Small firms could pick up reconstruction contracts when the war ends, writes Una McCaffrey.

As the war in Iraq lumbers towards its endgame, attention is quietly turning to the new Iraq that the victors hope will replace the Saddam regime.

The political and diplomatic elements of this process are well known but more subtle are the competing business interests currently jostling to win their share of the bounty that will flow from reconstruction projects in the country.

US companies, it is tacitly acknowledged, will end up with the more lucrative contracts, with some British firms likely to gain here and there too. For the remainder, it is a matter of picking up the crumbs of sub-contracting business, opportunities too insignificant for the larger players but perfectly sized for smaller companies: firms such as Antrim-based Mivan.

Mivan is among a number of international firms that has been in Iraq before and, having closely watched the developments of the past month, is keen to repeat the experience under the new regime.

From a standing start in Antrim in 1975, the company made its first entry into Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 1981 as a subcontractor working on concrete safety barriers for flyovers. The opportunity came after a chance encounter in a Dublin pub between Mivan chief executive Mr Ivan McCabrey and an Irish building worker who was already operating in the country.

The flyover experience worked well on both sides and Mr McCabrey, a qualified civil engineer, "decided to stay".

The firm established a branch office in Iraq and soon won numerous government contracts, including the construction of power stations and work on Baghdad International Airport, which last week came under the weight of US attack.

Mivan also worked on a £10 million sterling (€14.5 million) kitchen for Saddam, a facility that was designed to feed 1,000 people at one time.

Word spread and governments of other countries were soon engaging the Northern Irish company to work on their embassies in Iraq.

By the time the first Gulf War began in earnest in 1991, the country was providing about half of Mivan's business and the brand was growing.

When the extent of hostilities eventually pushed the firm out of the country, it was three months away from finishing work on one of Saddam's many palaces.

Like many others active in Iraq at that time, the company has been unable to return since.

After Iraq, Mivan immediately moved to replace the lost business (for which it has been, incidentally, paid in full) by winning a contract on Euro Disney, outside Paris. Workers relocated from Saddam's palace to the French theme park and life moved on for Mr McCabrey and his workers.

The company has since built a 23-bed hospital in Gaza, restored the Dome of the Rock Shrine in Jerusalem, and completed projects in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand.

Currently, its most substantial interest is in Romania, where it is involved in an £80 million water and housing contract.

It has also recently completed the installation of a "bespoke waterfall" in a Kuwaiti shopping development.

Mr McCabrey says Mivan has plenty on its plate without winning any Iraqi reconstruction contracts.

The company employs 850 staff around the world (plus 2,000 in the Romanian joint venture) and has a turnover of about £80 million. This has been raised from £50 million in the past year, largely due to a multimillion pound contract to fit out the interior of the new Scottish Parliament building.

He has nonetheless made the British and US governments aware of the company's experience and capabilities in the Middle East and is hopeful of picking up some sub-contracting work in Iraq, if and when it becomes available.

Opportunities for firms such as Mivan are far from certain, however, with US law dictating that projects overseen by the US Agency for International Development must be undertaken by American firms.

The chairman of Irish company Pierse Construction, Mr Ged Pierse, suggested earlier this week that the US government should reward the Republic for the use of Shannon Airport by passing on some reconstruction projects to Irish firms.

Mr McCabrey is less forthright, joking that his previous work on Saddam's palaces is unlikely to hold much sway these days. He also realises that Iraqi building firms have probably gained significant technical expertise in the decade or so over which foreign companies were unable to enter the country.

"It's hard because we have to get the timing right," says Mr McCabrey, adding that the company is "waiting for a phone call" rather than hanging on a line to the White House or Number 10.

He is conscious too that open posturing on reconstruction projects will be distasteful as long as a war continues but makes no apologies for keeping an eye on the future.

"We're neither anti-war nor pro-war - we're just in the business to build things," he says, adding that he is not interested in "profiteering from war".

"I'm a great believer in happenstance," he says. "If we're asked to help, we'll do so."