CITHA (Conference sur l’Investissement Touristique et Hotelier en Afrique) held in Abidjan with more than 200 delegates
Proparco, Horwath HTL and Radisson Hotel Group organised their first conference dedicated to African Tourism and Hotel Investment (CITHA).
This day of debates and exchanges has covered the entire value chain on tourism and hotel real estate operations in Africa. Five round tables were punctuated by networking moments.
Placed under the patronage of the Minister of Economy of Côte d’Ivoire, this event brought together hotel groups, donors, institutional, banks and investment funds, engineering firms, real estate developers, development companies, law firms or public finance consulting…
About the Conference of Yves Dumont (CEO of Gassim)
Yves Dumont was the chairman of a panel comprising Bouygues, Mangalis Hotel Group, Architecture Studio, SGS Environment.
Hereafter the conference of Yves Dumont
- The main players: from the Owner to the Operator
In this period of the football world cup I want to tell you that to succeed in a construction project is like winning a football match: we need a project team
Today we have composed our team as follows with:
- as President of the club: Jean Marie who is the client, the promoter, the owner, he is development director Africa of Mangalis Hotel Group, a hotel subsidiary of Teyliom group.
- at the front, we have the artists, Widson who is the design masterpiece. Widson is an associate architect with the French firm Architecture Studio.
- in the middle, we have those who build the game called in our industry the contractors, Nicolas who is general manager of Bouygues Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.
- in the back, we have the defenders, those who control, those who supervise: Benjamin director of development, SGS Ghana
- as arbitrator, we have the hotels operators AccorHotels or Radisson Hotel Group: they define the rules and check that they are applied
I think you’re going to ask me what my role is in this football club? Gassim is the coach, the manager, the Jose Mourinho, the Pep Guardiola of the project; we are the project manager, the project director who chooses the team according to the objectives fixed by the Club’s president, the owner
In this presentation there are only 3 players which is the minimum, but we have projects with 53 players like American football.
These various parties include
- architect for public areas, for operating areas (BOH), interior designer, facade lighting architect…
- engineer for air conditioning, electricity, security, fire systems, audio-visual, acoustics, structure, geotechnical, surveyor, elevator, kitchen,
- separate companies by trades
- sometimes suppliers
- supervision, control, commissioning (hand over) consultants
- The different execution strategies
The question that all building owners must answer: What is the best execution strategy?
- general contractor (builder only)
- trade contractors
- design & build
- EPC
- lump sum
- unit prices
It all depends on the context of the objectives and potential parties. I tend to say that every formula requires professionalism and that the risks must be borne by the people who know them.
If the primary objective is quality, the choice will be directed towards trade contractors and unit rates.
If the primary objective is the budget, the choice will be design & construction and a fixed price
The choice of the formula “general contractor” is possible with a design team trained to establish the construction design (execution design)).
The EPC formula is only possible in the context where a hotel operator has detailed brand standards.
- Risk management and cost
Too often project owners concentrate their efforts on the costs and forget the risks, even if the risks represent 10 times the cost’s savings, time risk with financial charges. In Africa more than 60% of budget overruns are due directly or indirectly to the project owner who does not have the necessary funding, has underestimated the budget, is behind in his payments or in his decision-making, who has chosen the lowest bidder and not the best bidder, who does not surround himself with the right project team.
What advice can we give? Take professionals. Do not become a purchaser of electrical equipment if you have never done so. Do not take an architect who has no hotel references. Do not take an English-speaking engineer specializing in British standards to work in a French-speaking country and French standards. Do not take a company for a turnkey project (design & build) that has never done one.
The worst formula in terms of cost is when the client wants to play the role of the general contractor acting as a buyer and a builder with a multitude of companies.