KOTA KINABALU: Handal Energy Bhd will focus more on operations, maintenance, as well as crane rental in Sabah in the next few years, said its independent non-executive director Terry Biusing.
Handal is an oil and gas company specialising in the manufacturing, maintenance, and servicing of offshore cranes. With over 20 years of experience under its belt, it now has a presence in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia.
Biusing is also upbeat that the company has good prospects to expand its business operations in Sabah.
“… that’s in Sabah. But, I think in the Malaysian context, the project that we are undertaking, namely the provision of water injection module which is currently under construction, should be out in the field in Peninsular Malaysia some time in the next one to two years.
“I see a new business line for Handal to venture into that is outside the crane and pipeline maintenance,” he told Bernama here yesterday.
Biusing said in terms of future growth, the company has a few targeted fields in Sabah but “for this moment, we can’t say yet where the locations are.”
Handal, he said, would also pull together its resources in existing operations based in Sarawak and Labuan and provide these common services, besides broadening its scope of services into crane maintenance.
Meanwhile, Handal group managing director Sunildeep Singh Dhaliwal said the company recorded a profit after tax of RM3.2 million on the back of significant growth in revenue to RM32.3 million in the first quarter ended Sept 30, 2019.
“The focal point of this latest set of results is the unprecedented solid turnaround for Handal, after many quarters of losses. This was mainly contributed by its 51 per cent-owned subsidiary, Borneo Seaoffshore Engineering Sdn Bhd,” he said.
Sunildeep added that apart from winning more contracts, there would be many more improvements to be made to preserve sustainable financial growth for the group which included improvement in cost and process efficiencies.
“Handal will also be placing priority in the development of talent within the group. This can be already seen through our recent contract awards in Sabah and Sarawak where we will build up the local talent base in places where we operate,” he said.
Prior to this, the last time Handal recorded a profit after tax was in the quarter ended Dec 31, 2017.
Handal balance’s sheet is also fortified with a strong net cash of RM5.7 million, as at end-September 2019, in contrast to a net debt of over RM11 million two years earlier. — Bernama