KUALA LUMPUR: Timber and wood-based products company Maxland Bhd's plan to set up a data centre business at Kulim High-Tech Park fell flat with investors.
The company's stock was unchanged at 7.5 sen a share, with about 125,000 shares changing hands.
Year-to-date the stock has fallen 46 per cent.
On Thursday, Maxland's unit entered into a memorandum of understanding with data centre owner and operator Global Data Centre Sdn Bhd (GDC) to become a data centre service provider.
GDC, which is part of the Global Telecom Group with its main business activities in digital infrastructure services, will be the technical provider and sourcing off-taker.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd, the company said the strategic partnership with GDC will help the group develop its proposed data centre business in Kulim High-Tech Park.
Maxland Data has leased a 1.8 hectare land for a 60-year term from Kulim Technology Park Technology Sdn Bhd for the purpose of establishing a data centre in Kulim High-Tech Park.
It is paying almost RM10 million for the lease.
"Presently, most of the new data centre developments in Malaysia are concentrated in Selangor and Johor, and only a handful are in the Northern Region. Only one data centre is operating in Kedah and another is planned in Delapan, Kedah." "The northern region would be where data centre investors look to when Selangor and Johor data centres development reach a concentration," it said.
Maxland said with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ever-increasing content and storage consumption, along with favourable government policies, tax incentives and support the data centres business looks promising and will bring good returns.
The company posted a net profit of RM1.5 million for the first quarter ended September 30, 2024, compared with a RM6.1 million net loss a year ago.