Mercury Industries to tap into EcoFirst and Meda Inc

KUALA LUMPUR: Paint manufacturer MERCURY INDUSTRIES BHD expects to secure more contracts from Ecofirst Consolidated Bhd and Meda Inc Bhd.

This followed the approval given by its shareholders at its EGM on Wednesday for the acquisition of 70% of Paramount Bounty for RM42mil.

Paramount Bounty is a construction firm which is 70% owned by Datuk Tiong Kwing Hee.

Tiong is chief executive officer and substantial shareholder of EcoFirst with a 17% stake. He also owns 15% of Meda Inc.

While the acquisition was a related-party transaction (RPT), Tiong said the corporate exercise would provide Mercury with more resources to work with.

He said Mercury anticipated a profit guarantee of RM6.6mil for the financial years 2015 to 2017.

“Mercury will be awarded projects such as the 1,600 apartments in a PR1MA project from Meda in Malacca as well as a mixed development project in Kuala Lumpur worth over RM1bil,” Tiong said.

Mercury and Meda were seeking their shareholders’ mandates so that Mercury could accept construction projects from it in the future.

“This profit guarantee is important to us as the problem in the industry is that construction outfits don’t get paid on time. Since these are RPT, we are confident of the payments.

“We have many projects in the pipeline, so we are not worried about that. As for the property market, we try to avoid Johor Baru and Penang. The Klang Valley remains a good location,” Tiong said.