CIDB SCORE and Bond Capacity in Malaysia: The 6 Financial Ratios You Are Scored On

This one applies if you hold a CIDB contractor registration and you have ever been told your SCORE stars are holding you back. SCORE covers G2 to G7; G1 has its own scheme, MCORE, and it is covered below.

CIDB scores your company on 6 named financial ratios, and it has never published what a good number looks like for any of them.

Which means most of what you'll read about "getting to 3 stars" is guesswork sold by people who want to do your registration for you. Below is what CIDB actually publishes, what it does not, and how the same 6 ratios reappear when you go looking for a performance bond.

Who this actually applies to

SCORE is not a general contractor rating that everybody carries. It bites at specific points, and knowing which one you're at changes what you need to do.

Your situation	What is required	Source
Renewing or re-registering a G7 PPK	A valid SCORE certificate. No minimum star rating is stated	CIDB pemakluman, PPK G1 dan G7
Renewing or re-registering a G1 PPK	A valid MCORE certificate, with no minimum level stated	Same announcement
Applying for a new SPKK at G5, G6 or G7	A valid SCORE certificate of at least 3 stars. G7 also needs valid ISO 9001 certification	Syarat Pendaftaran SPKK, CIDB
Renewing an SPKK at G7	A valid SCORE certificate. No minimum star rating is stated for renewal	Syarat Pendaftaran SPKK, CIDB
Applying for a new SPKK at G2, G3 or G4	A valid SCORE certificate of at least 2 stars	Same document

Read the first two rows against the third and fourth, because they're routinely confused.

The star minimums sit on new SPKK registration. The G7 PPK renewal clause asks only for a valid certificate and doesn't restate a star floor. So a G7 with 2 stars and a live SPKK is in a different position from a G7 applying for SPKK for the first time.

The G1 MCORE and G7 SCORE conditions on PPK renewal took effect on 1 April 2020, and CIDB states plainly that failing them means a G1 or G7 renewal or re-registration application cannot proceed.

The SPKK star conditions sit in a separate document, which states no effective date.

How the assessment actually runs

SCORE's full name is the Program Penilaian Keupayaan & Kemampuan Kontraktor. You apply through CIMS and are assessed across 7 parameters.

One thing to know before you start. CIDB publishes no document checklist for the assessment, so you cannot prepare against a list.

CIDB then reserves the right to check. Its guideline says the Board may inspect your premises or your site, or call your company in for a compliance review session, to prove the truth of the information you gave.

And the penalty for overstating is real. The guideline sets out a warning letter with a 3 month suspension, or cancellation of the certificate with a 1 year suspension. There's also a bar on reapplying within one year of a previous decision letter.

So the score you get is only as strong as what you can substantiate when CIDB turns up. Treat what you submit as something you'll have to defend, not a form to game.

The 7 parameters, and where money sits

Each parameter carries 30 marks, for a total of 210. Financial capability is one of them.

Parameter	Marks
Prestasi Perniagaan	30
Keupayaan Kewangan	30
Keupayaan Teknikal	30
Pengurusan Projek	30
Pengurusan Perolehan	30
Amalan Terbaik	30
Keupayaan Pengurusan	30

Financial capability is therefore 30 marks of 210, around 14% of the assessment. That's worth holding onto, because it cuts both ways.

Below 4 stars, a contractor with weak ratios can still hold a rating on the strength of the other 6 parameters. From 4 stars up the per parameter floor changes that completely: one weak parameter caps you whatever your total is.

So fixing the balance sheet is rarely a star strategy on its own, and is exactly the thing that unlocks 4 stars if the financial parameter is what is holding you below the floor.

How stars are awarded

Two numbers decide it. CIDB uses PPMK, your overall percentage score, and MSP, your marks in each individual parameter.

Overall score (PPMK)	Stars	Additional condition
0 to 10%	None	n/a
11 to 30%	1	n/a
31 to 50%	2	n/a
51 to 70%	3	n/a
71 to 84%	4	Minimum 10 marks in every parameter
85 to 100%	5	Minimum 15 marks in every parameter

Note where the per parameter floor appears. Below 4 stars there isn't one, so a lopsided company can reach 3 stars on a few strong parameters. From 4 stars up, one weak parameter caps you regardless of your total.

Application costs RM50, and an appeal costs RM300, per the CIDB SCORE guideline.

The 6 financial ratios

CIDB measures Keupayaan Kewangan on 6 named ratios. It prints them in English inside a Malay guideline, and this is the exact list.

