Muhibbah Engineering, which is building a long-delayed RM1.4 billion ($459.2 million) petroleum hub in southern Johor, said on Friday a new investor has agreed to finance the project.

The Singapore Business Times reported this week that project financier CIMB had put the privately-held Asian Petroleum Hub (APH) under receivership after costs escalated and the firm was seeking an extra RM2 billion.

"As the said investor is due to finalise its financing transaction with APH, there are reasonable grounds to hold that the receivables are recoverable in due course," Muhibbah told the stock exchange today.

Muhibbah, which was hired to help construct the facility, said it was owed RM370.8 million as of end-2010.

Shares in Muhibbah tumbled 20 percent on Thursday after the report. They were up 7.2 percent at RM1.63 by 0347 GMT on Friday.

CIMB and APH, which is led by a consortium of firms including KIC Oil and Gas, could not be immediately reached for comment.

The project, well past its 2009 completion date, was set to become an integrated terminal with storage capacity of 924,000

cubic metres, a large transhipment facility and multiple jetties.

But problems with land reclamation and other delays have pushed the completion date to the third quarter of this year, a

senior KIC official was earlier quoted as saying by local media.

- Reuters