PETALING JAYA: Haily Group Bhd debuted on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities today, closing at 74 sen for a 6 sen or 8.82% premium over its offer price of 68 sen, with 96.34 million shares changing hands.
The building contractor and rental construction machinery provider opened at 79 sen, representing a premium of 11 sen or 16.18%.
In its virtual press conference today, Haily founder and executive director See Tin Hai told reporters that he would not reduce his 73% stake in the group as he is confident in the future prospects of the company.
CEO and executive director Yoong Woei Yeh said the group would focus its business at other districts within Johor at this juncture and would plan to venture into mega infrastructure projects in the future.
“We are actively tendering for a number of projects. From the beginning of the year until June, we have (secured) projects amounting to RM160 million,“ he said, adding that the group would distribute 30% of its annual profit as dividend subject to its cash flow ability.
On the involvement in industrialised building system (IBS), Yoong said the group had started using aluminium foamwork which is part of the IBS few years back. He added that the group’s machinery rental was to facilitate its construction usage.
In the next five years, the group’s focus would be on landed projects but will change from time to time based on market demand.
“The oversupply is applied to highrise projects, as Johor is near Singapore, we have Malaysians and Singaporean investors (in the property market in Johor),“ Yoong said when asked about the oversupply of properties and the market potential in Johor.
Mercury Securities reportedly said that Haily might not secure enough new projects to replenish its order book and sustain revenue at current levels. It also said shortages and increase in prices of construction materials may negatively impact Haily’s performance.
On this note, Yoong said the group’s tender process is still active and a number of tendering is still in progress; while COO Lim Kok Siang said the impact on construction materials is minimal due to different stages of projects completion.
CFO Long Cheow Siong said the group was impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic due to temporary suspension and slowdown of work during the movement control order and conditional movement control order periods.
“This is temporary and it will not contribute to adverse impact on our prospects in the long run. In 2020, Johor’s market accounted for 10.3% of the total value of construction work in Asia. This is quite well for us in the construction outlook,“ he said.
Haily chairman Mohd Jaffar Awang (Ismail) said the group had completed a total of 65 building construction projects with a total contract value of RM1.29 billion since 2008.
“We have on-going projects that can sustain us at least until 2023. Currently, Haily has 18 building construction projects as well as two civil engineering related construction projects. The total secured contract value and unbilled contract value as at June 10 stood at RM460.04 million and RM249.58 million respectively,” he said.
He said the group plans to expand into industrial building construction to address opportunities provided by economic developments in Johor, adding that the group had completed six industrial building construction projects with a total of 68 units of factories located in the districts of Johor Baru and Kulai.
“We will also use part of the proceeds raised from our initial public offering (IPO) exercise to purchase additional construction machinery and equipment mainly to facilitate better scheduling of our construction work when the projects require concurrent usage and in anticipation of future growth,” he said, adding that improving the overall operational capabilities is also a priority of the group besides expanding its foothold in other districts in Johor.
