Business

Saturday October 31, 2009

Lityan eyes TM broadband contract


KUALA LUMPUR: Lityan Holdings Bhd, an information and communications technology (ICT) company, is eyeing parts of Telekom Malaysia’s (TM) RM11.3bil high-speed broadband project that is scheduled to be launch by March.

Group managing director and chief executive officer Nor Badli Mohd Alias said the company was also pursuing some project tenders in the Middle East and should know the outcome by mid-2010.

“We are confident of our tender to TM that we have submitted with our partner, Huawei, a leading global telecommunications solutions provider based in China. We are also eyeing several government ICT projects in the Middle East, especially in Saudi Arabia, as we now have the financial strength and also the back-up from our main shareholder, Lembaga Tabung Haji (LTH),” he said yesterday after the re-quotation of Lityan’s shares on Bursa Malaysia.

The company came out from the Practice Note 17 (PN17) category yesterday after the completion of a regularisation plan involving capital reconstruction and debt restructuring in which LTH played the role of a white knight for a company that had languished in PN17 since 2004 after several overseas ventures fell through. LTH now holds 65% stake in Lityan.

Nor Badli said with the completion of the plan, Lityan would now be a debt-free company.

He also said the company now had about RM40mil in cash with an outstanding order book of about RM200mil that would last till end-2011.

AmResearch in a report of the re-quotation said it expected Lityan’s structural industry positioning to improve significantly with LTH appointing Lityan as its total ICT outsourcing provider.

“Prospects are underpinned by LTH emerging as a substantial shareholder in Lityan. Post-listing, it will turn Lityan into a government-linked company,” it said.

Lityan was yesterday’s top gainer on Bursa Malaysia when it closed at RM1.74 for a 74% premium over its reference price of RM1.

With 191 million shares traded, it was also one of the 10 most active counters.

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