KUALA LUMPUR (May 21): Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB) remains hopeful that it can complete its disposal of the Eastern Dispersal Link (EDL) to the Malaysian government by the end of this year.

"We will work with the new government to finalise the formula (of the mutual termination agreement), and we are hopeful that we can complete this by the end of the year," MRCB executive director Mohd Imran Mohamad Salim said after the group's annual general meeting here today.

Taking note of the new government's pledge to abolish tolls, Imran said the disposal of the EDL showed that the group was at the forefront of this initiative.

It has already abolished tolls on the highway and handed over operations to the federal government, he noted.

"We were in negotiations with the government (before the elections) to come up with a fair and transparent formula to resolve the matter," he shared.

According to Imran, although it is too early to price in the exact value it may gain on the disposal, MRCB is hopeful that "at the minimum", it will be able to pay off all its debts on the EDL.

It is hoped that this would lower the group's net gearing ratio to 0.2 times by the end of this year from 0.53 times currently, MRCB chief corporate officer Amarjit Chhina said.

The group had spent RM1.2 billion financing its development of the 8.1km EDL.

MRCB maintained its RM6.2 billion external order book figure and said it is currently tendering for RM6.2 billion worth of engineering and construction projects.

"Any impact to the KL-Singapore high speed rail will not be reflected in our 2018 financial projections as we have not priced it in yet," Imran said.

The group is one of the project delivery partners of the rail project via a 50:50 joint venture with Gamuda Bhd.

The project now faces uncertainty as the government has pledged to review all major infrastructure projects.

At 2.10pm, MRCB was up 1.42% or 1 sen to 71.5 sen with 12.05 million shares traded.