BERJAYA Corp Bhd founder Tan Sri Vincent Tan remains cautiously optimistic about the economy and plans to expand the group by looking at areas that do not need massive capital investment.
Tan, the country’s 20th richest man with a net worth of US$820 million (RM3.5 billion) as at January 3 based on Forbes ranking, said the group would not downsize its operations although the market landscape was fraught with uncertainties.
The 65-year-old, who owns three football clubs (Cardiff City Football Club, Sarajevo Football Club and Belgium’s Kortrijk Voetbalt VBA) and co-owns the Los Angeles Football Club, is planning to bring in partners from overseas for some of the group’s businesses by way of partnership or collaboration.
“We are consolidating the group’s operations in Malaysia and overseas. Times are difficult now but they are not bad. Malaysia is still doing very well. The government is doing a lot to pump prime the economy and create opportunities for more employment. This is good for Malaysia.
“I think the private sector and the government should continue to work together. That would be the right thing to do in order to overcome current challenges,” Tan told NST Business at a dinner attended by Da Ai TV Taiwan and Taiwan Buddhist Tzu-Chi Foundation Malaysia, here, recently.
Tan said Berjaya Corp’s focus was to do better year-on-year despite market challenges.
Berjaya Corp returned to the black in the financial year ended April 30, recording a pre-tax profit of RM626.17 million versus RM293.74 million in the same period last year.
Revenue increased by 1.3 per cent to RM9.14 billion from RM9.02 billion a year ago.
The major contributor to the pre-tax profit was the property investment and development segment, with higher sales mainly from property projects in China and Japan. Other contributors were the hotels, resorts and recreation, and food and beverage segments.
Berjaya Corp is also involved in gaming and lottery management, financial services, motor trading and distribution, education, consumer market and clean technology.
Tan said to achieve better performance, Berjaya Corp planned to carry out acquisitions and sell some of its assets to bring in capital for expansion.
“Although we do acquire new businesses, we also dispose of assets if the price is reasonable.”