Capital Consulting International seeks to expand into new markets and double its APAC presence

November 17 2023

 

The consultant is exploring potential acquisitions in Australia and New Zealand, and expanding its footprint in South-East Asia, Korea and Japan.

Global insurance and construction consultant Capital Consulting International (CCi), a Rimkus company, is planning to double its operations in APAC in the next few years, targeting Singapore as its key growth area in the region.

In recent years, the Singapore insurance market has established itself as a global powerhouse. CCi’s targeted and strategic growth will ensure that the market has direct access to a full suite of expertise across all technical lines of business, including property, energy, construction and engineering, and marine.

Currently, CCi employs 80 full-time staff in six offices across APAC, representing substantial growth from November 2021 when CCi’s APAC team comprised seven people.

“This gives you an understanding as to how much we’ve grown in that space and time and how much we want to grow going forward,” said Simon Lowe, Sydney-based managing director, APAC.

CCi currently has offices in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Auckland. The Kuala Lumpur and Singapore offices were opened in 2022 and 2014, respectively, with the Australia and New Zealand offices joining the group in 2021 with the acquisition of Aston Consult.

While the company is still top-heavy in terms of headcount in Australia and New Zealand (62 employees) versus Malaysia and Singapore (18 employees), this disproportion highlights new regional opportunities.

CCi currently offers technical, quantum, and delay services to the insurance and construction industries, and while there is a growing demand for all three services in APAC, quantum / cost continues to drive the growth.

“If we look at the spread of headcount across APAC, the way we have grown organically and through acquisition has resulted in a heavily dominated quantum business, with a relatively small number of delay resources, and limited regional presence on the technical side,” Lowe explained.

“Our future growth strategy is not only focused on expanding our presence in Asia but also on growing our delay and technical service offering. The ultimate objective is to have a homogeneous presence in each country with an equal headcount and service offering across technical, quantum, and delay,” he said.

Singapore growth

In terms of priorities for Singapore, the company wants to double its team, grow its footprint, strengthen its brand, and effectively cross-sell its services.

“Demand that we see in many areas on the technical side is the requirement for structural, civil, electrical, geotechnical and rotating equipment engineers, amongst others. We’ll be supporting our clients by providing local resources wherever possible, but the acquisition of CCi by Rimkus in 2021 gave us access to a network of over 1,400 industry professionals in forensic consulting that we can tap into if required,” said Trudie Moeller, CCi’s Singapore-based regional director.

The Singapore insurance market has established itself not only as a leading hub within Asia but also as a lead market within the Middle East. CCi is uniquely placed to offer integrated technical services across these hubs, providing the requisite expertise local to the risk, whilst also providing lead markets with an equally local liaison. This approach means that CCi is able to provide market leading value of service without compromising on the quality of its work product.

In the last six months, two new experts have joined the Singapore team and two more are expected to join before the end of 2023. The direct response to conversations with clients has led CCi to the development of a technical and forensic engineering service offering in the region, led by civil and structural forensic engineering expert, Nick Barham, who recently relocated to Singapore from CCi’s UK business as head of technical services – Asia.

Barham is one of the key Singapore directors, along with Sezgin Ozbilgin, who heads the delay expert offering, and Andrew Merrilees, who heads the quantum expert offering, both in Asia.

Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) M&A potential  

While the company has a bigger presence in Australia and New Zealand in terms of overall numbers, 80% of the service offering in Australia is in the quantum space. This means there are still many opportunities to expand the delay and technical service offering, primarily through acquisitions and the strategic head-hunting of key resources.

“At that time, it was a statement of intent about growth strategy, and entering and developing new markets. We’re seriously looking into acquisitions in the next 12 months and beyond,” said Lowe.

For potential targets, one of CCi’s key considerations is geographic footprint – whether it has enough presence in a particular country or state, and whether there is room for growth for a certain type of service offering.

“In Australia and New Zealand, there are opportunities for further insurance penetration. We understand that the insurance market is like a web with many parties involved in any one project, so we employ the right people, with the right knowledge of the industry to offer construction and engineering experience. We can service our clients globally and respond to their specific needs for these specific markets,” Moeller explained.

“We know that the Sydney market has characteristic client requirements, and we will be participating more actively in the insurance community. We can service those requirements now, but there’s definitely the potential for further growth,” she said.

Japanese initiative and wider APAC opportunities

One of CCi’s growth initiatives is the engagement of a Japanese national in early 2024, who can open doors to Japanese companies that are active in South-East Asia, working on many of the large infrastructure projects that are built by Japanese contractors.

“There are opportunities that exist with Japanese (re)insurers, and it takes time to build and maintain those relationships – this appointment is a promise of our commitment,” said Moeller.

The company also expects the Japanese initiative to leverage its growth in the wider region, including Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam, especially on the construction side.

Some of the opportunities CCi is interested in in the region that are unique to APAC, include political certainty, growth potential, investor interest, and government funding.

Meanwhile, for China, the firm prefers to take another approach – observe and wait for the right opportunities to come.

“Our strength at the moment is centred on the reinsurance market in Singapore and Hong Kong. China is an area that we are looking forward to developing when the time is right. We have focus groups set up to explore growth opportunities in China and to service our clients sustainably in that region,” said Moeller.

Talent strategy

Besides a difficult macroeconomic climate and inflationary challenges, one of the main challenges the company is facing in the region is sourcing and retaining top talent in a highly competitive labour market. While the company is pairing up technical and forensic engineering service offerings in the region, it is also open to partnerships in different forms.

“Attracting and retaining talent is a challenge for all employers. As a global business sitting within a wider group, we are working hard to implement inclusive and equitable policies and cultural messaging to promote a sense of belonging and physical and mental well-being that extends across our business and our interactions with clients,” Moeller said.

Her views are echoed by Lowe, who said: “Recruitment is our biggest challenge – attracting and retaining the right talent to help us on our growth journey. We do headhunt the right people for senior positions and we’re lucky to have a global network to lean on when resourcing projects, particularly in the technical space. We are currently considering relocating senior technical directors from the Rimkus team to Asia to help us grow the technical service in the region.”

Partnership in Korea

CCi recently signed a milestone memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Deloitte Anjin in Korea, covering the provision of comprehensive project advisory and expert services to the construction and insurance industries.

This collaboration between CCi and Deloitte Anjin is founded on a proven track record of successfully managing disputes on complex construction projects on behalf of Korean corporations around the world. It combines quantum, delay, and technical expertise with cutting-edge data management technology to provide a truly integrated service to Korean clients.

This partnership further bolsters our presence in APAC and exemplifies CCi’s commitment to responding to market and client requirements.

Simon Lowe

Managing Director, Asia Pacific, CCi

Email: [email protected]

 

Trudie Moeller

Regional Director, Asia Pacific, CCi

Email: [email protected]
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