Tekfen Holding, one of the most prominent firms among the 154 Turkish companies participating in Expo Turkey by Qatar held in Doha last week, is the first Turkish company to undertake a stadium project in Qatar, which received a $170 billion investment budget to host the 2022 World Cup. The company now plans to engage in oil and natural gas business in Russia, according to the Turkish economy and finance daily Dünya.

Osman Birgili, the chairman of Tekfen Group Companies, the biggest Turkish company doing business in Qatar, said they are also interested in new stadium projects, stressing that the company's main new route is actually Russia and Africa.

"We undertook a project in Russia years ago," said Birgili, adding that Tekfen was more active in the Commonwealth of Independent States covering Central Asian countries and not very active in Russia. "We have rolled up our sleeves to do business in Russia. We target Siberia. We want to carry out projects on natural gas and oil fields there."

Tekfen is known to carry out projects on energy in the said region, especially in Azerbaijan.

Moreover, the Turkish company is quite active in large parts of North Africa, especially in Morocco. They have billion-dollar projects in construction such as refinery, road construction.

"Our current goal is to further expand our work area and reach sub-Saharan Africa. We're also looking for new projects there," Birgili noted.