Morocco # English board

07.04.08, 3:28 PM ET


TANGIER (Thomson Financial) - The real estate subsidiary of Russian gas giant Gazprom is to invest nearly one billion euros in northern Morocco, an aide said on Friday.

To see through the project the subsidiary, Intelco, set up a Moroccan group, Kudla, whose capital is listed at 155 million dirhams, which equates to about 13.5 million euros, the Moroccan unit's Mohamed Ghalat said.

Kudla will invest 5.6 billion dirhams to build a 48-hectare Paradise Golf Resort at Aouchtam in the Rif mountains, complete with high-end villas and apartments, a nine-hole golf course, tennis courts and a shopping centre as well as a marina and 58 hectares of real estate projects between Tangiers and Tetouan.

The Russian group is also involved in a 1,200-hectare project on the Mediterranean at Azla, near Tetouan which will also come with an upmarket marina, hotels, a golf course and an upscale residential area.

Five billion dirhams have been earmarked for this project.

'We want to invest here because the Spanish market is saturated,' Ghalat said, adding that Gazprom had been charmed by northern Morocco where it will concentrate its tourist projects in North Africa's Maghreb region.

Investors mainly from France, Spain and the Gulf region are currently developing areas in southern Morocco.

yes, the local media talked about it, i think it's le soir .. we hope that it will bring good for our people of the Rif...

Inshallah, Whole Morocco is going forward

Yes sure, hope is positive, but unfortunately going forward cannot only be achieved by inviting multinational companies in, they can create job opportunities but they can't give morrocans their rights, In this respect, we should be involved as citizens to make things change...

Quote

Hicham_A
Yes sure, hope is positive, but unfortunately going forward cannot only be achieved by inviting multinational companies in, they can create job opportunities but they can't give morrocans their rights, In this respect, we should be involved as citizens to make things change...

If history has taught us one thing, is that rights come with prosperity. Look at women's rights, they started when women began to weigh economically by bringing home a salary. These companies settling in Morocco are a good thing socially speaking, obviously they won't change the order overnight but it'll feed the thirst for more equity and give the means to unions or other grassroot movements to improve the situation.

Well, nice reasoning, but let me tell you first i disagree with you because:

First, Rights come with education, and the statistics are frightening in Morocco, especially in rural areas. Also, i don't think that women's rights ( as an example) have improved in Morocco.. there has been a lot of official communication about it but it is mostly propaganda, even in the very small scope of rich classes.. i'll give an axample of my city as far as this so-called relation between economic and "social" developpement, wages in tourism are still very low notwithstanding the huge boom in tourism and Estate, and this is because of the fact that the governing "cast" is at the same time the one possessing the big projects in Marrakesh..

Hicham_A, on education I totally agree, it's the one sector ignored by reform. The state seems to dump the problem on the private sector offering incentives to favor the mushrooming of private institutions. The downside is that the private sector is here to make money, it's in its nature, they're not social workers so it widens the educational gap.

The new devolepment in turist resorts is not good for Morocco. They are just blowing more hot air in the real estate baloon, and the bigger the baloon the bigger the bang when it burst. The are also alot of other economic side effects, i.e. bigger trade deficit, as Morocco import many of the parts used in the real estate buisness. The increased import and the rising comodity prices will accelerate the already rising inflation. Further more the more dependent Morocco becomes of one induistry (mainlly construction industry) the harder and longer will the recesion be when the real estate buble bursts. Never put all your egges in one basket.

unfortunatly people are blinded by the sales tricks from clever speculaters.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2008 05:52 by Kutchia.

One of the biggest foreign developer in Morocco the Spanish 2. largest construction copmany have just seeked to be under administration. Now they have to liquidify all their land and projects in Morocco among other places. Guess what that means. It could well be the the triger that makes the buble burst, who knows, better sooner than later.
more about the nes here:
[www.moneyline.com]

Kutchia, I think Fadesa will dump their projects cheap and someone will pick up the slack, my guess would be Emaar or some other oil-gorged company. In any case, if the real estate prices collapse, it could also signify an opportunity to buy cheap for the average customer.

Yes a good oportunity for people who have seen this coming, but it will have a disastrous effect on many many families. Just look at whats happening ion US, UK and most European countries. Its the average joe who gets hit hardest. The speculaters who started this buble has earned their earnings on this pyramid scheme and are long gone. The ones who are left are the amature investors and desperate home owners, who thought that prices could only go up. The tsunami will hit Morocco really hard it is on its way, and combine that with the rising comodity prices (foof and energy) and you will see Morocco in deep crisis (more than it already is) and it could lead to riots and history have shown what riots in Morocco leads too.

Hi again Kutchia,

The real estate in Morocco is slighty skewed for two reasons : the first one is the money pouring from oil-based wealth like Dubaï, they won't be affected by the crisis, it's quite the opposite. The rise in oil prices is having a side effect we can witness right now, it's the largest movement of monetary wealth in history from one side of the planet to the other. And unlike their fathers, these young royalties are investing in all sectors instead of handing it to bankers and brokers in the US/UK.

The second reason is less obvious, if you speak to real estate operators in Marrakech for instance, they'll tell you that it is the internal money that is driving up the market not foreigners. Only the small "samssara" waste their time with the idiot in shorts looking to buy, the real player knows the hard cash is coming from inside the country. To be blunt, it's money laundering. We export dope to the tune of billions of euros per year, that money has to go somewhere, european banks have tightened regulations on money laundering, so the money is reinjected in the moroccan economy.
Morocco will see a crisis but I don't think it will be a tsunami, the ingredients for a total collapse are not there.

Not everyone is feeling the crisis, seems Russians are rushing to invest in Morocco : Inteko announced a 500 millions € investment on a resort in the north, they already own the land (46 hectares) :

[en.rian.ru]

Salam Chelhman


Actually Inteko is Gazprom's Estate subsidiary, it is the same project....

Hi Hicham,

Thanks for the info, didn't know that. The amount has been divided by 2 then, Gazprom said 1 B, Inteko only 500 Mk. Cheers.

well It is probably the famous moroccan way of doing business, Inteko will end up investing some two thousand € in one of the rif's souks and says that is all what is left from the starting 1 Billion as in the famous Joke...

Tetouan is a nice region which is under the spotlight lately thanks to the king interest.
Unfortunately, the local authorities in the AZLA commune is far from doing what is needed to attract investors. Actually, they do everything they can to keep investors away.The reason is that way the local "Mafia" can continue their business and can keep the people ignorant.
I am used to spend sometime their in the camping and what I see and hear is not encouraging.
As a joke, this region is called "The republic of Azla" because there is no law.
This investment may help change the situation. The forest is destroyed year after year, the sewage is going to the sea without any supervision and the domestic waste is dumped in the forest and creates fire spots every year.
We need more authority supervision to avoid the abuses going on and to attract foreign investors to this region.
Btof