KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 30): Gadang Holdings Bhd (KL:GADANG) and its joint venture (JV) partners have successfully won a bid to develop a 15-megawatt alternating current (MWac) large-scale solar (LSS) photovoltaic (PV) plant in Tawau, Sabah.
In a bourse filing on Monday, the construction and engineering company said that the Energy Commission of Sabah (Ecos) had issued a letter of notification (LON), awarding the project to the JV of its wholly owned subsidiary, Regional Utilities Sdn Bhd (RUSB), and Hotrend Corporation Sdn Bhd.
The LON requires the RUSB–Hotrend JV to fulfil certain compliance obligations, including submitting and executing project documents to confirm acceptance. However, Gadang did not provide further details.
Gadang is the third listed company to announce itself as a winner of the LSS Sabah project. This follows the statement by Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor on Dec 12 that the state Energy Commission (EC) had approved the award of LSS projects to 15 bidders, with a total capacity of 199MW under the bidding process.
The other two listed companies that have declared themselves winners are Nestcon Bhd (KL:NESTCON), which secured contracts to develop a total of 18.99MWac PV plants in Kimanis and Tawau, and Coastal Contracts Bhd (KL:COASTAL), whose wholly owned unit, Coastal Power Holdings Sdn Bhd (CPHSB), led a consortium that won the bid to develop a 15MWac PV plant on Sabah’s east coast.
Notably, The Edge, quoting sources, reported last week that Gadang’s 70%-owned Nusantara Suriamas Sdn Bhd has successfully won a bid under the fifth LSS bidding round (LSS5) for a 99.99MWac project in Selangor.
For the first quarter ended Aug 31, 2024 (1QFY2025), Gadang posted a flat net profit of RM6.22 million, compared to RM6.21 million in the same period a year earlier. This was despite a 15% year-on-year increase in revenue to RM148.5 million from RM129.5 million, as higher costs of sales weighed on gross profit.
As of midday break on Monday, shares in Gadang traded half a sen or 1.5% higher at 33.5 sen, giving the company a market capitalisation of RM268.3 million.
The counter is trading at a trailing 12-month price-to-earnings ratio of 55.9 times, according to ASKEdge.