PETALING JAYA: Japan’s Nippon Koei Co Ltd has inked an agreement to acquire a majority stake in ASAP Mobility Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian system engineering and consultancy company.
With that, ASAP Mobility has become a subsidiary of Nippon Koei.
This is part of Nippon Koei’s expansion plan into Malaysia and the regional market.
Shah Alam-based ASAP Mobility focuses on public transport system, and has actively provide system engineering and consultancy services to its clients in some of the key public transportation projects in Malaysia.
These include the Light Rail Transit (LRT) 3, Kuching Urban Transit System, and Johor Baru-Singapore Rapid Transit System.
ASAP Mobility has also undertaken overseas projects’ consultancy assignments.
“Some of them are Jakarta Kelapa Gading to Velodrome Line LRT, Palembang LRT, Manila North-South Commuter Rail Extension, Metro Manila Subway, Chennai Metro, Bengaluru Metro, several European Train Control System Level 2 mainline projects in Hungary, plus some consultancy works in Thailand, Egypt, Switzerland and Botswana,” ASAP Mobility said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Nippon Koei provides consulting and energy services to clients worldwide.
Listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, its market capitalisation was 52.18 billion yen (RM1.74bil) as at the end of July 2022.
Recently, Nippon Koei has been actively exploring opportunities in Asean and other regions, including large railway projects in Vietnam, Bangladesh and India.
ASAP Mobility chief executive officer Aniket Mukhopadhyay said the acquisition will not only benefit ASAP Mobility but also bring higher value to its clients.
“We also strongly believe it will benefit Malaysia at large, as it will allow us to expand our export of services, and with that, our local talents and expertise will have more opportunity to handle international projects and gain valuable experience,” he said.
Meanwhile, Nippon Koei representative director and president Hiroaki Shinya said he feels encouraged by the transaction.
“We believe it is a good fit for Nippon Koei as both, a good partner and an investment target firm, to accelerate our business expansion in Malaysia and the region as a whole,” Hiroaki said.
Astramina Advisory Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian corporate finance firm, is the adviser for the vendors and ASAP Mobility on this cross-border share sale.
