Business

Friday July 31, 2009

Handal makes strong debut


KUALA LUMPUR: Handal Resources Bhd yesterday made a strong debut on the Bursa Malaysia second board with its shares closing at RM1.16 for a 44 sen premium, or 61.1% rise, over its offer price of 72 sen.

Trading was brisk from the opening bell when the stock hit 90 sen, also the day’s low. It hit the day’s high of RM1.17 and was the second most active counter with with 32.4 million shares traded.

Executive chairman Datuk Mohsin Abdul Halim said he was pleased with the opening price of 90 sen as this were tough times for companies to be listed.

“However, nobody can tell when is the best time to go for listing and I’m confident in the fundamentals of our company as we are changing for the better,” he told a press conference after the company’s listing debut yesterday.

Handal is the only company in Malaysia to provide a fully integrated offshore crane services in the oil and gas industry. As a truly one-stop centre for API 2C offshore pedestal cranes in the region, Handal had about 14 cranes for rental.

Apart from targeting east Malaysia and the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia for its business expansion, Mohsin said the company planned to venture into new areas, possibly neighbouring countries such as Indonesia and the Gulf of Thailand.

Managing director/chief executive officer Mallek Rizal Mohsin said the company was currently operating at a 1.2-ha yard in Kemaman Supply Base, Terengganu to build, refurbish and maintain cranes and would expand to a new yard by year-end.

“We are expanding to a 4-ha new yard in Telok Kalong industrial area to raise our business volume. Now , the volume capacity at our yard is 12 cranes per annum. By adding the new yard, our volume may increase 300% to 400%, equivalent to 40 cranes per annum,” he said.

He added that the cranes were now chartered at about RM25,000 per day to major clients such as Petronas Carigali, Talisman and ExxonMobil on contracts that would last until 2013.

Deputy managing director Joel Emanuel Heaney said there were more than 200 cranes operating in South China Sea and cranes that needed to undergo major overhaul after being in operation for 10 years.

“Our task is to do maintenance/refurbishment on these cranes and at the same time rent our cranes to clients while we service their cranes,” he said, adding that Handal had so far serviced 60 cranes.


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