KUALA LUMPUR (April 19): Malakoff Corporation Bhd will focus on the international market in 2017 as the group continues to explore potential growth opportunities to expand its presence in the areas of power generation and water production.
In a press conference today after the group's annual general meeting (AGM), its managing director Datuk Wira Azhar Abdul Hamid said Malakoff is currently looking at more than ten opportunities with a focus on the international market.
"We are looking at more than 10 opportunities. Whether we go for them or not is another matter," Azhar said.
He added the focus will be on the international market and the group's growth will be skewed towards brownfield investment.
He shared that as compared to Malaysia, renewable energy in Europe is big, but Malakoff will look and see if the opportunities suit the group.
"The projects under evaluation are in line with plans to increase Malakoff's effective power generation capacity to 10,000 MW and water desalination generation to 530,000 m3 per day by 2020," he said.
In financial year ended Dec 31, 2016 (FY16), its total effective power generation capacity was 7,036 MW and its water desalination generation stood at 444,800 m3 per day.
Currently, foreign plants only contributed about 4% of the group's total revenue but they made up 25% of the bottom line, according to Azhar.
"From this, you could see how the international market is impacting our bottom line," he added.
During the AGM, there were also some calls to review all board fees paid to non-executive directors.
Azhar mentioned the group will review that matter in the next meeting as the practices were legacy practice from when Malakoff was not listed.
At 3.02pm, Malakoff shares were unchanged at RM1.20 with 5.54 million shares traded, giving it a market capitalisation of RM6.1 billion.