Malaysia Property: Tee Eng Ho (Founder) of KPGB

World Leading Developer Companies' Interview No.4

Dato Tee Eng Ho

Dato Tee Eng Ho, the founder of Kerjaya Prospek (M) Sdn Bhd (KPSB) received his early education in Malacca and continued his study in Tunku Abdul Rahman College and graduated with Certificate in Technology (Building) on 1988. He has more than 20 years of experience in the civil and building construction industry.

COMPANY PROFILE

Kerjaya Prospek (M) Sdn Bhd (KPMSB) was incorporated in July 1995 by Dato Tee Eng Ho and his brother, Mr. Tee Eng Seng and his wife, Datin Toh Siew Chuon. Formerly known as Fututech Berhad, KPMSB started from a small set-up business and consisted of few hundred thousand subcontract work in hand. Until today, KPMSB has undertaken numerous high profiles and premium high-rise construction projects in Malaysia with a valued client base such as Eco World Development Group Berhad, Eastern & Oriental Berhad, SP Setia Berhad, Yong Tai Group, BCB Group and Nusmetro Group.

In 2011, Datuk Tee expanded the construction business with the acquisition of a majority stake in a main board public listed company in the Bursa Malaysia; Fututech Berhad (now known as Kerjaya Prospek Group Berhad or KPGB), which was involved in the manufacturing of light fittings and kitchen cabinetry and interior fit-out works. KPMSB successfully has turned into a wholly-owned subsidiary of KPGB and transformed into a construction group. 

In 2015, as part of the vision and continuous growth for KPGB, Datuk Tee made a corporate quantum leap by embarking on a significant corporate exercise to enlarge the entity of KPGB for the next level of growth. Currently, KPGB overall the outstanding order book is RM2.7 billion and they had cover projects in Penang, Johor, KL and Melaka.

Today, this company has turned into a financially strong group and a well-known principal contractor among developers in building timely and high quality residential and commercial projects in Malaysia.

What is the policy of your company?

We are focusing on our company's target more and more, such as the growth of the company and the profit. Our target is to maintain strong order book amount every year. 

We would like to continue to expand our stable client foundation and provide valuable engineering to clients, in order to improve costing and efficiency lead to the growth of the Group.  

At Kerjaya Prospek, we keep a close eye on our supply chain and operational efficiency as they allow us to achieve better than average industry margin. In addition, we implement labor efficient strategies that reduce our reliance on a large number of labors.

What is the vision for your company?

Our vision is "To be trusted and preferred leader in providing products and services in the construction and property industry". As one of the growing companies, we believe that offering an integrated construction approach and services with a reasonable price and good quality is important to maintain our client foundation and obtain new clients. This is a clear example by our current clients who are major and reputable players in the property industry, such as Eastern & Oriental, Eco World, and SP Setia.

What aspect do you think is the most important to manage your company?

To talk about this, good quality of workmanship is the greatest aspect for an organization. A success as an organization really comes down to all the team members. Without good teamwork and comprehensive knowledge, this organization might not have been able to achieve this point today. Therefore, knowledge and positive thinking are critical for the growth of the company. Not only workmanship but also financial value brings importance to growing the sustainability. Instead of applying for a loan, we prefer to manage our finance wisely. We believe that a company cannot survive and grow well without a strong finance. We also believe completing projects on-time will build a good reputation amongst our customers.

What is your target for your company in 2017?

Speaking of our internal management objective, of course, we would like to make our revenue double. Since our turnover reached RM100 million in 2016, we are aiming for RM800 million in 2017, through the projects Sky 88 in Johor Bahru(SP Setia Group), Eco Sky – Jalan Ipoh Taman Wahyu (Eco World), The Tamarind Executive Apartments, Tanjung Penang (E&O Group) and few others. By the achievement of that, we would like to distribute high-quality construction services.

What is the latest project from your company?

Since we've got quite a lot of ongoing projects so it's hard to tell which one is the latest. The Eco Terrace is expected to be completed in December 2018, nevertheless, the first project, Vista Residences in Gohtong Jaya, initiated by the development department from KPGB, which is in the half way to Genting Highlands. In the sense of cost-efficiency and resources, we are now focusing on high-building projects.

What is the greatest project in your company?

Currently, The Tamarind Tower condominium in Penang is the greatest project that we have successfully secured at RM 421 million from E & O Property (Penang) Sdn Bhd. At the moment, it was the project that generated the highest value. Last year (2016), the Group managed to obtain new projects worth of RM1.5 billion, when the internal target is only RM600 million.

What kind of strength does your company have in proceeding projects?

KPGB has various advantages. For the most part is the sound management team under the executive chairman, financially sound and strong, sufficient resources in terms of skilled manpower and equipment support. We are specialized in high-rise buildings. These allow us to deliver our core competency such as quality, handling delivery and cost-efficient. We also have a firm specialized as a solution provider. We do research on every project and provide the best solutions. Kerjaya Prospek is an integrated construction company which offers end-to-end solutions to clients as well as cost effective, quality driven and delivered on a timely basis. In addition, Kerjaya Prospek is quite well recognized by all of the developers in this industry which has won their trust from their projects. 

Which one are you focusing on, local or foreign customers?

Currently, we are focusing on the local customers in the West Malaysia. However, we will be taking over the East Malaysia soon. For foreign customers, we will be planning about 2 years later, but we do welcome the proposals from foreign companies that we can work together. Recently We have obtained an opportunity to work with one of the largest reclamation groups in the world, China Communications Construction Company Group, for the land reclamation project in Penang (RM55 billion contract).

What is your message for foreign construction companies?

We have a remarkable order book of RM2.7 billion which is 3 times more of our full year revenue. This will enable us to sustain for another 3 years even if we do not win any additional contracts. Besides, our properties are also available to your market.

We believe that it is now very effective to put investment in Malaysia for foreign companies because foreign companies have strong finance foundation. By our strong financial, skilled manpower and many resources, we are one of the strongest construction companies in Malaysia and we know the Malaysian market very well.