On track for more deals

On track for more deals
By Ooi Tee Ching
Business Times
Published: 2008/06/12

Fajarbaru, which won the RM316 million Tampin-Batang Melaka package, is bidding for jobs in the northern portion of the double rail tracking project.FAJARBARU Builder Group Bhd is poised to clinch more double tracking rail packages and add to its current order book of RM500 million.Last month, India's Ircon International Ltd, the main contractor for the double railway tracking project from Seremban to Gemas, awarded Fajarbaru a RM316 million package that runs 30km from Tampin to Batang Melaka."We're tendering for jobs in the northern portion too," Fajarbaru managing director Datuk Low Keng Kok told Business Times in an interview recently.Work has started and is due to be finished by March 2009.Having held the post of joint managing director for the Road Builder Group for 18 years, Low is now leading Fajarbaru.Last year, the Road Builder Group was taken over by IJM Corp Bhd after founder Tan Sri Chua Hock Chin cashed out from the company.In his first interview since helming Fajarbaru from August 2007, Low said, "the change in Road Builder's shareholding prompted a change for myself"."I didn't have a contract to stay on with IJM Group. I was accorded gratuity by Road Builder Group when I decided a change for myself. If there had been no change in Road Builder's shareholding, I would have most likely retired there," Low said."Not long after the merger with IJM, Fajar's shareholders approached me with an offer," he said.It was not a fat salary package that attracted him to Fajarbaru."Although I was offered a seven per cent (stake) in Fajar, the determining factor was the opportunity to build up this company to a higher level to take on higher margin jobs," he said.Last month, Transport Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat, in a Parliament session said the RM123.9 million job to upgrade Sepang's low-cost carrier terminal was awarded to Fajarbaru through direct negotiations because the government did not have time to launch an open tender system.The minister said the LCCT upgrade is to accommodate the increasing number of passengers, which is expected to rise from the current 10 million to 15 million annually until 2015.