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May 30, 2009 / in News
DELLOYD VENTURES TO EXPAND OVERSEAS OPERATIONS

SHAH ALAM: Delloyd Ventures Bhd will expand its current operations in other countries to weather the slump in sales and production faced by the Malaysian automotive industry. The automotive parts manufacturer currently has a base each in Indonesia and Thailand. The plant in Indonesia was set up three years ago, while its Thai operation began in March.

"We want to expand our footprint, by increasing our product and customer base," managing director Datuk Tee Boon Kee said after the group's AGM yesterday.

To date, Delloyd Ventures had secured new customers including General Motors in Thailand, Australia and India, and Nissan and Suzuki in Indonesia as well as new contracts from Toyota in Indonesia.

Tee told StarBiz the two countries were important as they each had a bigger market than Malaysia.

"Cars manufactured in Thailand and Indonesia are exported elsewhere," he added.

In Malaysia, the group relied mainly on national cars such as Proton but had diversified to include Perodua and Toyota. Various factors such as uncertainty due to the National Automotive Policy, difficulty for buyers to secure financing and the drop in vehicle volume affected the group's performance last year.

For financial year ended Dec 31, the group's turnover dropped one-third to RM189.9mil, while net profit slumped 64.5% to RM11.4mil from the preceding year.

For the quarter ended March 31, revenue dipped 22.6% to RM44.3mil and net profit fell almost 100% to RM241,000.

"In the coming year, we foresee revenue contribution from overseas operations to be better than Malaysia," Tee said.

The group was always on the lookout for more partners and named Asean, China and India as priority countries to expand into.

"We look for synergy with prospective partners. In fact, we are exploring mergers and acquisitions as a way to enhance market strength and technical capability," said executive director Datuk Noor Azmi Jaafar.

The group had completed the 60% equity acquisition of PT Rebinmas Jaya, which owned three oil palm plantations in Pulau Belitung, Indoensia last July. Together with the plantation in Batang Berjuntai, it now has 15,871ha of plantation landbank.

Tee said contribution to revenue from the plantation segment would only be significant once rehabilitation of the land in Indonesia was completed in two years.

- The Star 30 May 2007