KUALA LUMPUR: Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd (Puncak) and its consortium partners STX Heavy Industries Co Ltd (STX) and Pembinaan Kekal Mewah Sdn Bhd (PKMS) have failed to pre-qualify for Petronas Gas Bhd’s (PetGas) Kimanis power plant project.

The three companies were bidding for the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) of the project in Sabah called by PetGas and Yayasan Sabah Joint Venture Company.

In a statement filed via Bursa Malaysia Securities yesterday, Puncak said its memorandum of understanding (MoU) with STX and PKMS had lapsed following the failure in the pre-qualification exercise.

The company had on Feb 28, 2009 entered into the MoU with STX and PKMS in relation to the EPCC project in Sabah. Under the MoU, Puncak was to have a 30% participation, while STX and PKMS 60% and 10%, respectively.

In November last year, PetGas had signed a shareholders’ agreement with Yayasan Sabah to develop a 300MW gas-powered plant in the Papar district, with the former holding a 60% stake in the joint venture.

According to reports, the Kimanis power plant project is expected to be worth some RM900 million and would capitalise in the gas resulting from the Sabah-Sarawak Integrated Oil and Gas Projects.  

The Korea-based STX’s business portfolio includes EPCC of utilities projects that includes petrochemical plants, environmental plants, cement plants, power plants and offshore fabrication facilities.

PKMS is a Sabah-based company involved in activities such as infrastructure and production works, housing development, building construction, agricultural palm oil and hotel industries.

This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, December 10, 2009.