Its deputy managing director Goh Chin Liong said yesterday that WCT, as one of the largest construction and property developers in Malaysia, would want to bid for the construction of the new LCCT.
“They have started to call for the pre-qualification exercise of the project through the newspapers and we will just continue to pursue,” he told reporters after the company’s AGM yesterday.
Last month, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) announced that open tenders for the new LCCT would be out this month and a project management company was appointed.
Goh said most construction companies locally were trying to get part of the contract. However, he said it would take several months before WCT received feedback about its interest in the project.
While WCT had placed its hopes on securing the new LCCT project, the company was on track to reach its targeted order book of RM1 billion for this year alone, Goh said.
The company had earlier in the year secured additional works for the Abu Dhabi F1 circuit and the new Doha International Airport project which amounted to nearly RM500 million.
As of March this year, WCT’s order book of RM2.9 billion was sufficient to last until end-2010, he said.
“We have cash and bank balances with fixed deposits totalling about RM650 million as per the first quarter of 2009.
It is certainly a strong and healthy cash flow,” he said when asked to comment on WCT’s balance sheet.
On recent analysts’ reports that WCT was close to securing a billion ringgit infrastructure project in Sabah, Goh neither confirmed nor denied WCT’s involvement but said WCT was among the more active construction players in that state.
“If we have secured such a project, we will announce at the appropriate time to Bursa Malaysia.
The analysts might not have gotten the information from us and sometimes they speculate,” he pointed out.
On the RM720 million upgrading of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport, Goh said WCT had finished building the new wing at the terminal building and it had completed 80% of the refurbishment in the old wing.
Goh also said WCT’s objective was to improve its earnings for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2009, despite posting a 29.5% lower net profit to RM39.22 million in the first quarter ended March 31, from RM55.58 million in the same quarter last year.
Last year, WCT posted a net profit of RM101.33 million on the back of a RM3.71 billion revenue.
WCT fell 16 sen to RM2.03 with 7.03 million shares done yesterday, in line with the weaker overall market.
By The EDGE Malaysia (by Yong Min Wei)
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