PETALING JAYA: Gamuda Bhd’s recent RM6.5bil win of its largest overseas rail tunnelling job in Sydney has tripled its order book to RM10.4bil.

       Over the next 1？ to two years, Gamuda wants to double that to RM20bil as it focuses on Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and the MRT 3 project since tender visibility and construction recovery horizon have improved significantly.

       In a note, CGS-CIMB Research said Australia has now emerged as a more lucrative overseas growth market compared to Singapore and Taiwan for Gamuda.

       This is so since there is a A$15bil (RM45bil) addressable tender pipeline with a targeted A$5bil to A$6bil (RM15bil to RM18bil) potential win or about 30% success rate.

       It said longer-term prospects in Australia are backed by a A$100bil (RM304bil) infrastructure upgrade masterplan over the next 10 years.

       TA Research said it was positive about the job win. It views this as a geographical diversification move by Gamuda to mitigate the concentration risk of being overly dependent on local construction projects, given that the local sector remains relatively weak.

       It said the partnership with Laing O’Rourke will help to reduce the project execution risk for Gamuda as the group is still relatively new in Australia.

       Assuming a pre-tax margin of 8%, the brokerage expects the project to contribute a net profit of RM395.2mil or 15.7 sen per share throughout the construction period.

       Gamuda was awarded the Sydney Metro West–Western Tunnelling Package Project for a contract sum of A$2.16bil (RM6.5bil) by the New South Wales Government via Gamuda Australia and the Laing O’Rourke Consortium.

       Gamuda is the head contractor of the consortium while the latter acts as a delivery partner, providing project management services for an agreed fee.

       MIDF Research is optimistic about the latest contract win, which is expected to deliver positive results until the first half of Gamuda’s FY26.