KUCHING: Sarawak Consolidated Industries Berhad (SCIB) intends to diversify into property development.
The company, whose core business is precast concrete manufacturing, is currently exploring and identifying potential projects to expand its business footprint in construction and
properties development.
The lack of a large land bank for this purpose is not an issue as SCIB is looking at collaborations with companies that have large land banks.
“There are a lot of other companies which have land banks. In a lot of cases, companies have actually spent too much on this and as a result they do not have the cash to develop the properties,” recently appointed SCIB non-executive chairman Datuk Dr Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah told the New Sarawak Tribune.
In fact, he said SCIB is in the process of discussion and negotiation with potential companies.
Mohd Abdul Karim said the new management of SCIB aimed to keep the company as lean as possible.
“We do not want too much cash to be tied up in fixed assets,” he said, pointing out that having a substantial land bank would not
serve this objective.
On the types of properties SCIB would be venturing into, he said they would be looking at various sectors such as residential, commercial, and industrial
property development.
“However, I would say that industrial property development will be a priority because the market for residential property is already very saturated,” he said.
Meanwhile, the perceptive entrepreneur, who is also Serba Dinamik Holdings Berhad (SDHB) group managing director and chief executive officer (CEO), believed that there is a still a requirement for industrial asset development.
He said SCIB already has a component of property development in its group structure.
“It is just that it has not been activated and moved in an aggressive manner.”
As SCIB offers a wide range of products including precast concrete, industrialised building system (IBS) products, and roof riles, the next step for the company’s new management team is to bring in a service component.
According to Mohd Abdul Karim, this means SCIB will be able to supply, install, build and hand over the entire unit to the customer.
“We use a new terminology for this — EMCC. It stands for engineering, manufacturing, construction, and commissioning.”
He shared his belief that this will boost the company to a stronger position, drawing in higher sales revenue and profitability at the same time.
Mohd Abdul Karim has recently increased his stake to 50.53 percent in SCIB.
