Hassan Allam Holding: Pioneering Development Firm Built on Trust

In Egypt, the name Hassan Allam is perceived as more than just a company or organisation. It is synonymous with national development and infrastructure. The title rightly conjures up images of larger-than-life construction sites, ambitious buildings, and monumental projects executed on a national scale.

With a history dating back to 1936, Hassan Allam Holding (HAH) is Egypt’s leading company in engineering and construction projects. It specialises mainly in infrastructure, energy, and industrial projects for the Egyptian market and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Over the course of more than 80 years, Hassan Allam has transitioned from a local contractor to a leading global group with a dynamic regional and international position. It has earned a solid reputation of superior technical capabilities through a workforce consisting of professionals of the highest scientific and technical calibre.

With a diversified project portfolio, thanks to its deep experience of identifying and implementing large-scale projects in the infrastructure sector, the company has successfully delivered hundreds of projects. The value of its contracts currently exceeds $5bn.

Awards Tell the Story

The CFI.co award to Hassan Allam and Metito for Best Recycling and Reuse Water Project (Global) 2020 came as a welcome reward for the enormous joint project of creating Al Mahsamma agricultural drainage treatment, recycling, and reuse plant.

The plant has no equal in terms of size and capacity: a million cubic metres each day, and an area of 42,000 square metres of land in the Sinai. The project was also recognised as the Construction Innovation Awards’ Infrastructure Project of the Year for 2019, Best Water/Wastewater Project by Engineering News-Record. It has also been shortlisted for the Wastewater Project of the Year award from Global Water Awards.

The project, with unique structural and technological characteristics, has proved revolutionary in the field of agricultural wastewater treatment. That is partly due to its size and strategic location, but also thanks to the advanced technology used in its implementation.

Al Mahsamma plant located in the Ismailia Governate in Egypt is one of the national projects that has contributed to the state’s long-term plan to provide water resources and achieve sustainable development for the region. The station works to daily re-use one million cubic meters of agricultural drainage water that had previously been disposed of in Al Temsah lake, west of the Suez Canal.

This water will now contribute to the cultivation of some 70,000 acres of land to help the state reach its goals in the reconstruction of the Sinai region and contribute to the creation of job opportunities — all while preserving the natural environment of the area.

The chairman of Hassan Allam Construction, the eponymous Hassan Allam, said he was “extremely proud” to have been selected to contribute to the development of a project of such strategic importance. “A project which we were able to complete in a record 10 months,” he said, “amounting to two-and-a-half million man-hours — with no injuries or time lost.”

That safety and efficiency record is a feather in the Hassan Allam Holding cap — and the contract is testament to the state’s confidence in its capabilities. “Al Mahsamma plant will contribute to combatting water scarcity and will have a resounding impact on Egypt’s water security agenda,” said Allam, “and transform the scope of wastewater treatment across Africa. We are extending our efforts to provide the latest solutions that help to solve water poverty, one of the major regional and global concerns.”

Infrastructure Development

Hassan Allam Holding is distinguished by its work with the concept of integrated projects, as it manages the project from design and construction to operation and maintenance. It has extensive experience in the fields of engineering, construction, and infrastructure. Large-scale engineering and construction projects, the provision of building materials, and electrical and mechanical turnkey solutions have become its stock-in-trade. The company is now taking great strides in the renewable energy sector, and infrastructure investment and development.
The group relies on its own factories to produce building materials to be used in its various projects. It works with its products to localise the industry — and to drive exports.

Because of the magnitude of its projects, Hassan Allam has become a strategic partner of the state in most national projects. It has the lion’s share in a number of different areas, including the New Administrative Capital. This transformational enterprise aims to alleviate greater Cairo’s increasing densification, and establish a new growth hub for future generations. The most prominent aspect of this project centres on the construction of a number of new ministries and the water treatment plant. Hassan Allam recently completed the Administrative Capital Airport, which included the construction of the airport’s major halls and 48 service buildings.

Design for infrastructure projects and work is under way to construct another wastewater treatment plant with a capacity of 250,000 cubic meters/day, a triple-treatment plant.

In 1936, Hassan Allam founded Hassan Mohammed Allam & Co for General Contracting. The limited partnership company was driven by his managerial and technical expertise, while his charisma and ambition led to the company’s increasing popularity with construction workers and engineers.

In 1938, King Farouk was on his way to Ismailia when he was injured in a car accident and was taken to the nearby village of Kassasseen to be treated in a small medical facility. As a result, the King ordered that a hospital be built in the area. Hassan Allam landed his first major contract for that facility, and El Kassasseen Hospital was built on the Cairo-Ismailia agricultural road.

Other early contracts included the Mebara hospital in Port Said, a power station in Damanhur, and the first Egyptian oil refinery in Suez.

Over the decades, Hassan Allam has continued to expand and grow despite political shifts and challenges. The company transformed itself into a leading progressive organisation with an enviable record for delivering — to the highest standard. One of the main pillars that Hassan Allam was founded on was the importance of human connection.

That legacy has been upheld by generations of Hassan Allam leadership, through the maintenance of exceptional relationships with clients based on trust, with ethics engrained in every facet of operations.