Report: Mah Sing's 'plastic play' in the news

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 5): Mah Sing Group Bhd’s plastics business “has suddenly been thrust into the limelight on news that it is exploring a venture into the healthcare products space”, The Edge Malaysia reported this week.

In an Aug 7 clarification to Bursa Malaysia in response to a July 31 news report, Mah Sing said its plastics manufacturing unit was “exploring opportunities in healthcare-related products”.

Mah Sing was reported to be “looking to acquire” a small healthcare company “with an indicative investment outlay of RM100 million to RM150 million”.

Group managing director Tan Sri Leong Hoy Kum (pictured) told the weekly that the group would release the “necessary announcements in a timely manner should there be any material information and/or progress”.

The weekly also reported that Mah Sing’s Indonesian plastics unit “is a 65%-owned subsidiary and a major original equipment manufacturer focused on large automotive parts”.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian factory makes proprietary products for “material handling, such as pallets”.

“Currently, our factories in Malaysia and Indonesia have close to 80 units of injection machines with capacities ranging from 60-tonne to 4,000-tonne clamping force, (which are) among the largest in Asean. Since July, operations in the Malaysian plastics factory have gradually returned to 80% to 90% of normal capacity,” Leong added.

Mah Sing actually started out as a plastics trading firm more than half a century ago but property became its “core business” since it entered the segment in 1994 with four projects.

The group has retained its profitable plastics unit as “a complementary source of income”.

As for its main business, the company achieved property sales of about RM418.6 million for the period ended June 30, 2020.

As at June 30, Mah Sing had landbank of 2,005 acres with a gross development value and unbilled sales of about RM24.64 billion, which the group “expects will provide earnings visibility for the next eight years at least”.

Also as at June 30, 2020, the company had cash and bank balances of about RM1.13 billion. “This puts us in a good position to continue concentrating on increasing our land banks in the affordable segment with Greater KL, the Klang Valley and Johor being our focus areas,” Leong told the business publication.

As for its hotel division, the operating loss of RM13.1 million in 1HFY2020 was due to accounting impairment charges to account for low occupancy due to the MCO/CMCO/RMCO.

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Read the full report in this week’s The Edge Malaysia