Tenaga Nasional Bhd Issues profit warning
Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) may not be able to maintain its dividend payments for the current financial year ending Aug 31 (FY11) as it was severely affected by gas curtailment by Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas). TNB needed to replace the shortfall in gas volume by utilising more oil and distillates which are five times more expensive than gas. President and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh said the utility giant was incurring an additional RM400.0mil a month to replace the shortfall in gas. He issued a profit warning as the additional high fuel costs continued to eat into its cash flow. Che Khalib said that their policy is to pay 60.0% of their free cash flow as dividend for their shareholders. In FY10, TNB paid a total of 26 sen per share as dividend, representing 52.5% of its free cash flow while net dividend payable for FY10 stood at RM848.8mil. It announced an interim dividend of 4.5 sen per ordinary share less income tax of 25% in respect of FY11. - StarBiz
Axiata Group Bhd To stick to 20% stake in India telco
Axiata Group Bhd has confirmed that it is not planning to increase its stake in India-based IDEA Cellular Ltd beyond 20.0%, contrary to reports that it was looking to raise its stake to 25.0%. The Economic Times of India had recently said Axiata might raise its stake in its Indian telco associate to 25.0%, sending the latter’s share price up as much as 3.23% to 97.5 rupees in mid-morning trade. IDEA shares closed yesterday at 95.01 rupees. IDEA’s largest shareholder is the Aditya Birla group with a 25.0% stake. - StarBiz
YTL Power International Bhd Yes targets 400,000 subscribers by Dec
YTL Communications Sdn Bhd (YTL Comms), a unit of YTL Power Bhd, expects to have 400,000 subscribers for its 4G mobile Internet-with-voice service. To date, the company has about 300,000 subscribers since it launched the service last November. Chief executive officer Wing K. Lee said the company’s plan to launch its network to the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia next month should help in achieving the target. Lee said YTL Comms is in the midst of undertaking a business plan to secure licences to roll out its Yes service in Sabah and Sarawak Lee added that YTL Comms is actively making improvements so that it could provide the fastest mobile Internet service anywhere in the country. – Business Times
AirAsia Bhd Passengers up in July
The number of passengers carried by AirAsia group last month rose 19.3% to 2.6 million from 2.2 million a year ago. AirAsia Malaysia contributed about 58.2% or 1.5 million (a 12.1% year-on-year increase) of the group’s passenger traffic in July, said AirAsia Bhd in a statement yesterday. The group’s Thai and Indonesian units carried 567,100 and 541,220 passengers respectively in July, it said. The load factor for the group rose by 3.0% year-on-year to 82.0% while revenue passenger kilometres increased to 3.1 million, up 20.5% year-on-year compared with 2.6 million a year ago. - StarBiz
Dialog proposes cash call to raise RM638m
Dialog Group has proposed its first cash call from its shareholders to raise up to RM638m under a rights issue with free warrants, on the basis of two rights shares and one warrant for every 10 shares held. The company said on 18 Aug the corporate exercise would involve a renounceable rights issue of up to 398.73 million new shares of 10 sen each with 199.36m free detachable warrants. “The cash call is the first equity fund raising from its shareholders since its initial public offer in 1996. Based on the indicative issue of RM1.60, the corporate exercise would raise up to RM638m. It said the rights shares and warrants would on the basis of two rights shares and one warrant for every 10 shares held, based on a minimum subscription of 280 million rights shares with 140 million warrants. It also proposed to increase in the authorised share capital from RM250m comprising 2.5bn shares to RM500m comprising five billion shares. (Financial Daily)
Petra Energy stake up for sale?
