MRCB ... Nov12

The government is planning to revive a plan to build a railway for freight trains to ease the congestion in KL’s central hub, and a JV led by state controlled MRCB has emerged as the front runner to wrest control of the roughly rm3 billion infra undertaking.

According to the proposal, MRCB and DMIA Sdn Bhd have jointly submitted a plan to build a railway line for freight trains, lining Serendah to Port Klang to hel ease the bottleneck at the KL-Sentral area.

The plan has received the backing of key government ministries, is expected to be submitted to SPAD as early as Dec 2012.

Meanwhile, industry observers say MRCB and DMIA have considerable headway in their plans and could secure the job as early as 2013. However, industry executives say several other companies are also eyeing the project and are expected to submit competing proposals in the coming weeks from 19 Nov 2012.

As at end June 2012, MRCB had cash and bank balances amounting to rm490 million and had long term debt commitments of rm1.08 billion and short term borrowings of rm897 million. It also had rm1.4 billion in shareholders’ funds.

DMIA is 50.4% controlled by Subramaniam. The other shareholders are Datuk Salehudin Abdullah (20%), Jacqueline Earthayanthan (15.2%) and Nazreen Ahmad (14.4%).

DMIA partnered MRCB for the beautification and upgrading of Little India in Jln Tun Sambanthan KL as well as other developments plans in the Brickfields suburb.

Meanwhile Gapurna Sdn Bhd, a company said to bge 40% held by EPF confirmed that it is in talks with MRCB for a merger between its unit Nusa Gapurna Development Sdn Bhd and MRCB via a share swap.

It was rerported that a possible merger between Gapurna which is linked to businessman Datuk Mohamad Salim Fateh Din, with MRCB. Gapurna owns about 60 acres of prime land in Klang Valley, worth between rm11 billion to rm13 billion.

However Gapurna has not decided yet whether to inject its entire land banks into MRCB or to just select a few to be included in the deal.