Rehan Merchant is the Group CEO of ENG (Emirates Neon Group), one of the fastest growing media empires in the MENA Region. In less than a decade after taking management control from his father who founded the company in the mid 70s, Rehan has transformed the UAE focused signage company into an international visual communications and media solutions conglomerate that is spread geographically over Asia, East Africa, North Africa, Gulf and Europe. During his tenure, the company has experienced more than a 5 fold increase in revenues brought by a number of well executed and strategic acquisitions and mergers. The company now boasts revenues of over $100m annually, employs 1200 individuals and has varying interests in over 20 companies worldwide.
Merchant is a Bachelor in Science with Honors from one of UK’s top Management universities (in Business Research) the University of Lancaster, and has specialization in Strategic Marketing and Organisational Studies. He started his professional career in 1997 in various other businesses before joining ENG in 1998 as trainee and within a year gained operative company control. With hands on experience in every technical and engineering aspect of the business, it did not take long for him to bring on a new set of clients, consultants, architects and European automation ideas to ENG. His starting success was in 1998 when the company was awarded the prestigious Emirates Office and Hotel Tower.
With the goal of providing clients with comprehensive communication solutions, Merchant established the ENG Print division in 1998 to cater to the print requirements of the market. The division now leads the industry with high quality images and speedy execution of campaigns. During these initial years, Merchant pioneered numerous outdoor media in the Middle East including the introduction of Digital technology for outdoor advertising. A visionary, he predicted the potential of outdoor advertising in the Gulf early on and invested heavily in the medium- the ENG Outdoor division currently leads the industry with inventory investments that surpass $100m and is experiencing unprecedented growth.
With the Gulf markets opening up to the world, Merchant established ENG Industries in 2002 to support the region’s development; the division manufactures road & traffic signage in its state of the art facilities that employs top-level creative minded engineers. Immense regional growth also saw this division catering to castings, scrap metal trading and aluminum recycling.
Merchant started ENG’s international journey by setting up operations in Oman and Bahrain in 2004 and successfully establishing a joint venture with Kuwait’s leading outdoor company, Roofs International. The period also saw Merchant expanding the company’s offerings to include a variety of services including architectural, interior design and way finding design consultancy by establishing ENG Consultancy in 2005.
In the same year Merchant acquired the region’s leading Television advertising sales and events Company, Max Media and formed ENG Media whose services span media planning & buying and who are represented by a dedicated advertising sales team. Year 2007 saw Merchant secure the acquisition of the UAE based 100 Publishing which brought into the group includes a network of radio stations and enabled Merchant to launch a publishing arm to the business. In its first six months of operation the publishing division has launched titles in both the B2B and B2C platforms; most prominent of which include Insider, a weekly celebrity gossip title and IQ, the only weekly men’s magazine in the UAE.
In the past two years, Merchant has launched the outdoor side of the business into international markets setting up office from as wide afield as Kenya, Egypt, China, Pakistan and the UK.
In 2008, he extended the ENG brand to include Brand consultancy and PR.
As a result of his unflagging ambitions and ability to turn around companies, Merchant sits on numerous advisory boards including the Dubai9 Group, Ruwaad, Greater Metropolitan Asia, East African Investments and 100 Publishing.