George Kent’s billion ringgit target for IWC

by **hlk** Tue 27 Sep 2011, 22:24

KUALA LUMPUR: George Kent Holdings Bhd is targeting to increase its tender book to several billion ringgit for its infrastructure, water and CONSTRUCTION [] businesses (IWC) division.

Its chairman Tan Sri Tan Kay Hock said on Tuesday, Sept 27 it was pursuing projects mainly in water and waste water related industry, healthcare and potential specialised M&E engineering works in other sectors.

“Some of these new contracts could materialise in the second half of our current financial year, but overall, we remain confident of securing a good portion of our tender book going forward,” he said in a statement following the release of its second quarter financial results for the period ended July 31.

“George Kent has been working on building a stronger and more dominant growth platform for its meters manufacturing and construction divisions,” he said, adding the group had the resources and capabilities to take on higher volume in its production of meters and non-meter parts, as well as high valued infrastructure projects.

The group's 2Q earnings rose 11.9% to RM5.64 million for the second quarter ended July31, 2011 from RM5.04 million a year ago due to higher profit contribution from project related works and higher sale of water meters. Revenue rose 6.2% to RM41.35 million from RM38.91 million. Earnings per share were 2.5 sen compared with 2.2 sen. It declared a dividend of 2.0 sen per share.

For the first half, its earnings rose 11.2% to RM8.72 million from RM7.84 million while revenue showed a slight increase to RM72.08 million from RM71.39 million.

Commenting on the results, Tan Kay Hock said the exports of original equipment manufacturers (OEM) meters were lower but the shortfall was mitigated by higher non-OEM meter exports and steady contribution from its construction activities.

“Demand for our meters from the Indo-China market is rapidly growing. George Kent continues to participate in the new tenders for meter contracts in several other countries in the region,” he said.

On the upgrading of its Puchong plant, Tan said: “We are on track to increase production capacity to 2.0 million water meters and meter housing per annum by year-end, from 1.3 million pieces. With this, George Kent has laid a solid production base to pursue higher orders abroad.”