EEI posts record income of P506 million in 2008

MANILA, Philippines - Construction giant EEI Corp. posted a record net income of P506 million in 2008, a 44.57- percent increase from the P350- million profit posted in 2007, on the back of increased construction activities overseas.

In a financial report filed with securities regulators, EEI, a member of the Yuchengco Group of Companies, also declared a cash dividend of 10 centavos per share to common stockholders of record dates April 7, June 4, Sept. 4 and Dec. 2, 2009.

The construction firm also reported that its operating unit in Saudi Arabia, Al Rushaid Construction Co., recently bagged a contract with JGC Corp. for the construction of a facility for the Saudi Polymers Co. The contract is worth $192 million.

For the first nine months of 2008, EEI reported a 76-percent jump in its net profit to P363 million from P207 million in the same period in 2007.

EEI said more than half of its total workforce of 18,000 people are deployed overseas. About 1,400 are in the Goro nickel mining project in New Caledonia and around 8,000 are in various projects of Al Rushaid Construction Co. in Saudi Arabia.

In 2008, Al Rushaid Construction Corp. secured contracts with Saudi Aramco for the flare tips projects, the new Shuqaig power and desalination plant of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and another MHI project for the replacement of boiler tubes in the Qurrayah power plant.

The company also bagged a $12- million project in Qatar which involves pipe erection works on the inlet facilities of the project.

EEI has clinched huge contracts in the local market, including the P2.84-billion joint venture project with Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Ltd. for the construction of berth 6 of the Manila International Container Terminal of port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc.

To cope with an increasingly harsh economic environment, EEI continues to exercise financial prudence and implement cost-management and productivity improvement programs.