Eversendai reminds investors about its contract wins as share price hits rock bottom

KUALA LUMPUR (July 18): At a time when shares of Eversendai Corp Bhd are trading at all-time low, the loss-making construction firm issued a press statement on Monday (July 18) to highlight that it has been awarded over RM1.6 billion worth of contracts in the last few months.

According to group managing director Tan Sri A K Nathan, Eversendai has won these contracts in its main markets, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Sri Lanka, India, Singapore and Malaysia.

He said these newly secured contracts include a large prestigious museum project in Abu Dhabi, the King Salman Park-Loop Bridges project in Saudi Arabia, the Cultural Center Education City in Qatar, the Bandaranaike International Airport development project in Sri Lanka funded by the Japanese government, as well as the Keppel Tower and the Labrador projects in Singapore.

Locally, Nathan said the SK Nexilis project in Sabah, which is a copper foil manufacturing plant, was accepted on a fast-track basis to complete the main structural steel works by end-December.

As at June 2022, he noted that the group's construction order book stood at RM2.13 billion.

"Going into the second half of 2022, there are many interesting and new prospective projects in the pipeline which we are confident we will be able to secure given our strong team, well-positioned resources, long-term experience and expertise in this industry and support from stakeholders," Nathan said in a statement.

"This combination should enable us to stay resilient against further external shocks and overcome any obstacles and forge ahead with the ability to continue delivering value to all our stakeholders."

On Monday, Eversendai's share price was down half a sen and closed at its historical low of 10.5 sen. Over the past 12 months, the counter has declined by 54%, bringing the group's market capitalisation to RM82.02 million.

Eversendai saw its net loss widen by 7.5 times to RM29 million in its first quarter ended March 31, 2022, compared with RM3.84 million a year ago.

For its financial year ended Dec 31, 2021, Eversendai reduced its net loss slightly by 2.5% to RM134 million, from RM137.5 million a year earlier.

Eversendai reflected that it had earlier been heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, which disrupted the group from executing projects smoothly and fully unlocking its outstanding order book.

Nonetheless, the group expanded into the European offshore wind renewable energy sector as it delivered three major offshore wind projects for Holland and Scotland, the UK in 2021 and 2022 from its waterfront fabrication facility in Ras Al Khaimah, the UAE.

It also stated the completion of a major structural steel work for the Merdeka PNB 118 in Kuala Lumpur that is set to be the world's second tallest building.