UEM Edgenta Secures US$1.31 Bln Worth Of New Contracts

KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 (Bernama) -- Assets and facilities management provider UEM Edgenta Bhd, formerly known as Faber Group Bhd, has secured major local and overseas contracts worth over US$1.31 billion (RM4.72 billion) from last year and to date. Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Azmir Merican said the local contracts included asset management services for women and children's hospitals over 27 years and totalling RM1.03 billion, alongside a 10-year new concession agreement for hospital support at RM3.07 billion. (US$1=RM3.61) Outside the country, it managed to clinch six of nine New Zealand Transport Authority's highway maintenance and operation contracts worth NZ$35 million, as well as a five-year contract from the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu in Saudi Arabia for NZ$20 million. (NZD1=RM2.64) Speaking at the press conference after the company's annual general meeting here Monday, Azmir said the group was a much larger and stronger entity post-merger, with businesses covering the entire assets life cycle which enabled it to offer a full suite of services. "The group is now targeting more projects from the 11th Malaysia Plan, considering a high allocation for infrastructure, as one of the nation's key growth drivers. Azmir said UEM Edgenta would also continue to focus on deriving synergies from the enlarged group by streamlining and improving internal operations and processes as well as looking into procurement and cost model plus technology utilisation. UEM Edgenta which resulted from a merger between Faber, Opus Group Bhd and Projek Penyelenggaraan Lebuhraya Bhd (PROPEL), recorded a 2.3 per cent increase in pre-tax profit for the year-ended Dec 31, 2014 to RM324.5 million from RM317.2 million in 2013. Revenue increased by 14.4 per cent to RM3.1 billion from RM2.7 billion previously. Azmir said, for the year under review, the Malaysian operation contributed 53 per cent to revenue, while the largest overseas contributor was New Zealand at 25 per cent, Canada (12 per cent), Australia (six per cent) and the United Kingdom (four per cent). There had been a slight compression in margin, he said, and moving forward, the group is looking to strategise on improving this. -- BERNAMA