PETALING JAYA: The government has called a tender for the Kinrara-Damansara highway contract, with  seven companies invited to bid for the job, sources said.

The companies include Bina Puri Holdings Bhd, Mudajaya Group Bhd and privately-owned Pesona Metro Sdn Bhd, sources told The Edge Financial Daily.

“The tender letters for the highway are just out and it is not certain yet on the tenure of concession as the CA (concession agreement) has not been finalised,” said a source.

The Kinrara-Damansara concession was supposed to be awarded to Plus Expressways Bhd, but recent developments indicated that things may not proceed as initially planned, sources said.

“Talk is that Pesona might be the front runner for some of the major components of the Kinrara-Damansara project. So, it is not certain how this will change things,” added a source.

It is understood that the Kinrara-Damansara highway, which will link Kinrara and Pusat Bandar Damansara, would serve to divert some of the traffic from the Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong (LDP).

Little known Pesona made news when it proposed to do a back door listing via Mithril Bhd, owned by the MAA Holdings group, in the middle of last year.

According to the Registrar of Companies, Pesona is owned by two individuals — Wie Hock Beng, who has an 80% stake in the company, and Chak May Teng who owns the remainder.

Wie, Chak and Datuk Subhi Dziyauddin are directors of Pesona. Subhi, who was appointed Pesona director last October, also sits on the board of listed Metronic Global Bhd.

Mithril, a PN17 company, has been disposing of its assets to regularise its financials.

The company, which supplies building materials, had last July announced the acquisition of Pesona for RM96 million as part of its restructuring, which is still subject to the Securities Commission’s nod.

Pesona has a few notable jobs in its stable worth RM600 million that would last it for the next three to four years.

According to an announcement by Mithril to Bursa Malaysia, some of the projects completed by Pesona include the beautification and rehabilitation of Sungai Melaka; the Timah Tasoh dam-raising project in Perlis and a residential condominium project in Jalan Bukit Pantai, Kuala Lumpur.

Although there are no latest details on its financials, Pesona posted a net loss of over RM2 million in FY Dec 31, 2004 on the back of RM77.05 million revenue. It had assets worth some RM48.5 million and liabilities of RM34.43 million.

Industry insiders said the construction outfit was a frontrunner for the river beautification project and development of the Customs and Immigration Quarantine (CIQ) in Malacca. It is also building a luxury condominium in the U-Thant area in  Kuala Lumpur. The Kinrara-Damansara concession could be a boost for the construction-based company as this would mean steady cash flow in the longer term, unlike the very cyclical income from the construction business.

The Kinrara-Damansara is the latest to be tendered out after at least six new highways were announced in Budget 2011. The highways include the Ampang-Cheras-Pandan elevated Highway, Guthrie-Damansara Expressway, Damansara-Petaling Jaya Highway, Pantai Barat-Banting-Taiping Highway, Sungai Dua-Juru Highway and Paroi-Senawang-KLIA Highway.

The Sungai Dua to Juru links were also said to be operated by Plus, while the Ampang to Cheras and the Damansara to Sungai Buloh stretch will come under Permodalan Nasional Bhd.

This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, February 16, 2012.