Scomi to finalise China entry plans within six months

KUALA LUMPUR: Scomi Engineering Bhd expects to finalise plans to enter the China market within the next six months.
“We are still in discussion with various parties because the intricacies of working with Chinese companies is something we need to learn and understand better ... Scomi is looking at possible options to enter the market,” CEO Rohaida Ali Badaruddin told reporters at its AGM yesterday.
She said the potential market in China is up to 1,000km of monorail lines and the company is targeting second- and third-tier cities but declined to disclose the specific projects that it is eyeing in China.
“Of the market (potential 1,000km monorail lines) even if we get 10-20% of this I think it is quite significant. We are looking at the whole monorail system. Suffice to say that we anticipate some conclusion (of talks) within the next six months,” she added.
Rohaida said the company has an order book of RM2.1 billion and a tender book of about RM20 billion. The tender book includes monorail lines in Bangkok, Thailand, and Istanbul, Turkey.
“What we are working on is Thailand, there will be two lines, Pink and Yellow Lines. That is a combination of almost 70km. The bidding will be submitted sometime in November. Value of those two lines is US$3 billion inclusive of civil and system (works). We are talking to a few parties for partnerships in Thailand,” she said.
Rohaida said the Bangkok projects should be awarded by mid-2017, if the awarding process is done on time.
She said the Istanbul tender process was delayed due to the recent coup attempt in Turkey but the company remains confident that the tenders will come through.
Rohaida said the company is confident of achieving better results this financial year ending March 31, 2017 (FY17) compared with FY16 based on its projects in hand, including the additional works for its Line 17-Gold Sao Paulo monorail project in Brazil worth RM504.6 million awarded in June.
The company also aims to grow its income from operations and maintenance segment, which contributes less than 5% to revenue currently.
Rohaida said the ongoing dispute with Prasarana Malaysia Bhd in relation to the KL Monorail fleet expansion project is not expected to affect its financial performance.
She said the project is 83% completed while the remaining 17% comprises the delivery of six trains and portions of the system. She declined to comment further.