KUALA LUMPUR (Apr 2): Zecon Bhd’s counter has soared as much as 7.93% or 6.5 sen in the morning trades today following news that it had tied up with Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia to build 2,000 affordable housing and retail units in Kuching.

At 12:30pm, shares of Zecon has pared earlier gains to settle 3 sen or 3.66% higher at 85 sen, with some 2.55 million shares traded.

The Sarawak-based construction and engineering company had tied up with Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia to build the units on a 54-acre land in the Salak Land District in Kuching, according to a press statement yesterday.

Zecon (fundamental: 0.32; valuation: 0.6) said its wholly owned subsidiary Zecon Land Sdn Bhd will have four years to build the units and transform the land into a total built-up area of 3.7 million sq ft.

It said PR1MA had purchased the parcel of land from Zecon at RM46 million.

Zecon chairman Datuk Hamzah Haji Drahman said the joint development project with PR1MA is the largest development for the group to date, and one that is closest to home for the company.

Under the joint development agreement, Zecon and PR1MA will share the cost and expenditure for the construction and completion of necessary and common infrastructures for the development.

(Note: 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.)