Malaysia's OCK spreading wings in Myanmar

Wider reach: Ooi says OCK’s strategy to strengthen recurring income and expand regionally has been effective.

PETALING JAYA: Telecommunications network services provider OCK Group Bhd is in the final stages of getting a contract from Telenor’s Myanmar unit to build and lease over 900 towers in the country.

Sources told StarBiz that the contract would last for 12 years and all the towers under this phase were expected to be completed next year. “They are targeting to seal the deal by next month,” a person with knowledge of the matter said.

Norwegian telecommunications provider Telenor commands a 36% market share in Myanmar, with the other operators in the country being MPT and Ooredoo.

The company said in a statement that it had entered into a memorandum of understanding with Telenor Myanmar alongside local partner King Royal Technologies yesterday.

Meanwhile, the company’s revenue for the third quarter ended Sept 30 rose 75% to RM83.7mil year-on-year (y-o-y), mainly due to higher contribution from its core telecommunication network services.

In tandem with the hike in the topline, its bottomline rose by 62.5% to RM4.89mil y-o-y.

The segment, which made up 84% of its topline, surged by 87% from the previous corresponding quarter.

“The substantial higher revenue from telecommunication network services was due to contribution from its regional business in Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar and China, as well as significantly higher contribution from a subsidiary undertaking site maintenance works in Malaysia and the distribution of telecommunication equipment in Malaysia,” the company said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia.

Group managing director Sam Ooi said the company’s strategy to strengthen recurring income and expand regionally had been effective. “More than 15% of our revenue now comes from regional markets, from merely 5% last year. We are continuously looking out for more opportunities in these regional markets,” he said in the statement.

It manages more than 24,000 telecom sites in Indonesia and Malaysia now.

For the first nine months, revenue rose 64% to RM210mil compared with a year ago.

Net profit for the period jumped 44.6% to RM13.09mil from RM9.05mil last year.

The green energy and power solution business was the second-largest income contributor, making up 7% of revenue.

“OCK will continue to participate via the feed-in tariff programme, whereby the Sustainable Energy Development Authority Malaysia will continue to release annual quotas for solar energy,” it noted.

The company’s solar plants, through direct ownership and partnerships with licence owners, produce 2.15MW of solar energy.