Perbena to contribute to Pansar’s earnings by April

PETALING JAYA: Engineering solutions company Pansar Bhd expects its acquisition of construction firm Perbena Emas Sdn Bhd to be completed by April.

Perbena will start contributing to Pansar’s bottom line in the same month, Pansar’s business division general manager David Tai Wei said.

The Sarawak-based company, which is controlled by Tai’s family, had last September entered into an agreement to buy 100% of Perbena for Rm151mil.

The acquisition will allow the company to diversify its business to include construction and civil engineering.

Currently, it is involved in providing engineering solutions for various industries including marine and industrial, heavy equipment and agriculture.

It also makes air conditioning, fire protection and water treatment systems.

The company announced last week the price-fixing and implementation timeline for its rights issue exercise, which is expected to help it raise some Rm121mil to fund the purchase of Perbena.

The remaining is expected to be funded by bank borrowings.

“Perbena Emas’ order book is about Rm1.46bil now, and it’s all Sarawak jobs,” Tai told Starbiz.

He said that this year, Pansar’s growth will be supported mainly by these infrastructure projects.

“While Covid-19 is obviously a dampener, palm oil and crude oil prices, and infrastructure projects should be positive for us,” Tai added.

Pansar reported a net profit of Rm7.2mil for its third quarter ended Dec 31, 2020 against a net profit of Rm2.8mil for the same period a year ago.

Revenue for the quarter under review stood at Rm100.9mil compared with a revenue of Rm89.5mil earlier.

For the financial year ended ended March 31, 2020 (FY20), the company made a revenue of Rm338.7mil, a 8% decrease from a year earlier.

However, its profit margin for FY20 was higher at 14.7%, compared to 12.6% in FY19.

Based on information from it latest annual report, Pansar had a higher net cash of Rm28.1mil at the end of FY20 compared to Rm18.6mil in the previous year.

In the annual report, Pansar chairman Datuk James Tai Cheong @ Tai Chiong said: “Moving forward, the troubles are far from over. The new fiscal year will be heavily impacted by both global and domestic actions taken by governments to control the spread of the (Covid-19) pandemic.

“Within this atmosphere of low confidence and anxiety, we will be put to the test.”

However, he added that “this was not an excuse for failure, but one that sees an opportunity for growth.”

The stock was last traded at 83.5 sen per share, valuing the entire group at Rm386mil.