PETALING JAYA: Engineering and project management consultant HSS Engineers Bhd is buoyant about its prospects in the current year on the back of new contract wins and anticipated rollout of new contracts for ongoing mega infrastructure projects in the second half of the year.
The group is tendering for RM437 million worth of infrastructure projects in rail, road, and water sectors. The projects in the tender book are engineering services (RM265 million), project management (RM162 million), and building information modeling services (RM10 million).
New contracts such as project management consultancy (PMC) services for the Pan Borneo Highway Sabah project (RM144.9 million) and Langat 2 Water Supply Scheme (RM29.8 million, under a consortium) expanded the group’s current order book to more than RM600 million.
The order book includes other contracts such as delivery management office for all developments for the Northern Corridor Investment Authority and the proposed expansion and construction of a new healthcare facility for Institut Jantung Negara, as well as engineering services for major infrastructure projects such as East Coast Rail Link and Iskandar Bus Rapid Transit.
HSS Engineers executive vice chairman Tan Sri Kuna Sittampalam said the group has secured RM185.8 million worth of new orders, compared with RM34 million in 2020.
“Mega infrastructure projects are expected to be rolled out in the second half this year. We have embarked on both product and market diversification, which will yield positive results soon. This year is very promising indeed,” he told reporters at its virtual AGM press conference today.
He added that the group is optimistic the government will speed up the implementation of mega infrastructure projects which include Mass Rapid Transit Line 3, Penang Transport Master Plan and Johor Baru–Singapore Rapid Transit System in the second half of this year to rejuvenate the economy.
“The group’s current order book will sustain our earnings for the next three to five years. The group will continue to capitalise on its expertise and track record to partake in the mega infrastructure projects. Our tender book remains healthy at RM437 million,” Kuna said.
The group remains on course in its regional expansion through strategic collaborations. It is collaborating with its Japanese partner Nippon-Koei to provide supervision services for Chennai Metro Phase 3 in India. Besides that, the group has commenced supervision services for the North-South Commuter Railway Extension project in the Philippines through its Japanese partner, Oriental Consultants Global.
“As part of our revenue diversification strategy and recognising the transferability of our expertise into other high-growth sectors, we are exploring opportunities in the digital and technology sector focusing on data centre as well as the 5G telecommunications space.
“We have embarked on a collaborative partnership approach with global leading data centre specialists to pursue engineering and project management opportunities in Malaysia and South East Asia. At the same time, we are leveraging on our PMC experience to directly pursue opportunities with Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) to implement its nationwide 5G roll-out,” Kuna said.
He said there are about seven data centres that will be establishing offices here and the group has been working with leading data scientists in the west to develop the skillset and technology needed to establish data centres.
“The skills required for data centres are missing in this region, we are speaking with global leading data centre specialists to pursue engineering and project management opportunities in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, and hope to make meaningful inroads in the next one to two years, he said, adding that the revenue generated from this business segment will not be reflected in 2021 but from 2022 onwards.