O&G services provider Perdana Petroleum (formerly Petra Perdana Bhd) is looking to sell its 29.59% equity interest in Petra Energy, say industry sources. While details are scare, at Petra Energy’s close of RM1.26 yesterday, Perdana Petroleum’s stake of 57.7m shares had a market value of RM72.7m. However, as at end-June, Petra Energy’s net asset per share was RM1.62, which could fetch a better price. (Financial Daily)
MRT Co takes over
The Cabinet has set up MRT Co, a company under the Minister of Finance, to directly oversee the multi-billion ringgit Klang Valley MY Rapid Transit (MRT) project. MRT Co will officially become MY Rapid Transit project and asset owner, currently held by Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd, from 1 Sept. The government will name a local as MRT Co's chief executive officer at a later date, according to a statement by Pemandu. "MRT Co's immediate and critical priority is to focus on ensuring the smooth implementation of the Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line," Pemandu said. With MRT Co in the picture, Prasarana will now be able to focus on its role to ensure an efficient and reliable public transportation service in the Klang Valley, it added. (BT)
Bursa Malaysia Securities has publicly reprimanded and fined Macquarie Capital Securities and two of its former heads of dealing RM85,000 for inflating trades in several securities over a period of eight months. The securities exchange imposed fines of RM50,000, RM25,000 and RM10,000 on Macquarie, Thomas Chin Yun Phin and Hilton Lee, respectively, after they were found guilty of breaching Rule 1301.2 of Bursa Securities Rules following an investigation into the matter. “The breach is in relation to dealing activities undertaken at Macquarie in several securities over a period of eight months, which resulted in inflated volumes of trades for the relevant securities in excess of clients’ orders (inflated trades),” Bursa Malaysia Securities added. (Malaysian Insider)
AMMB Holdings remains tight-lipped on whether Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) plans to raise its interest in the banking group. "The current shareholding remains the same," said AMMB's group MD Cheah Tek Kuang. Mr. Cheah admitted that the banking group was keen on M&A only if it adds value to the group. (BT)
Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) plans to discuss issues regarding the recent collaboration agreement between MAS and AirAsia as it has created uncertainty among tourism players in Sarawak. (Bernama)
Hartalega Holdings, the largest producer of nitrile gloves in Malaysia, has announced a policy to pay a minimum 45% of its annual net profit as dividends starting from its current financial year ending March 31, 2012 (FY12). “The keyword is minimum,” said MD Kuan Kam Hon at the company AGM, adding that Hartalega was optimistic about the outlook for the global demand of nitrile gloves. “We are already seeing raw material prices weakening and this will have a lesser impact on our profit margins. We have an internal target of growing our bottom line by 10% and top line by 25% (for FY12),” he said. (Starbiz)
Hua Yang, with a niche in affordable housing, currently has about a dozen projects throughout the country with a gross development value (GDV) of RM650m. CEO Ho Wen Yan said for the current year ending 31 Mar 12, the company will be launching projects with a total GDV of RM525m. About a third of the GDV or RM154m has been fully booked, which is the 418-unit serviced apartment at One South (Phase 2).
• "Of the seven projects to be launched in the current year, 70% of the GDV or RM370 will be in Selangor, 24% or RM126m in Johor and the remaining RM29m in Perak," he said. (BT)
A consortium of Malaysian Chinese businessmen have got the green light to take over Pan Malaysian Pools, which runs the Da Ma Cai numbers betting outlet, with the government saying "it's a free market". "It is his (referring to tycoon T Ananda Krishnan) company. It is a free market. Willing buyer and willing seller," PM Najib Abdul Razak, who is also finance minister, said today. Najib said after chairing a National Finance Council meeting in Putrajaya that although the Finance Ministry controlled the licence, the bid for the gaming company's assets was according free market principles. (Malaysia Kini)
UEM Group engineering and construction arm, UEM Builders, is committed to adoption of the Industrialised Building System. (Bernama)
Fitters Diversified was reprimanded by Bursa Malaysia yesterday for the late submission of its annual audited accounts for FY10 ended 31 Dec. (Financial Daily)
ACE Market-listed machine design company Genetec Technology is looking on the bright side when it comes to the hard disk drive (HDD) industry, saying that the impact of the increasing popularity of solid-state drives (SSDs) will not render HDDs redundant.
• The outlook for the HDD industry is not as bleak as put forward by some parties, said Genetec executive director and chairman Ronnie Ortscheid (Financial Daily)
Padiberas Nasional may close down its Save More community stores, which started operations barely three years ago. Save More is owned by Bernas Project Development (BPD), a wholly-owned unit of Bernas. (BT)
Johore Tin is venturing into the food and beverage manufacturing business with the acquisition of Able Dairies for RM31m. (Malaysian Reserve)
Shared-farming operator Golden Palm Growers (GPGB) yesterday announced its first dividend payout of the guarantee 6% net yield as well as a 2% bonus after operating for a year beginning August 2010. (Malaysian Reserve)
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