MRCB TARGETS 20 MORE JOBS THIS YEAR

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB) plans to bid up to 20 more jobs this year to add to its tender book worth RM6 billion.

Its executive director Mohd Imran Mohamad Salim said the construction sector provided between RM5 billion and RM7 billion contracts annually.

Imran said the group’s current order book, which stands at RM7.04 billion, would be able to sustain it for up to five years.

“At any given year, we are expecting our construction order book to stand at around RM5 billion to RM7 billion just to ensure that we can have earnings visibility for the few years ahead.

“For 2017, we are expecting to book at least 10 per cent of the tenders that we have submitted, and we will continue to submit for tenders where there is an opportunity,” he said after MRCB’s 46th annual general meeting, here, yesterday.

Imran said the projects tendered would be in civil engineering, flood mitigation, railway and infrastructure.

Of the RM7.04 billion order book, RM5.36 billion has yet to be billed.

On plans to spin off its construction arm as a separate listed entity, Imran said MRCB was keeping it as an option, depending on the necessity and time. Last month, MRCB undertook a RM2.2 billion rights issue to shore up its balance sheet.

Chief corporate officer Amarjit Singh Chhina said there was no plan to issue a lower rights issue.

“If you look at the gross development value per share, it was RM6.50 four years back. If you look at it today, it is in excess of RM24 per share and thus showing the scale of MRCB projects.

“The capital base that we have today is inadequate to support our businesses and I think it is important to stick to the size of fundraising we have indicated as that would keep us steady for a good number of years ahead,” he said.