LCL eyeing RM1bil projects

LCL eyeing RM1bil projects

By Loong Tse Min

DUBAI: LCL Corp Bhd, through wholly-owned subsidiary LCL Interiors LLC, is looking to secure a total order book of about RM1bil by year-end, with 70% of the jobs coming from overseas.

Managing director Low Chin Ming said this was possible “considering the size of projects in the Middle East, and RM1bil is nothing.”

Governments in the Middle East, the world’s largest oil exporting region, are planning more than US$1 trillion in future projects.

The group is bidding for projects worth more than RM1.3bil, with some results expected within the first half of the year, Low told a press briefing in conjunction with the launch of LCL Interiors’ showroom here on Saturday.

The group's current order book of RM400mil is expected to last till the middle of next year.

With the company already near maximum capacity with RM300mil in ongoing jobs, any new projects would begin only next year, Low said. LCL also planned to expand its total job capacity to RM500mil next year, he added.

From left: LCL Interiors executive chairman Datuk Syed Ariff Fadzillah, International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz and Malaysian ambassador to UAE Datuk Mubin Razali at the launch of the company’s office and showroom in Dubai
Capacity expansion could include the outsourcing of certain manufacturing jobs to sub-contractors in China and India, he said.

LCL has factories in Malaysia, Hyderabad, India, and Thailand, manufacturing furniture, wood panelling and making stoneworks.

The interior-fitout group’s ongoing projects in the Middle East are the Burj Dubai Mall Hotel in Dubai's city centre and Atlantis The Palm hotel in the reclaimed island resort and residence development, Palm Jumeirah Dubai. The projects have a contract value of about 135 million dirham and 106 million dirham respectively (1 dirham is about 97 sen).

The group, which has on-going projects in Qatar, India and Kazakhstan, is also bidding for jobs in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Sudan and Libya.

LCL has invested RM1.5mil in its showroom in Dubai. It also has a management office and staff quarters there and plans to double its workforce to 400 by June.