KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 5): Shares of Ibraco Bhd surged by as much as 20% to a high of RM1.11 in Friday morning trade after the group announced to partnered with two units of China Railway Group to form a joint venture company to undertake infrastructure works for the Kuching Urban Transportation System (KUTS).

At the time of writing, the stock pared some gains to RM1.07, still up 15 sen or 15.68%, and valuing the group at RM580.91 million, making it one of the top gainers on Bursa in early trade.

The traded volume stood at 4.13 million shares, surpassing its 200-day average volume of 390,543 by over 11 times.

On Thursday, Ibraco announced that its wholly-owned unit Ibraco Construction Sdn Bhd (ICSP), has partnered with two units of China Railway Group Ltd, China Railway Engineering Corporation (M) Sdn Bhd (CRECM) and Nanyang Tunnel Engineering Sdn Bhd to incorporate Ibraco CREC JV Sdn Bhd (ICJVSB), a joint venture company.

Ibraco said that the incorporation of the JV is specifically for the construction and completion of infrastructure works for Blue Line-Package 1 from Rembus to Stutong for the KUTS project.

The JV company has an initial paid-up capital of RM2 million, consisting of two million shares. ICSP holds a 51% stake, CRECM owns 39%, and Nanyang possesses 10%.

For the cumulative nine months ending Sept 30, 2023, Ibraco's net profit more than doubled to RM36.14 million from RM16.38 million. Concurrently, revenue climbed by 51.1%, reaching RM286.45 million from RM189.58 million the previous year.

As at the end of September 2023, the group had RM276.86 million in unbilled sales and an outstanding order book of RM1.47 billion.

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Ibraco forms joint venture with China Railway units for Kuching rapid transit project