Ratio, as CIDB names it	What it measures, in plain terms	Why a contractor's number looks bad without the business being in trouble
Current Ratio	Whether short term assets cover short term debts	Retention held by employers sits as a receivable you cannot touch, while subcontractor and supplier bills sit as current liabilities. A busy year makes this look worse, not better
Gearing Ratio	How much of the business is funded by borrowing rather than by shareholders	Plant and machinery bought on hire purchase loads the debt side. So does a bank line drawn to fund mobilisation on a contract you have already won
Gross Profit Margin	What is left after direct project costs, before overheads	A single loss making contract carried through a year end drags the whole figure. So does a job where variations were done but not yet certified
Return On Investment	What the business earns against what has been put into it	A year in which you bought equipment or raised paid up capital to hit a grade requirement depresses this for reasons that have nothing to do with performance
Net Profit Margin	What is left after everything, including overheads and finance costs	Directors' remuneration decisions taken for tax reasons land here and can make a healthy company look marginal
Return On Equity	What the shareholders earn on their own money in the business	Retaining profit inside the company, which is exactly what a surety wants to see, mathematically pushes this down

The guideline says these values are drawn from the audit report, and gives separate extraction formulas for Sdn Bhd and Berhad companies as against sole proprietorships and partnerships.

The 4 things CIDB has never published

Here's the part that separates this page from the rest of the search results.

CIDB publishes the ratios, the parameters, the marks, the star bands, and the certificate's 2 year validity period in its SCORE user manual. It does not publish any of the following, and every website that gives you a number for them is filling a gap CIDB left.

What people claim to know	What CIDB actually publishes
Target values for the ratios, such as a current ratio above a given figure	Nothing. No scoring bands, no benchmarks, no thresholds for any of the 6 ratios
How the 30 financial marks split across the 6 ratios	Nothing. Only the extraction formulas. A 5 marks each split is an assumption, not a published rule
A document checklist for the assessment	None. CIDB has not published one
How recent the accounts have to be	The guideline refers to the audit report and the most recent year, and never defines whether that means most recent audited, most recent filed, or most recent available

The honest answer to "what do I need to hit to get 3 stars" is that CIDB has not said. Anyone who tells you otherwise is quoting a number they cannot source.

That absence also answers the question everybody asks next. If you improve your ratios today, how fast does it show?

The assessment reads audit reports, and an audit report only exists once a financial year has closed and been signed off. So a balance sheet change made this month cannot be evidenced until then, however real it is.

Plan the fix around a year end, not around a tender deadline.

The same ratios, a different decision

When you apply for a performance bond, the provider runs its own assessment. That assessment belongs to the insurer, it is not scored in stars, and it reaches a different kind of conclusion: not how capable you are, but whether it will stand behind you if you fail.

The overlap is real though. Liquidity, gearing and retained profit are the things both look at, which is why a contractor with a weak SCORE financial parameter usually finds bond conversations harder too.

What a bond provider asks for on top is work in hand, the specific contract's terms, your track record on similar scope, and whatever security or indemnity the structure requires.

Bank guarantee or insurance backed bond, on mechanics

The two instruments do the same job for the employer and behave very differently for you.

Mechanic	Bank guarantee	Bond issued by a licensed insurer or takaful operator
Who is regulated, and by whom	A licensed bank, supervised by Bank Negara Malaysia	A licensed insurer under the Financial Services Act 2013, or a licensed takaful operator under the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013, in each case supervised by Bank Negara Malaysia
Effect on your bank facilities	A regulated credit exposure of the bank on you. Under Bank Negara's Capital Adequacy Framework, performance bonds and bid bonds are treated as transaction related contingent items and carried at a 50% credit conversion factor, while general guarantees of indebtedness are carried at 100%. It carries a regulatory capital cost for the bank	Assessed by the insurer against its own criteria. Discuss the effect on your banking lines with your own bank rather than assuming a position
Security typically taken	Commonly a fixed deposit placed under lien, or security within an existing facility. Facilities are typically subject to periodic review	Varies by insurer and by risk. Typically an indemnity from the company and often from its directors, subject to insurer acceptance
What happens on a call	Where the instrument is unconditional, a conforming written demand typically triggers payment independently of any dispute under the contract, subject to the terms of the instrument	The same distinction applies. Read whether your instrument is on demand or conditional before you sign it, not after it is called

The point most contractors miss is the second row. A bank guarantee is a live credit exposure carrying a regulatory capital cost, which is why banks treat it as a facility decision and not a formality.

On calls, the practical rule is the same either way. The protection you want lives in the wording of the instrument, not in the argument you plan to make afterwards, so read whether yours is on demand or conditional before you sign it.

You can check that any issuer you're offered is licensed, using Bank Negara Malaysia's public directory of financial service providers.

What actually sets your bond capacity

Contractors often assume a CIDB grade carries a bond capacity with it, the way it carries a tender limit. It doesn't.

Your registration grade tells an employer what value of work you may tender for. It says nothing about how much exposure a surety is willing to take on your behalf, and the two numbers are set by different people for different reasons.

A bond provider works from your financial position, your work in hand, your record on similar scope, the terms of the specific contract, and the security or indemnity it asks for in return. Capacity is a view of your business, and it moves as those things move.

