Petronas Dagangan eyes Indonesia, Myanmar expansion

Petronas Dagangan Bhd , the retail arm of Malaysia’s state oil firm Petronas, aims to expand into Indonesia and Myanmar as it widens its presence in Southeast Asia, its managing director told Reuters. “We need to build new engines for growth,” Amir Hamzah Azizan said. The company plans to raise its retail presence in Malaysia by adding another 74 stations to its existing 970 and by expanding its lubricant business to carmakers and high-street dealers, but the Malaysian market could become saturated over the next four years, he said. The company is interested in potential acquisition targets in Myanmar and Indonesia because of their large population and strong economic growth potential. He said the company aims to increase the revenue contribution of its overseas operations to 8% from 2% over the next four years. The company announced this month it will buy six downstream companies belonging to Petronas in the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia in a deal worth 197.3 million ringgit (US$62 million). It generated revenues of 6.85 billion ringgit (US$2.1 billion) in the first quarter, up 7.4% year-on-year. Analysts expect the company to report a net profit of 1.1 billion ringgit (US$348.2 million) in 2012.