13.05.2004

Favelle Favco may be floated

Muhibba Engineering, has confirmed that it is considering floating its Crane division, Favelle Favco Cranes Holdings Sdn Bht, on the Bursa Malaysia MESDAQ (Malaysian Exchange of Securities Dealing and Automated Quotation) market.

Muhibba were forced to make the announcement following a number of rumours, culminating in the publication of an article in the Malay Mail on April 19th. Under the Malaysian Stock exchange rules, when such an article is published the company concerned must confirm or denies the content of the article within 24 hours. If the company make a denial it must provide facts to clarify any misleading aspects that might have caused such an article to be published.

As a result of the request from the exchange, Muhibba issued the following statement:

“With the reference to the query from Malaysia Securities Exchange Berhad ("the Exchange") dated 19 April 2004 on the above article which appeared in the Mail Money section of the Malay Mail on 19 April 2004, the Board of Directors of Muhibbah Engineering (M) Bhd ("Muhibbah") wish to inform that Muhibbah is currently looking into the possibility of listing its subsidiary, Favelle Favco Cranes Holdings Sdn Bhd ("FFCH") on the MESDAQ market.

Should Muhibbah decide to proceed with the listing of FFCH, an announcement to that effect will be issued”.

Muhibba are principally a contracting company specialising in Marine construction, the company went public in June 1993, and expanded into cranes in 1995 with the purchase of the Australian tower crane producer, Favelle Favco which had been trading locally since 1962.

In 1996 Muhibba added the Danish heavy-duty tower crane producer Krøll, which had run into difficulties, Krøll had been a Linden tower crane dealer and licensee following its establishment by FB.Krøll in the mid 1950’s. It then progressed to building its own cranes and moved into specialized high capacity tower cranes of up to 25,000 tonne/Metres, often designated for Nuclear power plant applications.

In 1996 Muhibba also purchased the Manitex offshore crane division, In 1997 Favelle cranes USA inc was established into which Manitex was incorporated, the Manitex telescopic booms were added to a Caterpillar tracked excavator base under a joint development programme with Caterpillar industrial products.

Favelle Favco holdings posted revenues of RM195 (£29 million) in 2003 and are forecast a 10 percent increase for 2004.