IJM Corporation

The result of a merger between three medium-sized local construction companies – IGB Construction Sdn Bhd, Jurutama Sdn Bhd and Mudajaya Sdn Bhd, IJM was formed in 1983 to compete more effectively against bigger foreign rivals. The Company began to quickly establish itself as a professionally managed construction group and rapidly gained market acceptance. Over the years, the Company progressively built on its delivery capabilities, competitive prowess and financial capacity to strengthen its footing as a reputable local contractor.

In April 2007, IJM acquired the Road Builder Group ("RBH"), its nearest competitor, to augment its position as one of the country's biggest builders. In addition to bolstering its construction order book, property land bank and infrastructure portfolio, the enlarged Group enabled IJM to attain considerable synergistic benefits, greater local prominence as well as attain a more sizeable balance sheet to bid for larger jobs and facilitate its expansion into overseas markets.

IJM's undertaking as a property developer began as a natural progression from its experience in the construction business. The Group's property arm has since grown considerably. IJM Land Berhad is one of the largest property developers in Malaysia with sprawling townships, commercial buildings and high-rise condominiums under development in key growth areas throughout the country. Besides establishing itself as a reputable township developer in India, IJM has also successfully undertaken ventures overseas in the past such as in Orlando USA, Singapore and Australia.

Initially supporting in-house needs, the Group's Industry Division quickly grew its operations into scale-able core activities focused on catering to demand from outside the Group. IJM continued to expand on its operations in this division with strategic acquisitions such as the takeover of Industrial Concrete Products Berhad in 2004 and successful market diversifications into China, India and Pakistan.

Leveraging on its construction expertise, the Group also owns and operates infrastructure concessions to create long-term recurrent income streams. Initial advancements into concession assets in Malaysia, however, proved elusive and, thus, an international focus was adopted. IJM's involvement in overseas infrastructure privatisation (Build-Operate-Transfer) schemes met with considerable success. Amongst the Group's present investments in major overseas infrastructure projects are the Western Access Tollway in Argentina, five tolled highways and the Gautami power plant in India, and the Binh An water treatment concession in Vietnam. In Malaysia, the Group owns and operates three highways and port concessions from the RBH merger. The Group had previously invested in and profitably sold several infrastructure assets in China.

The Group also ventured into oil palm plantations in 1985 as a source of steady income to cushion the cyclical nature of its core construction business. This investment has since paid off handsomely. Now listed on the Main Market of Bursa Securities, IJM Plantations Berhad has contributed significantly to the Group's earnings over the years and has also accorded the Group better resilience to weather macro-economic and input costs volatilities. It is currently expanding its plantation operations into Indonesia.

When IJM went public in 1986, it had a market capitalisation of RM66 million and total assets of RM172 million. The Group's market capitalisation stood at RM9.83 billion as of 30 June 2014 and total assets stood at RM18.4 billion as of 31 March 2014.[6]

I → IGB Construction Sdn Bhd was incorporated in 1981

J → Jurutama Sdn Bhd was incorporated in 1970 as Soon Tat Construction Sdn Bhd

M → Mudajaya Construction Sdn Bhd was incorporated in 1965 as Chye Hin Construction Co Ltd. In 1997, the name was changed to Mudajaya Corporation Berhad (a construction company of Mudajaya Group Berhad)

The founders of Jurutama and Mudajaya were professionals serving as senior government officials. Despite holding secure positions, their determination to search for that legendary 'pot of gold at the end of the rainbow' led them to break new grounds at a time when hardly any qualified engineer dared venture out as contractor.

With them at the helm, they steered Jurutama and Mudajaya through the high risk contracting business. With their perseverance and diligence to give their best, they brought new changes and professionalism to the entire Malaysian construction industry. And, by the end of the '70s, Jurutama and Mudajaya have emerged as two of the largest companies in Malaysia. Tough times set in at the turn of the decade when the influx of large and well-capitalised foreign contractors, who had with them surplus capacity and concessionary government loans, severely affected the competitiveness of local construction companies. Local contractors were slowly being relegated to being subcontractors or minority joint venture partners.

Jurutama and Mudajaya were not spared. Their founders saw the obvious. Local companies have got to either merge, go public or come under the umbrella of larger public companies if they are to survive the challenges posed by these foreign contractors. A meeting of former Technical College mates brought the answer. IGB Corporation Bhd, a public listed property company which then owned a small building construction subsidiary, saw the synergies that a combination of IGB Construction, Jurutama and Mudajaya could bring to the Group. In 1982, in a friendly takeover, IGB Corporation Bhd acquired all the shares in Jurutama and Mudajaya. Following this acquisition, Solidstate Sdn Bhd was incorporated (1983) and, in 1984, the name was changed to IJM Engineering and Construction Sdn Bhd. IGB then transferred all its equity interests in Jurutama and Mudajaya together with that of IGB Construction in exchange for shares in this newly incorporated company. IJM had thus become IGB's holding company for its construction interests. In 1986, IJM turned public. An application made for its shares to be listed on the Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad was subsequently obtained in September 1986.

To better reflect the Group's diversified nature of activities, the present logo and a new name, IJM Corporation Berhad, was adopted in 1989.[7]

• IJM Corporation Berhad Official site
• IJM Land – Malaysia Property Developer