The Nass Group of companies –  a well-established industrial conglomerate and construction powerhouse –  can justifiably claim to have helped build most of the prestigious projects in Bahrain.

At the helm of the group is its founder Abdulla Ahmed Nass, who started his career with a construction company in Saudi Arabia and having learned the ropes of the business there, established his own contracting company in Bahrain in 1963.
Forty-five years later, the Nass Group is a conglomerate synonymous with projects of scale and encompasses a total of 32 companies with a workforce of 5,000.  It has diversified and undergone backward and forward integration to make it self-sufficient in the field of construction as well as associated sectors such as manufacturing, trading and marine transport, ship repair, offshore engineering, dredging and land reclamation.
As a result, the group is self-sufficient in finance, construction management, manpower and equipment, which makes it well-placed to undertake turnkey installations, with single-source responsibility over a wide range of construction disciplines.  The Nass Group has extended its horizons beyond Bahrain and has set up affiliates in Kuwait (Al Ghanim and Nass General Trading and Contracting Company), Saudi Arabia (Nass and Partners) and Qatar (Qatar Al-Attiyah International Group).
The Nass Group of Companies started as a construction company, and this sector has remained the mainstay of all the group businesses. As one of the most experienced construction companies in the area, A A Nass Contracting Company now has two main subsidiaries –  Nass Industrial Services for Mechanical Works and BK Nass for Electrical Installations and Instrumentation Works. These companies are able to provide clients with a blend of experience and know-how that cover many aspects of construction, which range from civil works and mechanical erection to electrical installation, instrumentation works and plant commissioning.
In the construction field, the group also enfolds Nass Sand Processing Plant, the first sand plant in Bahrain, and a leading supplier, with the biggest operation focusing on the reclamation of lands; and Nass Scafform, which was launched in 1990 as a joint venture scaffolding company between AA Nass and Scafform International of the UAE.
The company has its own jetty in Mina Sulman where its offices are also located, making the import of construction materials such as cement easier and more reliable. It imports cement from Saudi Arabia across the King Fahad Causeway as well as from the UAE, by ship.
Over the past three years, Abdulla Ahmed Nass Group has completed a wide spectrum of projects in Bahrain right from the Khalifa bin Salman Port in Hidd to the Amwaj Islands and Durrat Al Bahrain.
At the port, the group completed a BD80 million ($209 million) contract in 2005 involving reclamation, dredging and harbour wall construction in consortium with Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company and Murray & Roberts. Its contracting firm AA Nass Contracting undertook the rock works on the contract, and also put in place the industrial area infrastructure as well as erected a sewage treatment plant at the port.
“We have finished working on the Shaikh Khalifa port, where we did all the civil work,” says Abdulla. “We have also done the gas pipeline for the power station from Sitra to Hidd. We have a diving company for underwater and maritime construction; and have our own ships, barges, tugboats, coaters, dredgers for importing materials and marine construction.”
At the Durrat Al Bahrain in the south of Bahrain, Great Lakes Nass, a joint venture company of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock of the US and the Nass Group of Bahrain undertook a BD40 million deal which involved reclaiming about six million sq m of land in 26 months. Following this contract, AA Nass Contracting in joint venture with Murray & Roberts, was involved in the construction of the 13 bridges that connect the islands. The 13 bridges, designed by Atkins, are 3.2 km long and were completed 14 months ahead of schedule. The BD55 million bridge project was executed in a total of 1.5 million man-hours without a single lost-time accident, company chief executive Ghazi Nass says.
 The group has also erected the nine bridges that link the Amwaj Islands off Muharraq.
The company is now working on the highly prestigious King Hamad hospital in Muharraq and is completing work on the iconic Bahrain World Trade Centre project, in joint venture with Murray & Roberts.
Elsewhere in the Gulf it counts the Dolphin project –  a gas pipeline between Qatar and Abu Dhabi –  as among its notable projects. For the project, Nass Group is manufacturing the pipes in Bahrain and then shipping them to Qatar.
As the founder and the brains behind the Nass Group, Abdulla Nass can rightly be proud of what has been achieved. He has successfully created a company that today is ranked as one of the best of its field internationally –  a local company that has international expertise to deliver quality engineering and construction as well as trading and services within its diversified portfolio to the highest levels.