OCK sees surge in telco jobs, aiming for RM20mil Cambodian job

OCK Group managing director Sam Ooi Chin Khoon says the company is eyeing a RM20mil contract in Cambodia.

PETALING JAYA: OCK Group Bhd expects to double its order book size in the telecommunication segment from the current RM70mil, as the company targets to win more contracts from local telecommunication companies (telcos) and expand its business overseas.

Managing director Sam Ooi Chin Khoon said the company was eyeing a RM20mil contract in Cambodia.

Record contract wins at OCK last year was driven by local telcos’ rapid deployment of 4G long term evolution services, prompting the company to increase its hirings.

“We receive 30% more mechanical and engineering job requests this year,’’ Ooi told StarBiz in a recent interview.

“The jobs we have in hand will last us for two years and we will have to expand our headcounts due to higher demand for jobs,” he added.

Increased orders from local telcos will help OCK achieved a double-digit revenue growth from its telecommunication network services division this year.

Ooi said bigger contract wins will have a positive spillover to its trading division by creating higher demand for its telecommunications network equipment.

For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2013 (FY13), turnover for the telecommunication network services was RM85.78mil while the trading division raked in RM10mil.

The two divisions contributed 57% and 6.65% to its FY13 topline respectively. Ooi said the company was also aggressively expanding its operations overseas.

In Myanmar, it is participating in tenders to provide services for high-end network optimisation. It had also incorporated a 51% subsidiary in Fuzhou, China, to prepare for opportunities arising from telco infrastructure upgrading works in the giant economy.

“We foresee that there is a need for expertise in the 4G LTE telco network services once the government of China awards 4G LTE license to the telco players there,” he said.

Although the company had been on an aggressive expansion mode in the regional markets, he noted that the ventures did not incur too much capital. “Not much capital expenditure is required for such expansion because we usually enter the new markets with talents and little assets,” he pointed out.

The telco services provider had also acquired a new network services provider license from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) last month, which would enable it to widen its scope of services that it could provide to its clients.

Asked if it would participate in the RM1.5bil roll-out of telecom transmission towers announced during Budget 2014, he said it would definitely be keen to take part in the tendering process once it is open.

“We believe that MCMC will award the jobs to reputable and sizeable companies. Based on our track record, we hope that we will be able to be part of the plan, which aims at boosting internet coverage in the country,” he said

He is also optimistic about growing its solar energy business as a turnkey contractor under the “feed-in tariff” programme introduced by the Sustainable Energy Development Authority.

For FY13, revenue from its green energy and power solution division soared 128.3% to RM42.92mil from RM18.8mil in the preceding year.

“We are trying to get more solar energy jobs this year and are in preliminary stages of exploring opportunities with a few government-linked companies,” he said.