So a G7 with thin retained profit and a full order book can find its capacity tighter than a G5 with less work and stronger accounts. Grade and capacity are correlated, because both track scale. They are not the same measurement.

And CAR limits are a third thing again

The sum insured under a Contractor's All Risks policy is normally driven by the contract value and the property at risk on that particular project, not by your CIDB grade and not by your bond capacity.

Confusing the three is a common and expensive mistake at tender stage. Your grade governs eligibility, your bond capacity governs whether you can give the security the contract demands, and the CAR sum insured governs whether the works are properly covered if something happens on site. Cover is subject to insurer acceptance and to policy terms and conditions.

Where contractors get this wrong

Mistake	Consequence	What to do instead
Treating SCORE and CCD points as one scheme	Renewal fails on the gate you were not tracking. They are independent, and CCD points do not offset SCORE marks	Track both. See our CIDB CCD points guide for the points side
Assuming the SPKK star minimums apply to PPK renewal	Money and effort spent chasing stars you may not need for the gate in front of you	Identify which gate you are at first, using the table at the top of this page
Overstating what you submit	A warning letter and suspension, or certificate cancellation and a longer suspension, if a CIDB compliance review finds the claim unsupported	Claim only what you can produce a document for on the day CIDB asks
Leaving the financial fix until the tender is live	The improvement is not in a signed audit report yet, so it cannot be evidenced	Work backwards from a financial year end, allowing for audit and lodgement time
Fixing the balance sheet and nothing else	On its own it rarely explains a star gap, unless you are below the per parameter floor at 4 or 5 stars, where a weak parameter caps you outright	Look at where you are losing marks across all 7 parameters before spending money on any of them

When the answer isn't a bond at all

Sometimes the instrument isn't the problem.

If the contract permits it, a cash retention arrangement or a shorter bond period can be negotiated instead of a larger instrument. If your bank line is the constraint rather than the underwriting, the conversation to have first is with your bank about the facility, not with a bond provider about the risk.

And if the tender requires an instrument your accounts genuinely can't support this year, the honest move is to bid work your balance sheet can carry, and fix the ratios for next year's set of accounts.

FAQ

What score do I need for 3 stars?

An overall score of 51 to 70% gives 3 stars. There's no per parameter minimum at that band, so a company that's strong in some areas and weak in others can still reach it.

How much does a SCORE assessment cost?

The application fee is RM50 and an appeal is RM300. Those are CIDB's own published figures; confirm the current rates with CIDB before you budget, since fees are periodically revised.

What's the difference between SCORE and MCORE?

MCORE applies to G1 contractors and assesses 4 parameters: financial capability, technical capability, business capability and business management. It is graded in levels rather than stars. SCORE covers the wider grades across 7 parameters, and the application fee is the same.

Does a better SCORE get me a better bond?

Not directly. A bond provider runs its own assessment and doesn't score in stars.

The overlap is that liquidity, gearing and retained profit matter to both, so work that genuinely improves those tends to help in both conversations. Our guide to what bond underwriters check covers the rest.

How long is a SCORE certificate valid?

Two years. CIDB's own SCORE user manual states at section 2.18 that the certificate is valid for two years.

The SCORE guideline itself does not restate this, and the SPKK conditions simply require a certificate that is still valid, so check the expiry printed on your own certificate.

Can I improve my ratios before the assessment?

You can improve the business, but the assessment reads audit reports. So a change made now generally can't be evidenced until a financial year has closed and the accounts have been signed. Time it against your year end.

Do I need SCORE if I only do private sector work?

You need a valid SCORE certificate to renew or re-register a G7 PPK regardless of who your clients are. The star minimums are attached to new SPKK registration, which is the government works procurement certificate, so they bite when you first go after public sector work. Renewal is a separate clause.

Foundation Conclusion

CIDB tells you which 6 ratios it looks at and never tells you what good looks like, so the useful move is to stop chasing an unpublished target and start timing your accounts around the gate you're actually at.

The same numbers decide whether a surety will stand behind you on the next contract, and that decision is made on your accounts, your work in hand and the wording of the instrument you're asked to give. Getting the structure right before you tender is worth more than a star.

Foundation is a specialist property and engineering insurance intermediary. We help operators insure the risks that compliance is designed to manage.

Talk to our risk specialists about bond capacity for your next tender

For the registration side of the same picture, see our guides to CIDB grade requirements from G1 to G7 and checking a CIDB registration online. On the instrument side, see letters of guarantee.

Disclaimer: This article provides general guidance based on CIDB published guidelines and conditions, the Financial Services Act 2013 and the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013, and insurance coverage available in the Malaysian market as of September 2026. Regulations may be amended and policy terms vary by insurer. Always verify current requirements with CIDB or Bank Negara Malaysia, or consult qualified professionals, before making decisions.