WHAT DOES A HOUSING ESTATE, PETROL SERVICE STATION, HOTEL, INSURANCE company and a champion football club all have in common?For Solomon Islands, there is only one answer. They all share the same owner-Abraham Eke.

Eke is the developer of Kobivatu Estate, a suburb in the upper ridges of Honiara, housing more than 50 modern two-bedroom timber homes.

Eke also owns a fuel station in Auki, capital of Malaita province, and acquired Auki Lodge in 1993. He is also behind Mat's Insurance Brokers Ltd, an agency that is fast making inroads into Solomon Islands' brokering and under-writing industry.

Perhaps his most celebrated achievement is the soccer club and field that he started right from scratch.

That club, Koloale, is now number one in Honiara's premier football league competition.

It is currently representing Solomon Islands in the Oceania's O League, which pits the three top football clubs of Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.

 "One thing I'm proud of is the fact that you can compare all my players to many Brazilian football stars, people from the ghettos whose parents have no jobs and have no permanent place to stay or own," Eke said.

 "That's why I'm very proud of my players and now they are all (soccer) stars in Honiara."

Koloale is actually a suburb of Honiara.

It is where Eke started this club in 1998 and all players live in Koloale.

"We entered the second division when we started in 1998, and in the 1999 season, we were promoted to the first division and again promoted to the premier league in 2000.

"We are still in the premier league and are now one of the clubs to be reckoned with in Honiara.

"If we are not number one, then we will either be the second or third top team."

Eke's interview was conducted on the well manicured grounds of the football field he created.

Honiara residents know it as the AE Oval, named after the initials of its developer.

The ground sits on what is surely one of the most beautiful locations in Oceania.

Palm trees separate the ground from the long winding beachfront and the waters of Honiara Harbour.

The beach is a recent addition-a work in progress according to Eke-thanks mainly to the constant flooding of Lunga River nearby.

Dumping of sand on his waterfront from the Lunga river-mouth has enabled the Malaita entrepreneur to develop Honiara's only world-class beach soccer field.

It is the home of the country's giant killers, Bilikiki, the current Oceania beach soccer champion that was the Pacific's sole qualifier to the Beach Soccer World Cup in France last year.

At the adjacent AE Oval, the grass is soft and well maintained.

"This is imported grass from Brisbane," said Eke.

"It is planted on a carpet of sand, just like they have at Lawson Tama (Honiara's main sporting field).

"I have also installed automatic sprinklers to water the field regularly."

Near the beach and built to the Honiara end of AE Oval is the Koloale's clubhouse.

Many know it as the Ranadi Beach Club, a favourite local hangout.

Koloale must be the only football club in the islands that can lay claim to having its own world-class football field and a clubhouse.

Soccer has always been one of Eke's first loves.

He played it in school in northern Malaita and when pursuing his Bachelor of Arts degree in accounting at the University of Technology in Lae in neighbouring Papua New Guinea, Eke played in the city's premier team.

He played as striker and still remembers one of his 'glorious moments' when he scored a goal 30 metres out.

Studies and work might have kept him away from pursuing his ambitions to represent his own country, but the man had made it all up through Koloale Football Club and with AE Oval.

Actually the oval was a result-in an indirect way-of the ethnic tension of 2000.

When all his businesses grounded to a halt because of the ethnic war, Eke turned to soccer field construction.

"Being a soccer player and someone who is very passionate about the game, I built this soccer field.

"I actually started building one at the Kobivatu Estate.

"But after realising it will cost me big money, I left the field at the estate and started building this one at Ranadi."

All throughout his entrepreneurial life, Eke has been very strategic in the sectors he invested in. Perhaps it is the result of being a trained banker.

When he graduated from Lae with a BA in Accounting in 1978, his first job was with the Hong Kong Bank branch in Honiara.

He spent four years there during which he spent 12 months undergoing training in Malaysia and Hong Kong.

From a commercial bank, Eke made his first strategic move when he joined the Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI) as manager banking.

Ahead of competition: He did a lot of travelling while with CBSI. A memorable one was the three months he spent in New York and something he would never forget was his tour of Manhattan's Twin Towers!

He decided to take the plunge in 1985 when he resigned from his job at CBSI and ventured into running his own business.

"I started off with breeding chicken and pigs. And I was the first to introduce radio telephone in taxies in Honiara when I started a taxi company called Silver Cabs."

He sold both businesses and moved to Auki in 1989 to start a fuel distribution depot as an agent for Shell.

This was upgraded to a full service station with a 55,000-litre tank in 1993, the year he also acquired Auki Lodge.

With a petroleum business and hotel, Eke expanded into logging.

He said he made only five shipments to mainland China before he, again, sold it.

He was into real estate and residential property development when the ethnic war broke out.

While Eke did not feel threatened to move out of his property at Kobivatu Estate, he however was unable to continue any of his business.

That is why he ventured into developing first a playing field at Kobivatu, then the AE Oval.

Mat Insurance Brokers Ltd-operated for him by a cousin who has worked for 30 years in the insurance industry-opened for business in 2006.

As is with every investment he does, Eke is miles ahead of his competitors.

"Honiara is short of internationally accepted sporting fields, so when we host major sporting competitions like the Mini Games for example, AE Oval and the ground at Kobivatu will be available for lease.

"With the ever expanding beachfront at the oval, I may even consider offering a saltwater swimming pool."

Indeed like the ever shifting sand out of Lunga River, the sky or more aptly the horizon may be the limit for AE-the baron of Solomon Islands soccer!