Hock Heng Stone Industries Bhd, en-route to list on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia on March 26, has secured a RM30 million contract to supply stone products for high-end PROPERTIES.

It said on Tuesday, March 9 it is also bidding for RM50 million worth of contracts. The company plans to expand into quarrying of dimension stones as it moves to integrate its operations.

The group recently obtain approval to extract granite from a quarry in Tangkak, Johor which is reported to have about 85,000 cubic metres of stone reserve with commercial potential.

It plans to start the quarrying after the listing. It will use RM2.1 million from the IPO proceeds to buy machinery and clear the land for the quarrying.

Hock Seng said an independent market research by Dun & Bradstreet showed the dimension stone industry in Malaysia is worth RM220.4 million in 2008 and of this, Hock Heng had a 22.5% market share.

Its IPO involves the public issue of 15.34 million new shares and sale of 14.25 million shares at 55 sen each. The listing exercise will raise RM8.43 million for the company and RM7.84 million for the vendors.

Of the RM8.43 million in proceeds, about RM2.12 million would be used for quarrying operations, RM4 million as working capital, RM1.53 million to defray listing expenses and RM788,000 to build a processing plant.