KUALA LUMPUR: Construction outfit Ekovest Bhd expects to surpass the RM1 billion revenue mark by its financial year ending December 31 next year, driven by strong outstanding order book of RM5.3 billion.
Its managing director Datuk Seri Lim Keng Cheng said the order book — comprising construction of highways, condominium, shopping malls and the River of Life jobs — would keep the company busy in the next three to three-and-a-half years. He said a bulk of Ekovest’s order book size was contributed by the group’s largest project to date — the Setiawangsa-Pantai Expressway project (SPE) worth RM3.9 billion. “We believe that we are in a comfortable position now to achieve the RM1 billion mark by next year. “Our highway projects, especially the SPE, will remain our main growth driver in the coming years,” he said on the sidelines of In the Spotlight @ Bursa, here, recently. During the last financial year, Ekovest’s revenue surged 91.2 per cent to RM438.02 million from RM229.13 million recorded in the previous year.
Last month, Ekovest issued Malaysia’s largest ringgit-denominated greenfield toll-road project financing worth RM3.64 billion for its SPE project. As part of the financing structure, Lim said Ekovest will inject RM850 million as equity into the project. In relation to Ekovest’s highway operation, the Employees Provident Fund recently announced that it was buying a 40 per cent stake in Duta–Ulu Klang Expressway (Duke) concessionaire from the former for RM1.13 billion.
Besides that, Lim said Ekovest was also bidding for another RM5 billion worth of construction jobs. He said the company had a good chance of securing several of them including the 1Malaysia Civil Servants Housing project in Putrajaya and the Pan Borneo Highway job. Other than that, Lim said, the group was pre-qualified for the Light Rail Transit Line Three and Mass Rapid Transit Line Two.
