T7 Global appointed Malaysian distributor for UOP Asia products

KUALA LUMPUR: T7 Global Bhd, which has been appointed by Honeywell International Sdn Bhd as its Malaysian distributor, is reassessing its diversification into the education industry.
“We really need to study it because we have to make sure that we make the right move and we are revisiting our entry into that area,” executive chairman Datuk Seri Dr Nik Norzrul Thani N. Hassan Thani told reporters at a signing ceremony yesterday.
He said the group’s diversification into the education industry would be opportunistic as he has a background in education but the group is assessing some options at the moment and has shortlisted two to three parties as potential partners.
“We have already shortlisted but we are negotiating. The issue is finding the right niche and the right industry. That ties in also because of our involvement with all the other programmes that we have, for example aerospace, there is a need for some training as well, so that has made us review some of our strategies. There is a lack of talent and we need to work on that as well,” he added.
Nik Norzrul declined to give a timeline on when it would conclude negotiations with the potential partners, saying that it is also revisiting the numbers and potential of its entry into the industry.
The group said late last year it is keen to diversify into the education sector and was in talks with several parties.
Meanwhile, the group’s subsidiary Wenmax Sdn Bhd has been appointed as the Malaysian distributor by Honeywell, to distribute Honeywell’s subsidiary UOP Asia’s products. UOP Asia is a Fortune 100 company and is a leading international supplier and licensor of process technology, catalysts, adsorbents, equipment and consulting services to the petroleum refining, petrochemical and gas processing industries.
Under the two-year distributorship agreement, Wenmax will distribute the products to end users within three business lines namely catalyst, adsorbents and specialties; gas processing and hydrogen; and processes, technology and equipment.
“This partnership is an important step for Wenmax to increase our product portfolio and equipping the company with capabilities to provide customers with end-to-end solutions from front-end engineering to operations and maintenance services,” said Nik Norzrul.
He said Wenmax will distribute the products to Honeywell’s existing customers and aims to expand the reach to other industries such as chemicals and power generation, besides the oil and gas industry.
He said the group is bullish on the appointment, which is expected to boost the revenue of Gas Generators (M) Sdn Bhd (Gastec) with double-digit growth this year. Gastec is one of T7’s main operating subsidiaries, apart from Tanjung Offshore Services Sdn Bhd.
“We feel quite positive on the work we have done so far. We have projects from last year sustaining us but we also mentioned earlier our plan to diversify into new areas, one of those areas is aerospace, which we hope will give us revenue in one-and-a-half year’s time,” he said.
He said the group is progressing towards building a factory with its partner, Kilgour Metal Treatments Ltd. However, it has yet to decide on the location of the factory and is still assessing options.
T7 Global has an orderbook of RM500 million and a tenderbook exceeding RM1 billion. Its share price fell 3.8% to close at 38 sen yesterday with a total of 637,500 shares traded, giving it a market capitalisation of RM144.9 million.