This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on June 1, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Eversendai Corp Bhd expects its performance for the current financial year ending Dec 31, 2018 (FY18) to be better than the previous year, and aims to reward shareholders with dividends in 2019, said managing director Tan Sri A K Nathan Elumalay.

This followed a turnaround in FY17, with the group aiming to increase its job wins for both the structural steel, and oil and gas segments this year.

At a press conference following its annual general meeting yesterday, Eversendai said the outlook for this year is bright as the worst is over.

“The worst is over, and we are happy. We want to be a good dividend-paying counter, this is what we’re working towards … we look forward to 2018 being a good [year], 2019 for sure we will pay the dividend,” said Nathan.

He said the group wants to position itself in countries where the currency is much stronger than the ringgit, in order to show better results. As such, the group is currently looking at opportunities in the UK and Australia.

Eversendai’s net profit soared 74.4% year-on-year to RM26.6 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018, (1QFY18) on higher foreign exchange gains. Quarterly revenue was slightly lower at RM391.3 million from RM396 million previously.

The group is bidding for RM20 billion worth of contracts, split equally between structural steel, and oil and gas segments.

It foresees more sizeable contracts going forward from the RM1.83 billion jobs it secured last year. Year-to- date, it has secured RM716 million worth of jobs.

Nathan said it sees huge demand from the Middle East region, which accounts for about 65%-70% of the group’s turnover.

India is expected to become a substantial contributor, given its growth.

As crude oil price has been on a rising trend, the group noted that the confidence level in the oil and gas industry is very different compared to the past six months to a year ago, as opportunities have since arisen.

Going forward, Nathan said the group sees more opportunities in the brownfield space for the oil and gas segment and it has since received a number of requests and interests from the Middle East region.

Nathan said Eversendai’s first completed liftboat, Vahana Aryan, will be delivered by the first week of June, and will be fully commissioned by mid-June. Its second liftboat is 35% complete, but has since been put on hold. “We expect to restart work by the next three to six months,” he added.