Soilbuild Construction Group, another listed contractor, topped them all with its June contract of $647.5 million to build facilities at the Tuas Port. Coupled with a slew of other contracts subsequently, its order book is now some $1.23 billion.
When OKH Global announced it wanted to acquire the construction business of privately held Acrophyte (formerly known as Chip Eng Seng Corp) from its own controlling shareholders, it disclosed that the target’s construction order book as at June 30 was “in excess of $2 billion — a big jump from the last disclosed order book of $1.36 billion as of end 2021. If not for this deal involving the listed OKH Global, the investment community wouldn’t have noticed how the former Chip Eng Seng, despite being taken private and having diversified into hospitality, education and other industries, has gone from strength to strength in its construction business.
Industry insiders, of course, would not be surprised. Several other listed building contractors have reported healthy growth in their order books in the past year. Koh Brothers Eco Engineering (SGX:5HV
) announced a new government contract on November 19, and another major deal worth $313.9 million on Dec 25, bringing its total order book to $899.7 million; OKP Holdings (SGX:5CF) , after securing a whole series of road and pavement improvement works, had an order book of $706.9 million as at June 30 — a record high.
