Gadang targets jobs worth RM2b (9261)

The company has a RM863.39 million contract for the My Rapid Transit (MRT) project and a RM410.87 million job to build the 300-bed Shah Alam Hospital.


GADANG Holdings Bhd is bidding for construction jobs worth more than RM2 billion, mostly government projects, to grow its future earnings.

Its managing director and chief executive officer Tan Sri Kok Onn said although the construction sector is facing a high cost of building materials and labour shortage, Gadang is eyeing more jobs to replenish its current order book and move up a notch.

Gadang has RM1.5 billion worth of jobs in hand to keep it busy for the next three to four years, said Kok.

"We want to keep our construction division busy. We are looking at growing all our divisions," he told Business Times recently.

Gadang has an oil palm plantation in Ranau, Sabah, where it has teamed up with oil palm plantation owners for the cultivation of some 6,000ha of oil palm over two phases.

The group wants its plantation business to make up 10 per cent of its revenue and net profit by 2015.

For the financial year ended May 31 2012, Gadang reported a pre-tax profit of RM17.91 million, compared with a pre-tax loss of RM1.2 million in the same period of last year.

Meanwhile, Kok said Gadang is upbeat in getting more contracts for earthworks, similar to the recent job it completed for the KLIA2 project.

In 2010, Gadang won a RM291.2 million contract from Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) to build a runway and taxiways for KLIA2 in Sepang, Selangor.

The contract included site preparation, earthworks and main drainage for the 4km Runway 3.

Gadang is expected to hand over the job to MAHB this month.

According to Kok, the job is challenging as it involves more than 24 million cubic metres of field materials. Heavy equipment and machinery had to be imported from Japan and China.

"This is the biggest earthworks job in Malaysia and probably Southeast Asia. We gained a lot of experience from it and want to ride on our success to win similar jobs here and overseas," he said.