Malaysia - Why YTL has not made any purchase in 3 years

YTL Corp Bhd, an infrastructure group, said it has not made a significant purchase over the last three years because asset values have not been compelling.

“Nobody wants to mark down the real value,” YTL Corp managing director Tan Sri Francis Yeoh Sock Ping told reporters yesterday at the Forbes Global CEO conference.

YTL has bought major assets like the UK utility Wessex Water Ltd and PowerSeraya, one of the three largest electricity companies in Singapore. They provide regular and consistent earnings for the group.

“This is the third year we have not acquired anything. We want more opportunities, but the political and economic systems are not responding fast enough to allow the situation to manifest itself,” he said.

For the financial year ended June 30 2011, YTL’s net profit rose 23.6 per cent to RM1.06 billion while revenue increased 12.5 per cent to RM18.6 billion.

The results were driven primarily by the power generation, water and cement operations, including foreign property development projects.

“We hope YTL will continue to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 20 per cent. We are not retrenching or cutting down on our advertising and promotion expenses. We will continue to invest to promote our 4G network and hotels,” Yeoh said.

Yeoh said for its 4G network, YTL will be investing RM2.5 billion to build new towers to widen the coverage. This is on top of the RM2 billion it has invested so far.

“I do not think our business will be affected by what is happening globally. In this case, Malaysia is still very good. The government is transforming and they want the business to be transparent. Here is one economy that is really seizing the bull by the horns,” Yeoh said. – By Sharen Kaur

BTimes

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