Gadang JV bags RM327.9 mil road infrastructure job from TRX City

KUALA LUMPUR (May 9): Construction firm Gadang Holdings Bhd says its 51%-owned joint venture company Gadang CRFG Consortium Sdn Bhd has bagged a major traffic dispersion and improvement job from TRX City Sdn Bhd worth RM327.91 million.

China Railway First Group Co’s subsidiary, CRFG Malaysia Bhd, owns the remaining 49% in Gadang CRFG Consortium.

“The project is expected to contribute positively to the future earnings of Gadang,” said Gadang in a filing with Bursa Malaysia this evening.

TRX City is the master developer of the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) development.

In a separate statement, TRX City said the contract is part of a larger effort by the Kuala Lumpur City Council (DBKL) and the federal government to improve traffic along Jalan Tun Razak and its vicinity, to reduce traffic loading on Jalan Bukit Bintang and Jalan Tun Razak by as much as 27%.

"The two-year contract awarded to Gadang CRFG will cover earthworks, foundation works, underground reinforced concrete road structure, elevated roadway and at-grade roadway, as well as associated works for access roads to and from the TRX development.

"As a result, TRX will enjoy a direct and seamless access to three major highways, namely SMART, Maju Expressway (MEX) and DUKE-3, greatly enhancing the connectivity of the international financial district," said TRX City.

TRX City CEO Datuk Azmar Talib said the work outlined in the contract will realise the TRX master plan of turning the development into the best connected address in Kuala Lumpur.

“These additional highway and road accesses into TRX, together with the underground MRT interchange station and comfortable, convenient pedestrian walkways, also offer greater connectivity to the existing city centre and the rest of Greater KL,” he added.

The award of this contract follows a tender process that was overseen by a third party independent audit company, said TRX City, adding the pre-qualification of participating contractors started in May 2016, while the tender was called in August.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Ministry of Finance, TRX City was recently in the limelight after it announced that the sale agreement it inked with IWH CREC Sdn Bhd in December 2015 for the sale of a 60% stake in Bandar Malaysia had lapsed.

The deal would have resulted in IWH CREC being the master developer of the RM200 billion Bandar Malaysia development.

Shares of the Main Market-listed Gadang slid one sen or 0.8% to settle at RM1.28 today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM837.52 million. — theedgemarkets.com

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