High demand for AME’s industrial projects

PETALING JAYA: AME Elite Consortium Bhd remains positive about demand for its industrial development based on the sustained high sales and bookings from local and overseas investors.

AME Elite group managing director Kelvin Lee Chai said its customers primarily operate in growth sectors and this has supported the group’s performance.

In the past few months, AME has attracted sizeable investments from Switzerland, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and Singapore, among others.

The outlook for foreign direct investment inflows into the Asean region remains favourable for the group as it continues to experience rising demand for industrial properties at its industrial parks.

This includes AMEs latest development, the 169.8-acre i-Tech Valley at the Southern Industrial Logistics Clusters (SILC), which has received significant interest from global investors.

“AME’s industrial parks benefit from being strategically positioned within the Malaysia-Singapore corridor, which has strong connectivity and trade, including multinational corporations with operations in both countries,” he said.

Lee added a significant number of AME’s foreign investors has been motivated to diversify their operations beyond China due to the US-China trade tensions.

“This strategic move is aimed at mitigating production and supply chain risks through setting up alternative production locations,” he said.

Additionally, the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, as well as operational disruptions, had further highlighted the vulnerabilities of supply chains, he added.

“This has resulted in increased interest by global investors in diversifying their supply chains across various countries, including South-East Asia,” he said.

AME Elite could be in a sweet spot with its industrial development niche.

Nomura Group, in a report yesterday, said China has lost its low-cost comparative advantage which, and along with geopolitical headwinds, had set the stage for South-East Asia and India to become the region’s new fast developing centres under the “high-flying geese paradigm or ganko keitai”. Commenting on the impact of the recent interest hike on its operations, Lee said the company did not expect it to have a substantial impact on its operations as the group has a solid net cash position and little bank borrowings,

He said that while the lower ringgit has increased the cost of construction materials, the group’s expertise in operating and managing procurement to overcome the difficulties could account for the higher prices in new contracts.

AME has recorded growth in its revenue of RM158.4mil in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2023 (4Q23) mainly attributed to its property development segment.

This was followed by the group’s engineering segment as well as property investment and management services segment with a revenue contribution of RM13.2mil and RM13.9mil respectively.

AME posted a net profit of RM42.3mil or an earnings per share (EPS) of 6.63 sen for the quarter.

For the full-year ended March 31 (FY23), the group made a total revenue of RM577.1mil, up 45% year-on-year (y-o-y) and earnings of RM103.5mil, up 113% y-o-y, or earnings per share of 16.16 sen, contributed mainly by its property development segment.

AME declared an interim dividend of three sen per share in respect of FY23, with an ex-date on June 15, 2023 and payable on July 7, 2023.

Established in 1995, AME is an integrated and comprehensive industrial space solutions provider and it has in-house construction and engineering expertise.

As of 2023, AME has completed i-Park@SILC, i-Park@Indahpura phase one and two, and District 6 in Johor while its ongoing projects are i-Park@Senai Airport City and i-TechValley in Johor.