KUALA LUMPUR: Jobstreet Corp Bhd is open to investing in any business in Southeast Asia including acquisition and starting a new job portal.

However, its chief executive officer Mark Chang Mun Kee told reporters that the company was adopting a conservative approach and would focus on spending the next two years studying the market before deciding on its future.

He said the company is not in a rush to invest in any business sector but is keen on acquisitions, and is also open to the idea of starting a new job portal.

“We are not restricting ourselves to look into a particular sector. We want to look at as many sectors as possible before we decide which industry could make the most sense to us in the future.

“We told our shareholders we have cash and we want to wait for the right time before we invest. The current market is relatively expensive. We are in an exploratory stage and will continue to study the market.

“We want to be more conservative, and patient. Hopefully, when it is time we will know whom to acquire or partner with,” he said after Jobstreet’s extraordinary general meeting.

He said that while the idea of starting a new job portal was being considered, it would require plenty of discipline.

The company also had about 12 months before it decided on a new name following the sale of its JobStreet.com portal on Feb 19 last year.

According to its unaudited fourth-quarter report for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2014, its total net assets stood at RM283 million while it had zero debt.

Jobstreet’s cash and cash equivalents were recorded as RM135.9 million while its investments in associates amounted to RM95.5 million.

He said Jobstreet (fundamental: 1.95; valuation: 2.4) wanted to help businesses expand across the Southeast Asian region by “taking” a company in any country in the region and expanding its business to Indonesia, the Philippines or Malaysia.

“Our skill set has been on the regional business so that is what we want to do. We know many successful companies that might be listed in Malaysia or elsewhere, but had problems expanding to other countries in the region.

“Perhaps, we can play a role in that area in the future,” he said.

Asked how it planned to sustain itself in the interim period, Chang said Jobstreet was earning from the dividend income from its 23% stake in Taiwan’s 104 Corp, which is listed on the Taipei Stock Exchange.

“We also earn dividends from other listed companies where we invested in such as Bursa Malaysia-listed company Innity Corp Bhd. In addition, we earn rental from our building, Wisma Jobstreet.com where we rent out seven floors to Seek Asia Investments Ltd (Sail),” he said.

Jobstreet is also being compensated by Australian Sail during the transition period which ends in November following the latter’s purchase of JobStreet.com for RM1.89 billion.

On the risk of falling under the Practice Note 17 category, Chang was confident it would not happen because Jobstreet was above the regulatory benchmark.

“We hope our shareholders are able to wait for a while before we invest the money,” he said.

The Edge Research’s fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations. Go to www.theedgemarkets.com for more details on a company’s financial dashboard.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 21, 2015.