By Sharen Kaur
sharen@nstp.com.my
Published in NST on June 16 2011
Datuk A.K. Nathan yearned to be successful after making a paltry amount from selling newspapers in his teenage years.
He was 15 when his fat-her, a newspaper agent, sent him to Chennai, India, in 1971 for his secondary education. Five years later when he was doing pre-university studies, financial problems forced him to return home.
Nathan found a job as a machine operator with a printer and when he was 22 branched out into selling insurance.
His entry into the construction sector came about by accident. His brother, a contractor, had landed a steel support contract for the Dayabumi project but he could not handle it and passed on the job to Nathan.
Nathan undertook the job with the help of an ex-perienced supervisor and other workers.
Then, in 1983, Nippon Steel Corp gave him a steel structural contract for the national car plant.
Nathan had constructed a temporary steel platform at the Dayabumi Complex in Kuala Lumpur for the Japanese contractor and went on to get a few more contracts but almost gave up when recession hit in the mid-1980s. He was desperate as he did not get paid for some of the jobs completed.
Nathan decided to leave Kuala Lumpur for Singapore just when a contract to build the KL Tower landed on his table.
He started Eversendai, a steel structural company, in 1983 from zero base and with no partners.
Nathan did not have any knowledge or experience in the business of steel construction either. He is neither an engineer by training nor does he have a degree in related fields.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Eversendai today is involved in turnkey structural steel construction for high-rise buildings, heavy industrial plants, stadiums, bridges, airports and other infrastructure projects.
The company builds steel structures that will be clad with concrete and glass to be transformed into dazzling buildings that famous architects design.
Its greatest pride is working on the construction of the Petronas Twin Tower 2.
Eversendai has completed more than 100 no-table jobs in Malaysia, Singapore, the Middle East, Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand worth billions of ringgit, working on some of the tallest buildings or biggest malls.
"I am a fighter who doesn't give up easily. When I target a project, I work hard to get it. I use the power of the mind to conceptualise things," he said.
Nathan's reputation has spread and he is also known in India, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and North Africa, where he has been approached to provide steel structures for large projects.
-ENDS-
sharen@nstp.com.my
Published in NST on June 16 2011
Datuk A.K. Nathan yearned to be successful after making a paltry amount from selling newspapers in his teenage years.
He was 15 when his fat-her, a newspaper agent, sent him to Chennai, India, in 1971 for his secondary education. Five years later when he was doing pre-university studies, financial problems forced him to return home.
Nathan found a job as a machine operator with a printer and when he was 22 branched out into selling insurance.
His entry into the construction sector came about by accident. His brother, a contractor, had landed a steel support contract for the Dayabumi project but he could not handle it and passed on the job to Nathan.
Nathan undertook the job with the help of an ex-perienced supervisor and other workers.
Then, in 1983, Nippon Steel Corp gave him a steel structural contract for the national car plant.
Nathan had constructed a temporary steel platform at the Dayabumi Complex in Kuala Lumpur for the Japanese contractor and went on to get a few more contracts but almost gave up when recession hit in the mid-1980s. He was desperate as he did not get paid for some of the jobs completed.
Nathan decided to leave Kuala Lumpur for Singapore just when a contract to build the KL Tower landed on his table.
He started Eversendai, a steel structural company, in 1983 from zero base and with no partners.
Nathan did not have any knowledge or experience in the business of steel construction either. He is neither an engineer by training nor does he have a degree in related fields.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Eversendai today is involved in turnkey structural steel construction for high-rise buildings, heavy industrial plants, stadiums, bridges, airports and other infrastructure projects.
The company builds steel structures that will be clad with concrete and glass to be transformed into dazzling buildings that famous architects design.
Its greatest pride is working on the construction of the Petronas Twin Tower 2.
Eversendai has completed more than 100 no-table jobs in Malaysia, Singapore, the Middle East, Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand worth billions of ringgit, working on some of the tallest buildings or biggest malls.
"I am a fighter who doesn't give up easily. When I target a project, I work hard to get it. I use the power of the mind to conceptualise things," he said.
Nathan's reputation has spread and he is also known in India, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and North Africa, where he has been approached to provide steel structures for large projects.
-ENDS-
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