Saudi contractor Abdullah A M Al Khodari & Sons (Al Khodari), whose value of government contracts fell by almost half last year, is targeting more private-sector work and deals in the GCC and Africa after cutting 8,000 jobs last year, said a report.

The amount of the company's new project wins fell to SR1.5 billion ($399 million) from SR2.9 billion ($772 million) in 2014, reported The National, citing a senior company official.

“We are going through volatility, as is any other business,” stated Kailash Sadangi, the chief financial officer after revealing the company’s new strategy to investors at the Saudi Arabia Equity Forum in Riyadh.

“We have a clear strategy in place to counter what is happening in the marketplace. We are one of the preferred contractors [in Saudi Arabia], we have a peak contractor classification and we have a lot of competitive strengths,” he stated.

According to him, the benefit of its diversification strategy was already paying off.

Within Saudi Arabia, the company is targeting other private-sector giants for work, such as Aramco, and is targeting consortia and joint ventures looking to deliver new metro and public transport projects.

It is also trying to move into complementary areas such as alternative energy and facilities management besides looking to link with developers that are planning to work with the housing ministry to deliver much-needed new homes under a SR250 billion ($66.6 billion)  housing programme announced by the late King Abdullah in 2013, he added.