SYF Resources profit set to hit record RM50m

SYF Resources Bhd is poised to post a record profit of about RM50 million for the financial year ended July 31 2012.

The company is expected to announce its results as early as today.

The company had bled red ink over the past five financial years.

Its executive director Datuk Chee Hong Leong looked like a relieved man when Business Times met him at his office.

Chee, who owns 12.4 per cent of SYF, was instrumental in pushing the company into the higher-end segment of the funiture production business, and also into the property development sector.

Chee - a former substantial shareholder of SEG International Bhd (SEGi), the country's largest private education group - emerged as a substantial shareholder in SYF in late November last year.

"Going forward, we expect to be profitable," said Chee, noting that the company's joint-venture development of an industrial land in Semenyih was fully sold out.

He added that the earnings of the development in Semenyih, Selangor, was not fully captured in the previous quarter, hence its true potential will only be seen in the current financial year.

"We also expect to launch some residential property developments in the Semenyih area soon," said Chee, who stressed that furniture making still remains the bread and butter of the company.

Chee's foresight in developing the outskirts of the city, in areas like Semenyih, could well turn out to be a blessing for SYF.

Since 2010, there had been a rush by bigger property players to acquire land in Semenyih, which has long been the stronghold of Metro Kajang Bhd, a mid-sized property developer.

Among tier-one developers that have acquired land in the Seme-nyih/Kajang corridor in Selangor are SP Setia Bhd, UEM Land Holdings Bhd and Dijaya Corp.

In 2011, SP Setia entered into an agreement to buy 272.5 hectares of freehold land in Semenyih for RM381.26 million, or RM13 per sq ft (psf).

A year earlier, UEM Land Holdings Bhd bought two parcels of freehold agricultural land, totalling 187.6 hectares for RM268.5 million, or RM13.30 psf.

Business plans aside, what has caputured the market's imagination was the emergence of former journalist Datuk Seri Clement Hii Chee Kok as a shareholder.

Chee and Hii were both shareholders in SEGi, before Chee decided to cash out from the company.

Hii remains the managing director of SEGi, with a 29 per cent stake.

He emerged in SYF in May, buying a 10 per cent stake from his long- time friend Ng Ah Chai, a self-made millionaire.

In July, Hii a self-described "Johnny-come-lately", told Business Times that he may consider taking a bigger stake in the furniture maker.

By early this month, Hii started buying SYF shares, increasing his stake in the company to about 15 per cent.

Hii has a reputation of being a shrewd investor, having helped build the market capitalisation of SEGi to more than RM1.3 billion from RM120 million, when he entered the company a couple of years ago.



I Have no idea how they count so big until 50 million.