Rozabil: Judge Me By Record
SHAH ALAM: Datuk Rozabil Abdul Rahman says investors should judge him based on his track record in turning around the previously loss-making Destini Bhd and not on his political alignment when making their investment decision.
The president and group chief executive officer of Destini asserts that he has always remained focused on building up the business of the integrated engineering solutions provider and would not be distracted by the company’s recent share price performance.
“History shows that when I took over Destini at end-2010 and managed to turn around the company within a year, I had run it as a businessman and not as a politician,” Rozabil said.
“The result speaks for itself … I cannot control people’s perception. But I will make sure that the company will continue to be run professionally with adherence to corporate governance,” he said after the company’s AGM.
Rozabil, who is the Arau Umno division vice-chief, controls Destini, a company that is mainly in the business of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of planes and patrol vessels.
Destini is also in the oil and gas business where it undertakes decommissioning of oil wells.
Rozabil controls Destini with a 4.16% direct stake, and an indirect interest of 21.05% in the company.
He emerged in Destini in 2011 when it was known as Satang Holdings Bhd and categorised as a Practice Note 17 company. Satang also had corporate governance issues.
Since Rozabil took over the helm, Destini’s business has grown outside the Malaysian shores and it has been consistently profitable.
The second largest shareholder in Destini is Aroma Teraju Sdn Bhd, a Finance Ministry’s controlled entity, with a 17.3% stake.
After the recent 14th General Election (GE14) that saw a change in government to Pakatan Harapan, Destini’s shares had succumbed to heavy selling due to the view that it is one of the politically-linked stocks with heavy dependence on government
contracts.
Towards this end, Rozabil said Destini would continue to reduce its reliance on government jobs by actively seeking more private commercial contracts and expanding its reach geographically.
“Right now, our dependence on government contracts is high but since last year, we have been quite active in commercialisation.
“We are working towards having commercial contracts account for 60% and government contracts 40% of our revenue in the next three years,” he said.
In addition, Rozabil said he expected overseas jobs to contribute around 30% to 40% of the group’s revenue, driven by oil and gas and marine fabrication works in Singapore, in the next two to three years.
Besides Malaysia, Destini has operations in Myanmar, Singapore, China, Australia, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.
On the government’s open tender policy, Rozabil said he believed it would benefit Destini.
“It is better to have open tender; I believe we stand a better chance to secure contracts based on our financial strength and capabilities,” he explained.
“We have been building the company by investing in people, equipment and technology.”
The counter was down again yesterday, falling one sen to close at 21 sen. This represented a decline of 51.2% from its share price of 43 sen on May 8 before GE14. Year-to-date, Destini’s share price had fallen 59.6%.