By V. Sankara Subramaniam
PETALING JAYA, Sept 22 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Lotus Group will focus on four new sectors in the next five to 10 years, namely construction, aged-care services, hospitality and agriculture, as part of its new growth phase, said chief financial officer Karthiik Doraisingam.
He said the group behind the iconic chain of Indian restaurants, cinemas and movie distribution had already started investing substantial resources in terms of money, human capital and equipment to venture into these sectors in the last two to three years, and was fortunate to be recognised by clients for quality work and service delivery.
“Our construction business has successfully secured some of the civil work packages for the Mass Rapid Transit Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya (MRT2) projects in the Klang Valley and the East Coast Rehabilitation Project – Package C in Kelantan from the respective main contractor.
“Currently, work is in progress for both projects,” he told Bernama in an interview at his office in Wisma Lotus here recently.
Karthiik is now charting a new chapter for Lotus Group together with his father, Tan Sri Datuk R. Doraisingam Pillai, who is the group’s founder and chief executive officer.
He said the group intended to position itself as the nation’s leading aged-care service provider in the next three to five years.
It established the Lotus Care Premier Assisted Living in Petaling Jaya, which was the country’s first custom-designed and dedicated four-storey aged-care facility, in July 2019.
He disclosed that in the near future, the group planned to roll out four more Lotus Care aged-care facilities in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Malacca, and Johor, where the parcels of land had already been acquired.
As for the agriculture sector, Karthiik highlighted that the group had secured two estates of over 7,000 acres (2,832.8 hectares) in Perak and Negeri Sembilan that were being cultivated for the commercial production of palm oil, fruits and vegetables.
He said the group had also been planning for an expansion of its hospitality portfolio and was looking at two or three suitable locations within the country.
Commenting on how Lotus Group sustained its businesses in the wake of the COVID-19, he said the group undertook several operational measures to cushion the impact of the pandemic, including digitalising business operations to ensure operational continuity and ensuring the financial sustainability of the business by streamlining and reducing operating costs.
On the group’s expansion plans in India, Karthiik said for now, it would adopt the wait-and-see approach since India was one of the countries badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Nevertheless, if any good opportunity presents itself, Lotus Group will be receptive to evaluating the investment opportunity,” he said.
— NNN-BERNAMA