Ingress secured jobs worth RM388m

Ingress Corporation Bhd has secured contracts worth RM388 million, its Executive Vice Chairman, Datuk Rameli Musa,
announced today.

The contracts, secured by the group's Power Engineering & Projects division is expected to contribute to a better performance anticipated by the group for its current financial year ending Jan 31, 2012.

Other divisions that will contribute to the expected better performance include the group's automotive business. "Our automotive usually contributes a turnover of RM500 million a year. We will sustain at that level if we don't get
new orders," he said.

Rameli said the group's joint-venture company in India, Ingress-Mayur Autoventures Pte Ltd, in which Ingress owns 40 per cent equity had already secured a contract to supply mouldings to Suzuki India.

"The contract is not that much. We are still testing the market. We are looking at strong growth in India in the next two years," he added.

With such positive developments, he expects Ingress to record better revenue and profit for its current financial year. For its financial year 2011, Ingress turned in a net profit of RM29.8 million, an increase of 61.1 per cent from RM18.5 million posted for 2010.

The group registered revenue of RM761.2 million, a rise of 17 per cent from RM650.6 million recorded for 2010.

For its first quarter ended April 30, 2011, Ingress posted net profit of RM6.94 million compared to net profit of RM10.47 million for its previous corresponding period. Revenue for the same period was RM175.07 million compared to RM180.41 million the previous corresponding quarter.

Asked on news report that his company could have been short-listed for the Ampang line extension project, Rameli said he "believed that the consortium comprising Ingress, Invensys Rail and the group's associate Balfour Beatty had been shortlisted to undertake the system works for the light rail transil (LRT)
Ampang line extension project". The consortium's bid was the lowest at RM950 million.

On other jobs, he said the group was currently eyeing several more projects in the country. He said Ingress had submitted a bid worth RM1.5 billion for the Keretepi Tanah Melayu Bhd's locomotive project. The outcome of the bid, submitted in March, will be announced in September.

He said Ingress would also submit a bid for the system works for the 197-kilometre Gemas-Johor Baharu electrified double tracking project. It was announced yesterday that the tender would be done before year-end.

"We will look for partners for this job. The value of the bid may be close to RM1 billion," he said after the company's annual general meeting here today.

Rameli said that Ingress was also eyeing certain jobs for the RM50-billion Mass Rapid Transit project such as the system works. He said Ingress would submit a bid for the jobs on consortium basis.

He also said that the group would focus on the Asian region, particularly in Indonesia and India as both these countries are expected to see strong growth in the next two years. -- Bernama