KUALA LUMPUR: Sapura Energy Bhd will be able to meet the deadline of its debt restructuring, building on the optimism of its business regularisation, also known as the Reset Plan, group chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Anuar Taib said.
Anuar said with the company in the process of refinancing its RM10.3 billion debt, it was in the interest of everybody across the board in working towards resolving the issue.
"Carrying RM10.3 billion debt is not sustainable. It's all about building a sustainable Sapura Energy that can continue to do business which would be beneficial for everybody - the banks, our shareholders, our vendors and our clients.
"This is why we need to restructure our debt to move forward, so that we have enough cash to pay our vendors because it is important for us to pay the vendors. In my mind, a healthy sustainable Sapura Energy, even if it is smaller, is a much better than a liquidated Sapura Energy. We have brought in RM15 billion worth of work into Malaysia since 2010."*
"As of today, we continue to have work committed for this year and the year after so there is a value to it.
"And we know there is a March 10 deadline next year to resolve the scheme of arrangement (SOA). We will meet the deadline. All parties are working towards it," he told the New Straits Times in an nterview on Monday.
The company, together with 22 of its wholly-owned subsidiaries, had secured a nine-month extension on the restraining order against its creditors by the High Court to restructure its debts under a scheme of arrangement.
Under the court's order, each subsidiary will convene meetings with its creditors to consider the SOA proposed by the company.
The extension will expire on March 10, 2023.
Anuar said Sapura Energy was bidding for RM22.8 billion of contracts and was sitting on an RM8.3 billion orderbook - the highest level since the Covid-19 global slowdown.
He said the company was now more focused and was only bidding for contracts that were meaningful.
"We are bidding for engineering and construction (E&C) projects in the Asia Pacific (APAC) and Atlantic, and drilling projects in APAC and West Africa," he said.
Anuar said the company had been plagued with loss-making legacy contracts in the past.
"We have managed to renegotiate some of these (legacy) contracts and the target is to lessen our exposure to 30 per cent by the end of the financial year 2023 from 80-90 per cent last year," he said.
Sapura Energy returned to the black in the first quarter ended April 30, 2022, with a net profit of RM91.93 million from a net loss of RM97.07 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Its revenue dropped 39.7 per cent to RM886.08 million from RM1.47 billion.