PETALING JAYA: CMC Engineering Sdn Bhd, which last month submitted a bid to take over Jaring Communications Sdn Bhd, plans to use the latter's network to set up a syariah-compliant data centre for the Asean region.
The company already has a foothold in Asean via its partnership with Singapore-based Keppel Group.
“We are also one of the two players conducting trials for the LTE 4G technology for StarHub in Singapore,” said CMC chairman and chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Rahman Yusof in an interview.
Abdul Rahman: ‘We have been eyeing Jaring for the past two years.’“We provide communication engineering services across three industries rail, telecoms and oil and gas and with Jaring, we would be able to expand our services and also that of Jaring.''
He said the company had the funds to buy and expand Jaring's network and he believes that CMC has put in a “attractive'' proposal.
CMC has bought over 80% of Keppel Wireless, now known as CMC Communications, while Keppel has retained the remaining 20%.
CMC had several offices and 180 engineers in Asean. It is one of the three companies keen on Jaring, which is said to have debts of RM80mil.
CMC has submitted its proposal to the Minister of Finance Inc to buy Jaring. Two other parties also keen to buy Jaring are Puncak Semangat Sdn Bhd and a politically-linked company.
Puncak is slated to be one of the nine telecom companies that will receive a block of the LTE 4G spectrum sometime this year, paving the way for its entry into the digital communications sector.
The Government has been trying to hive off Jaring but had failed in the past to do so. At the moment, it is not clear as to when a decision would be made on the sale but the other two interested parties have up to the end of this month to make their submissions.
“There is a pre-qualification exercise and the three, including CMC, have been invited to submit their bids,'' Abdul Rahman said.
On Jaring, he said: “We have been eyeing the company for the past two years. In fact, we were involved in the ETP (Economic Transformation Programme) labs and we have mooted the idea of unified communications, and one product of that is high-definition video conferencing.
“In order to do all that, we need a network and a high-speed broadband. We are not competing with any player but we believe we can help Jaring expand. It also allows us to venture into areas that we have identified,'' Abdul Rahman said.
CMC is a low-profile company founded in 1996 by Abdul Rahman, formerly general manager of Sapura group's Uniphone business.
In the rail sector, CMC had in 2000 won a RM130mil contract for the Rawang-Ipoh electrified double-tracking project via a consortium with Japan's Tomen.
In June this year, CMC and its French partner Colas Rail won a RM674mil electro-mechanical system contract for the Kelana Jaya light rail transit extension line.
“I was with Sapura group but after they decided to do away with their rail business, I started to continue on my own.
“My partner then was Comsis of Japan but after the 1997/98 financial crisis, I bought over their stake,'' Abdul Rahman said.
CMC turned in RM200mil in group turnover in the financial year ended Dec 31, 2011.
Abdul Rahman said the net profit was about “10% (RM20mil) of the turnover''.
He plans to list CMC either next year or in 2014.
0 Comments