Ho Hup eyes jobs worth up to RM400m this year

KUALA LUMPUR: Ho Hup Construction Co Bhd is confident of securing up to RM400 million worth of construction jobs this year, which would bring its order book close to RM1 billion.

“We think we can get maybe another RM300-RM400 million worth of jobs this year. Our tender book is about RM4 billion right now so 10% is no issue. These are mainly government-related projects,” CEO Datuk Derek Wong Kit Leong told reporters at its AGM last Friday.

The group’s current order book is about RM450 million, which Wong said would keep the group busy for at least another three years. Construction contributed 50% to the group’s revenue last year, with property development and building materials contributing 25% each.

In terms of property development, the group has planned three launches with a total gross development value (GDV) of RM1.6 billion for the second half of this year.

These launches comprise a high-end condominium project in Bukit Jalil (GDV RM500 million), hotel and service apartments in Kota Kinabalu (GDV RM800 million) and the first phase of a mixed development in Kulai, Johor (GDV RM300 million).

Wong said the property development division, which has an unbilled sales of about RM150 million, raked in about RM100 million in sales revenue last year and is expected to maintain the same performance this year.

After holding on to launches for the last one to two years, Wong said, it is more bullish about the property market this year and expects 2018 to be a “fantastic” year for the group with the bulk of its projects coming onstream.

“Our joint venture (JV) with Malton Bhd is still ongoing. We will see earnings coming in the next two to three years from them because the bulk of sales is only starting to be recognised this year in our JV… the bulk will be next year, next year will be a fantastic year for us because we’ll have all our earnings coming from Malton,” he added.

“Our Malacca quarry is looking very interesting right now, because we are close to Melaka Gateway. We are close to the double tracking southern portion as well. So, this quarry division should perform very well going forward.

“There are a lot of projects and the government just announced the Malaysia Vision Valley project in Negri Sembilan. These are all within half hour to 45 minutes from the quarry,” Wong said.

He added that while the company has not decided on an official dividend policy, it has plans to do so “very soon” and is looking at 2 sen or 3 sen as a start.