ENGINEERING products trader UMS Holdings Bhd has put Indonesia as one of the top foreign markets that it will be exploring to widen its income source.

About 90 per cent of the Bursa Malaysia Bhd’s second board company’s business, which involves the supply of industrial components like conveyor chains, industrial belts and bearings, now comes from the domestic market.

The nine months to June 30 2005 saw a 10 per cent drop in the company’s net profit to RM2.7 million from RM3 million a year ago.

Revenue, meanwhile, increased 6 per cent to RM42 million from RM39.6 million.

“We are exploring the possibility of establishing an associate entity with a local partner in Indonesia and grow from there step by step. We are targeting palm oil and mining players there.

“Our operations in Singapore will serve as a springboard for our regional expansion which may include Vietnam as well. This is because goods can enter Singapore duty-free,” UMS managing director Billy Ng Seng Kong told Business Times in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

UMS had told Bursa Malaysia last January that the company had entered into a sale and purchase agreement to acquire the entire stake in UMS Engineering (S) Pte Ltd for S$105,000 (S$1 = RM2.23).

UMS sources its goods from a number of international suppliers in Japan, Europe, and the US apart from Malaysia.

The Kuala Lumpur-based company’s buyers include construction, semiconductor and agricultural players.

Construction and agricultural-based customers account for about 30 per cent of turnover respectively, while the balance is derived from the dealer and consumer markets.

Ng expects net profit for the year ending September 30 2005 to hover around its fiscal 2004 figures while revenue growth is anticipated to reflect the increase registered in the recently-ended third quarter to June 30 2005.

He said the projection also takes into account expenditure incurred for the purchase of properties in Singapore for the its operations there.