AMPANG (Jan 15): Shareholders of T7 Global Bhd have given the green light for the oil and gas (O&G) outfit to dispose of its property in the UK for a cash consideration of £5.75 million (RM31.45 million), as the group refocuses on its core operations and new ventures.

At an extraordinary general meeting today, T7 chairman Datuk Seri Dr Nik Norzul Thani Hassan said proceeds from the disposal will be used to fund some of its ongoing projects.

“We have a few projects in line. We are lucky because our gearing is very low but that doesn’t mean we are going to over leverage ourselves. This money will be helping us with some of the projects that we have initiated,” Nik Norzul said.

Out of the total proceeds to be raised, approximately RM12.47 million will be used for the supply of manpower for the contract awarded by Repsol Oil & Gas Malaysia Ltd and RM8.56 million for Petronas Carigali’s operational reliability and integrity gauging instrument-based safeguard project.

Meanwhile, RM3.31 million is earmarked for the provision of provisional manpower contract awarded by Sarawak Shell Bhd and the balance will be used for working capital purposes and to cover expenses related to the disposal exercise.

Nik Norzul said the disposal is also in line with the group’s move to focus on its three core businesses.

“At the moment in time, we want to focus on the three major segments, which is oil and gas, aerospace and infrastructure development. This will keep us busy, we don’t want to get the market confused by doing 10 different things.

“We always explore new possibilities but try to be within our long term strategy of being a high value manufacturing company,” he said.

Asked if the company is looking to dispose other assets or operations, going forward, Nik Norzul said not at the moment, but added the company is open to opportunities.

Going forward, T7 is expected to see positive performance after it returned to black in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 (3QFY17), supported by the jobs it already has on hand.

“We are comfortable to say that we will remain in the black, going forward. The real impetus would be when the aerospace factory is ready by next year, which will contribute RM180 million in revenue per year at full capacity,” Nik Norzul explained.

The factory will be operating at full capacity, three to four years after completion, he added.

Meanwhile, T7 executive deputy chairman Tan Sri Tan Kean Soon said the group is actively bidding for contracts, with its tenderbook standing at RM3 billion.

“We are looking at infrastructure and construction projects. We have a joint venture with CCTE (China Construction Third Engineering (M) Sdn Bhd), which is eyeing railway projects.

“We also formed another consortium of partnership with the Terengganu state government — via EPIC (Eastern Pacific Industrial Corp Bhd) — CMC Engineering Sdn Bhd and China State Construction Engineering (M) Sdn Bhd, which is specifically looking at the East Coast Railway Link project.

“We will try to bid for some packages for the ECRL. Hopefully, we will secure one or two more jobs from our ongoing tendering. This year should be a good year for T7,” Tan said.

At midday break today, T7 Global rose 16.67% or 7.5 sen to 52.5 sen, with 29.57 million shares traded.