Ramunia diversifying into heavy equipment
New Straits Times
17 October 2004

RAMUNIA Holdings Bhd said it is diversifying from the oil and gas structure fabrication business into equipment and heavy equipment manufacturing this year.

Ramunia is taking over the listed status of Sabah Shipyard Bhd (Saship) and expects its shares to be quoted on Bursa Malaysia Bhd by the end of this month.

Ramunia Chief Financial Officer, Norazlizi Abdul Jalil said the company will spend between RM2 million and RM3 million to set up the manufacturing facility in its yard in Teluk Armenia, Johor.

She said Ramunia will initially manufacture equipment and machinery used in the oil and gas industry including for the company's own use.

Later, it will produce the equipment and machinery for other sectors like transportation, electronics and telecommunications.

Speaking to Business Times last week, she said Ramunia's turnover and profit targets for this year are within reach.

The company has targeted a revenue of RM193 million and a profit after tax of RM17 million for its current year.

Norazlizi said the revenue would come from ongoing and future projects.

Ramunia has jobs totaling RM120 million, and is bidding for about RM1 billion more, both locally and abroad.

"We are confident of being awarded more projects by April," Norazlizi said.

Ramunia is an oil and gas engineering and heavy fabrication group.

It owns Ramunia Fabricators Sdn Bhd and the Teluk Ramunia Yard on the southern tip of Johor.

Ramunia Fabricators builds major steel structures and provides engineering and offshore marine services.

For financial year 2004, Ramunia registered RM12 million after-tax profit on the back of a revenue of RM155 million.

The company was accredited the ISO 9001:2000 certification from Det Norske Veritas in September last year, and is now aggressively venturing overseas.

Ramunia has been invited to bid for fabrication projects in Indonesia's oil and gas industry. At the same time, there has been interest in its expertise from countries like South Korea, Qatar and Thailand.

Ramunia's ownership of the 36ha Teluk Ramunia Yard, built on reclaimed land, makes the company the third-biggest in terms of yard capacity after Malaysia Shipyard and Engineering Sdn Bhd and Sime SembCorp Engineering Sdn Bhd.

Norazlizi is optimistic on the outlook for the oil and gas industry, which as created opportunities for the company.

"The industry has been bullish since 2003, and I believe the outlook for the future will remain bullish," she said.