YTL Corp hunting for acquisitions

YTL Corp, Malaysia’s biggest builder, said it’s got a “war chest” of about RM12 billion (US$3 billion) and is looking for acquisitions as asset values worldwide fall.

“We have an army of people combing through deals,” managing director Tan Sri Francis Yeoh said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. “There are very interesting assets globally that are ready.”

“It’s the best time to buy assets which are at distressed levels,” said Jason Chong, who helps oversee US$1.6 billion of securities, including YTL shares, as chief investment officer at UOB-OSK Asset Management in Kuala Lumpur. “In times like this, cash-rich companies like YTL can afford to cherry-pick.”

YTL, based in Kuala Lumpur, has expanded its cement, power and water businesses by buying businesses in China, Indonesia, Australia and the UK, where the Malaysian company owns Wessex Water.
Yeoh said today YTL could borrow six or seven times more than the company’s available cash for larger takeover.

YTL is assessing businesses in the property, power-generation and water industries, Yeoh said. Still, the company will maintain a “steady dividend flow,” he said.

Profit at YTL in the year ended June 2008 rose 9.8 per cent to RM769.8 million from a year earlier, helped by higher earnings at the utility and cement divisions.

By Bloomberg