MRCB to buy more land in Klang Valley

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd’s (MRCB) chief executive officer Mohamed Razeek Hussain said the group will use part of the cash raised from recent share sale exercise to buy small pieces of prime land around Klang Valley, while keeping an eye for opportunities to participate in upcoming government projects.

These includes a massive Government development plan in Sungai Buloh on a joint- venture with the main shareholder the Employees Provident Fund (EPF).


From left: MRCB executive director Datuk Ahmad Zaki Zahid, Mohamed Razeek Hussain and MRCB chief financial officer, Chong Chin Ann after the AGM

“We will be looking to participate (in the Sungai Buloh project), but there’s still no award from EPF to MRCB,” Razeek told reporters after the group’s AGM yesterday.

MRCB’s chairman Tan Sri Azlan Zainol, who is also EPF’s chief, however, did not attend the post-AGM press conference.

The pension fund had been buying shares in MRCB from the open market after its takeover offer at RM1.50 a piece was rejected by minority shareholders in late March.

Latest filing with Bursa Malaysia showed EPF as the single largest shareholder in MRCB with a 40.9% stake.

Shares in MRCB had risen to as high as RM1.69 on April 2 on high hopes it would benefit from the Government’s intention to unlock the values of its landbank around Klang Valley. The stock was up 2 sen to close at RM1.50 yesterday.

At the press conference yesterday, Razeek said the group’s might look beyond local shores in building up its business.

“We are always on the lookout for new opportunities, locally or abroad, but we will only go into our areas of core competency,” he said.

The group is building an apartment block in Melbourne with gross development value of A$57mil.

Razeek said MRCB was currently bidding for projects estimated to total RM600mil at home to replenish its engineering and construction order book of RM3bil.

“We have to go with some degree of optimism,” he said, adding that the amount tendered excludes in-house projects at KL Sentral.

This excludes upcoming projects such as the Light Rail Transit (LRT) expansion, where MRCB is one of the contractors already pre-qualified for the project.

On his outlook for the current year ending Dec 31, 2010 (FY10), Razeek said the group expected revenue to top RM1bil for the first time this year, with “reasonable growth” in profits from last year.

In FY09, MRCB return to the black with a net profit of RM34.6mil on sales of RM922mil.

By The Star