Business

Thursday June 18, 2009

Ho Hup to turn around by end-2010


KUALA LUMPUR: Ho Hup Construction Co Bhd aims to get its PN17 status lifted by the first quarter next year and return to the black by end-2010, says newly appointed group managing director Lim Ching Choy.

To do that, he said Ho Hup would focus on its property development business that could generate faster income apart from its corporate restructuring, which started June 1.

“We are counting on the jewel of our business at this moment, which is the Jalil City, a mixed lifestyle residential and commercial development at Bukit Jalil on a 60-acre site,” he told a media roundtable session yesterday.

Lim said under the corporate restructuring, it was focusing on capital reduction, capital injection and also selling non-core land assets.

“Our debt level is currently at about RM113mil of which RM80mil is owed to CIMB. The income from the sale of our land will help us to reduce the debt to about RM70mil.

We hope to settle our debt within five years,” he said.

Lim, who joined the company on June 1, said he was a multi-tasker. “I prefer to do things faster so that revenue for the company can come faster too,” he said, adding that after two successful turnarounds for the companies he worked with, he was confident his plans and style of work would be fruitful at Ho Hup.

“Since the first day of my work here, I’ve been meeting with many bankers on financial plans and assistance and after they looked at my track records, their response had been very positive.

The company would now focus mainly on property development, he stressed.

“We have already submitted five tenders for local projects involving construction of roads and civil works via a consortium and on our own.

“Each tender is valued at RM100mil to RM200mil and the results will be known in a few months,” he said, adding that the company had an advantage of having its own construction division with its own machinery.

On Jalil City, Lim said the project, with a gross development value of RM1.75bil, would comprise 176 units of lifestyle shops/offices, a hypermarket and supermarket, an 1,800-unit condominium, among others. “We are already talking with three major hypermarket players to run their business there, hopefully by year-end,” he said, adding that the development would take eight to 10 years to complete.

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