Man of Steel

AFTER the unwavering eye contact that got the man up and running, and with a few billion ringgit worth of jobs done since, his Eversendai group of companies today has in hand contracts worth over RM2.5 billion, writes SHAREN KAUR. (Published in New Sunday Times).

You could say that he is into the nuts and bolts of the building industry and he is literally up there in what he is doing.

Datuk A.K. Nathan, 52, has been involved in the world's tallest buildings twice, first with Malaysia's sparkling jewels, the Petronas Twin Towers, and now with United Arab Emirate's pride, the Burj Dubai.

Nathan and his company, Eversendai Corporation (M) Sdn Bhd, first handled Tower 2 of the Petronas Twin Towers for Korean contractors Samsung.

The Twin Towers, the tallest in the world from 1988 till 2004 at a regal height of 452 metres, have since been overtaken, first by the 508m tall Taipei 101 in 2004 and, now, the Burj Dubai which stood at 629m in April and is still growing.

Nathan's company builds the steel structures that will be clad by concrete and glass to be transformed into dazzling buildings that famous  architects design.

It all started modestly in 1982 when Nathan constructed a temporary steel platform at the Dayabumi Complex in Kuala Lumpur for the Japanese contractor and today Eversendai is among the leading structural steel companies in the world.

The Eversendai Group today is involved in turnkey structural steel construction for high rise building, heavy industrial plants, stadiums and bridges, airports and other infrastructure projects.

Under its belt currently are contracts worth over RM2.5 billion, to provide steel structures for some of the world's most beautifully designed buildings, most of which are in the Middle East.

The Burj Dubai is not the only prestigious job in Dubai. Eversendai has recently won a RM100 million job to build the structural steel works for Trump Tower, part of the Trump hotel and tower project in Dubai, which is estimated to cost RM1.9 billion.
The hotel and tower project is being developed on the Palm Jumeirah, one of the artificial islands being developed in Dubai.
Eversendai's other contracts in Dubai are for Dubai Mall (the world's largest mall),
Princess Tower, Ananthara Tower and Tiara Towers. The other Middle East contracts are the Feature Tower and Al Shams Sky Tower in Abu Dhabi, and the New Doha International Airport and Dubai Tower at Doha, Qatar.
But before all these projects, Eversendai had completed more than 100 notable jobs in Malaysia, Singapore, the Middle East, Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand worth billions of ringgit.

In the Middle East alone the company had completed more than 35 prestigious jobs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar. Among the prestigious projects were the Burj Al Arab Hotel, Emirates Tower, Dubai Airport Control Tower, Rose Tower, Rose Rotana Suites Hotel, Ski Dome, Dubai Festival City, Qatar Science and Technology Park, Khalifa Olympic Stadium, and Kingdom Trade Centre.

"Eversendai was built from zero base and with no partners involved," says Nathan in a recent interview in Kuala Lumpur.

And he did not have any knowledge or experience in the business of steel construction either.

The multi-millionaire Nathan is neither an engineer by training nor does he have a degree in related fields. Just like the steel he works with, Nathan was moulded into shape by the experience he has gone through in life.
"I owe my achievements to my struggle in life and having a good circle of friends.
"My struggles have contributed to my success," says Nahan who is married to Puspawathy.

"I have seen the worst in the 30 years I spent climbing the ladder of success."
He was 15 when his father, a newspaper agent, sent him to Chennai, India, in 1971 for his secondary education and five years later, when he was doing pre-university studies, financial problems forced Nathan to return home.
He found a job as a machine operator with a printer and when he was 22, branched into selling insurance.
"I was so `raw' and I had a hard time approaching people," recalls Nathan, whose son Narish Nathan, 25, an IT and Management graduate, works with him. Daughter Shamila, 24, is a lawyer.
"I was very reserved but I had a burning desire to be successful and I pushed myself ahead." It was a short stint in insurance but it gave Nathan confidence and it was something that served him well in the years to come.

"I tackled the intricacies of the construction business to a level which impressed engineers and other professionals."

Nathan's entry into the construction sector came about by accident. His brother, a contractor, landed a steel support contract for the Dayabumi project that he could not handle and passed on the job to Nathan.
Nathan hired a company to help him do the job and when it was not to his satisfaction, undertook the job all by himself with the help of an experienced supervisor and other workers.

But Nathan's biggest break came in 1983 when Nippon Steel Corp gave him a steel structural contract for the Malaysian National car plant (Proton factory).
"I met Mr Tameshi Yamaki who was the Nippon Steel project manager. At the interview for the job, he looked me straight into the eyes and I did the same. I was awarded the job.
"Two months later, I asked him why he gave me the job since I hardly had any experience and I was young, 27 years old then.
"Yamaki said when he looked into my eyes, he knew he could trust me with the job. I guess it's true that the eye is the window to the soul."

Nathan says he owes his success to the Japanese work culture - discipline, work ethics and the desire to acquire knowledge.
"Yamaki was hard on me and made me realise that you need discipline to bring out the best in yourself.
"Yamaki so inspired me that the company's name is also named after Sendai, the town he was born in.
"Sendai means thousands of generation in Japanese. I liked the sound and meaning of it so I added the word `ever' to name my company."
Nathan went on to get a few more contracts but recalls "almost giving up" when recession hit in the mid 1980s.
"I was in a desperate state as I did not get paid for some of the jobs I had done. There were no projects coming and I lost almost everything I had.

"I went to Singapore. I thought I would never return to Kuala Lumpur but the KL Tower project brought me back.
"My greatest pride is in having worked on the Petronas Twin Towers.

"I was involved in the construction of Tower 2. Work on Tower 2 began three months after Tower 1 but I'm proud to say that I completed Tower 2, 10 days ahead of Tower 1."

Nathan says he wanted very badly to work on the tallest building in the world.
"I'm a Malaysian and I wanted very badly to work on this project. I lobbied very hard to get the job," says Nathan who is married to.
The managers of the Korean company that building Tower 2 were not convinced of Eversendai so Nathan invited them to check out his work on the 66-storey Republic Plaza in Singapore.
"I drove them to Singapore. In the 5through hour-journey I had the time to make my pitch and we were already on friendly terms when we arrived in Singapore.
"But what I did for the Republic Plaza impressed them so much so they came along with me my Singapore office and we signed the deal."
Nathan is a fighter who doesn't give up easily.
"When I target a project, I work hard at it. I use the power of the mind to conceptualise things.
"You are what your mind conceives."
Nathan says his most challenging moments are when he is presented with a complex structure. "It's an exhilarating challenge and I enjoy theexperience."
Nathan was initially reluctant to work on the Burj Al Arab project as it was in the Middle East and he didn't know the territory.
"But when I found the structure so sophisticated, I agreed to do the job.
"You could say that the building is a perfect example of the term `an architect's dream an engineer's nightmare'."
Eversendai used about 100 tonnes of electrodes for the project while some structures measured as high as 180m and about 90m long."

Burj Al Arab, built on a man-made island about 200 metres from the seashore, stands at 321 metres and was the world's tallest hotel structure at that time.
"It's a wonder project. But there are more wonder projects that I am working on currently and coming up in the future. It's easy now to erect the structures with smart planning and innovative construction."
Nathan's reputation has spread and he is also known in India and North Africa where he has been approached to provide steel structures for large projects.
"I have not worked on any projects outside the Middle East as my hands have been tied with jobs there."
But Nathan is not one to give up a challenge.
(END)