Frontken Berhad Annual Report 2017

8 Frontken Corporation Berhad (651020-T) ANNUAL REPORT 2017 Chairman’s Message MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS From start to finish / Deliver innovative and endless possibilities Established in 1996, the Group began as Frontken (Singapore) Pte Ltd, with a staff force of 12 and a rented factory space of 1600 square meters. From then, the Group expanded to what it is today with a total work force of 1100 throughout our facilities in the Asia Pacific region with its headquarter in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. To date, the Group’s operating model consist of two core businesses; namely to provide technical expertise and maintenance support to the semiconductor and the engineering industries with the support of our 15 facilities within the Asia Pacific region. The Group’s customers consist of key players in the semiconductor, optoelectronic, oil and gas, power generation, petrochemical, and marine industries in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan. Over the years, the Group, together with its associates had established a significant presence in the industries it covers. Review 2017 2017 was another challenging year for us; marked by global and domestic economic headwinds where markets were volatile, exacerbated by geopolitical uncertainties, unprecedented policy changes, demographic threats, and rapid technology transformation. Against this backdrop, the Group managed to weather through and made good progress on our strategy in delivering stronger operating performance by leveraging on our scale and capability. The Group’s significant investment over the past years in technology and process redesign is now not only delivering better cost efficiency but also poised to markedly improve Dear valued shareholders, Welcome Note The year 2017 had been an exciting and fruitful one where we hit a new milestone with results that demonstrate both the strength and true potential of the Group. It was a year of continued transformation towards higher performance at Frontken. We achieved commendable revenue growth followed by one of our best ever results. Our series of strategies to cultivate the foundations of nurturing and anchoring our human capital has resulted in the growth of the Group in every area. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am pleased to present to you the Annual Report and Audited Financial Statements of the Group and its subsidiaries for the financial year ended 31 December 2017 (“FYE2017”). As part of this Annual Report, we include the following Management Discussion and Analysis to provide our shareholders with both insightful and informative details of the Group’s performance and business operations.