Thursday, June 21, 2012

Eversendai plans to acquire firms


By Sharen Kaur
sharen@nstp.com.my
Published in NST on June 19, 2012

MEETING REVENUE TARGET: Group expects to announce two or three deals in next few months


EVERSENDAI Corp Bhd, a specialist structural steel and power plant contractor, is buying several companies related to its core business to help achieve its RM2 billion revenue target by 2016.

The group, which has RM1.9 billion worth of ongoing contracts in hand, is also bidding for more jobs in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and India.

"To achieve the target, we have to acquire a few companies and we are mid way now. I foresee in the next few months, we will announce two or three acquisitions," said Eversendai group managing director Datuk AK Nathan.

Nathan said the companies, both local and foreign, are involved in oil and gas and manufacturing and that the businesses will complement Eversendai's own. He said the companies will add value to the group and enhance its financial performance.


Nathan is also unfazed by the eurozone crisis and is maintaining his target to achieve double-digit growth in revenue and net profit.

"Our businesses and performance are not affected by the situation in Europe as our focus is in the Middle East, India and Malaysia. We will continue to be prudent in what we invest in," he said yesterday after the group's shareholders meeting.

For fiscal 2011, Eversendai posted a pre-tax profit of RM136 million on RM1.03 billion revenue.

In the first quarter ended March 31 2012, it recorded a pre-tax profit of RM31.25 million on RM249 million revenue.

To bring the company forward, Nathan said Eversendai is looking at organic growth in its existing markets, as well as projects in new areas like Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam.

"There are few projects in the pipeline. Even, in Malaysia, there are a lot of jobs coming up under the Economic Transformation Programme. We are bullish Eversendai will perform better than last year," he said.

Year-to-date, Eversendai has won contracts worth about RM810 million. It anticipated to clinch the RM850 million Abu Dhabi International Airport (ADIA) structural steel contract and two high-value structural steel jobs, worth RM700 million, in Azerbaijan this year. 

Maybank Investment Bank Research is maintaining its "buy" call on Eversendai, with an unchanged target price of RM2.17 (based on 12 times 2012 price-earnings ratio).

The research unit believes that Eversendai is in a strong position to secure the ADIA job as it is the only structural steel contractor which submitted its bid with a bond and has a strong track record.

If Eversendai gets the ADIA job, its outstanding order book will increase from its already historical high of RM1.9 billion to RM2.8 billion.

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