| Protasco expects big jump in revenue |
| 31 May 2005 |
| Published by : Business Times |
Road Maintenance company Protasco Bhd is confident of posting a subtantial revenue jump in 2006, mainly helped by its overseas projects.
Group executive chairman Datuk Hasnur Rabiain Ismail said bulk of the revenue will come from the jobs in Papua New Guinea, China, Libya, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
"We have started works on the five-year project in Papua New Guinea (PNG) worth RM180 million since early this year while projects in China and Libya will commence before the end of this year," he said
He said works for the other projectsare scheduled to start within the first quarter of 2006.
Protasco is involved in the provision of road construction, rehabilitation and maintenance services besides the manufacturing of road construction materials.
The road construction, rehabilitation and maintenance division is the group's major contributor, contributing 70.35 per cent to its operating profit in 2004.
Commenting on Protasco's overseas projects, Hasnur said the subdued local construction sector has forced the company to seek for projects in other contries to sustain growth.
"For 2005, construction activities are anticipated to shrink further by one per cent drop of 1.9 percent in 2004," Hasnur told Business Times after the company's fourth annual general meeting in Kajang yesterday.
He said the company is also expected to record lower revenue and profit this year due to the construction slowdown but is confident of turning around begining next year.
"We will see the impact of our efforts in moving into overseas projects by next year and see it contribute significantly to the group's turnover for the next three years," he said.
For the financial year ended December 31 2004, Protasco managed to post a net profit of RM45.99 million on the back of a RM582.44 million turnover.
"This, however, represented a drop of 21.7 per cent, or RM12.75 million, from the profit, including pre-acquisition profit, recorded in the previous year of RM58.75 million," he said.
The company is currently involved in several major rehabilitation and upgrading projects in Selangor, Malacca, Kedah and Sarawak worth a total of more than RM1 billion.
|
|
