Tuesday, April 30, 2013

RM500m job for Lion Pacific

By Sharen Kaur
sharen@mediaprima.com.my
Published in NST on April 30, 2013


PRIVATELY held Lion Pacific Sdn Bhd is believed to have won a rail contract worth RM500 million to build a railway link in Subang, Selangor.

Business Times was told that Lion Pacific had won the job via a joint venture with Skypark Link Sdn Bhd and that engineering works have already started.

Rail consultant KL Consult Associates Sdn Bhd, on its website, lists Skypark Link as its client for the proposed Subang Jaya-Sri Subang-Subang Skypark Rail Link.

It is understood a tender has been called by KL Consult for the electromechanical portion of the contract. Some six firms had submitted bids, which are Siemens Malaysia, E to E Engineering from India, Intelligent Essence Sdn Bhd, Global Rail Sdn Bhd, Pestech Sdn Bhd and CMCE Sdn Bhd.


The Skypark Link-Lion Pacific venture (Slip) received the letter of award from the Transport Ministry early this year.

The project, which is slated for completion by 2015, is the first of a three-phase contract.

The plan is for Slip to lay 8.5km of new double-tracking railway line on the existing KTM alignment from the KTMB station in Subang Jaya right up to Sri Subang, as well as to construct a new elevated alignment near the roundabout leading to the carpark area opposite the Subang Skypark Airport Terminal.

The rail project comes under the private financing initiative (PFI) programme, which seeks to transfer responsibility of financing and managing capital investment of public sector assets to the private sector.

The PFI initiative was first announced under the Ninth Malaysia Plan in March 2006. Although, the project is placed under the PFI category, the government has allocated some RM125 million, if required, to help jump-start the project.

This is the second major rail contract over the past nine months won by Lion Pacific, which was active in the railway industry more than a decade ago. Little was heard of it since then, only emerging in the public eye in July by notching a contract valued just under RM1 billion.

Last July, Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd announced that the Lion Pacific-George Kent Bhd joint venture had won a RM955.84 million contract for the system works for the Ampang light rail transit line extension project.

George Kent is a public-listed company controlled by husband-and-wife team of Tan Sri Tan Kay Hock and Puan Sri Tan Swee Bee, who together own nearly two-thirds of the company.

Lion Pacific's partner in the Subang rail venture, Skypark Rail, is believed to be linked to Tan Sri Ravi Menon, who has substantial interest in the country's railway sector due to his involvement in Ara Group and Hartasuma Sdn Bhd.

Ravi founded Ara group but his reputation in the marketplace glowed due to his role in running Skypark Group, which leases Subang Skypark airport in Subang Jaya from Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd via Subang Skypark Sdn Bhd.

Ravi is also an executive director at Subang Skypark, which plans to embark on a RM420 million infrastructure redevelopment to transform Subang Skypark, formerly the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, into a full-fledged aerospace city by 2015.


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