROPERTIES

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and facilitates this for all their employees, “Instead of training them in-house, we put them onto the job so that they can immediately begin accumulating the experience needed and we search for appropriate seminars within Kenya and send them to these to gain additional schooling.”

Rupen is adamant about the importance of experience and on-the-job training and says that he will happily pay for his employees to gain additional experience to help develop their careers, “It also helps keep them up to date and relevant.”

One of the other training techniques is to have local workers and employees work alongside the outsourced consultants from America, South Africa and Europe who bring not only important experience to the table, but a variety of methods and interesting tastes.

The technique has clearly paid off as despite Kenya having a statistically high turnover of staff in the building industry; AMS Properties is not afflicted by this figure and have some employees who have been with them for ten years or more.

“We have found a very healthy balance,” Rupen says, “It’s a corporate professionalism with a family atmosphere creating a very comfortable middle ground between casual and professional that works for us.”

CustomersSafeguarding relationships with customers is something that both

brothers Rupen and Ronal prioritize firmly. For every project that is

outsourced to a subcontractor they have a permanent staff member

on site managing the project and they themselves visit the sites every

fortnight to ensure that the progress on site is sufficient for them to

hit the targets agreed between themselves and their customers.

This is the reality in the industry; it is a game where everyone

has to work to their best ability to ensure a project is completed

surreptitiously.

“Quality control is something that goes all the way up the chain,”

Rupen says.

Speaking volumes about the quality AMS Properties provides,

not only in their developments but also in the relationships with their

customers, much of their work is repeat business. With businesses

and individuals returning to invest in multiple developments.

“We’ve also been approached by a number of large foreign

companies wanting to be involved in real estate development in

Kenya and partnering with us,” Rupen says, “We haven’t committed to

anything but it’s definitely a good step in the right direction.”

AMS PROPERTIES

The FutureSpeaking of the right

direction, 2014 is set to be the company’s busiest time yet. With their launch of One General Mathenge, AMS Properties will be the first in Kenya to be selling $2million apartments, a mirror of a similar development in New York.

“Kenya has become known for an African level of luxury, and these exclusive apartments are appointed with every conceivable luxury and amenity,” Rupen says, “These developments offer a blissful living experience enhanced with all the modern facilities one could want for, in serene sophistication and style.”

They are also building their

first hotel in Kenya, the Park Inn Hotel, which will be operated by the Rezidor Group.

And what is AMS Properties key to success? What is the drive that makes this company such a force to be reckoned with and such an important presence in the development and future of Kenya? And Rupen explains simply that brand building is everything in this business.

“We defined early on how we were going to be different and went about creating a brand using worldwide ideas and solutions that was not only brand new but uniquely East African,” he concludes

.

“ We defined early on how we were going to be different and went about creating a brand using worldwide ideas and solutions that was not only brand new but uniquely East African.”