The Selangor state government has not agreed to compensate Puncak Niaga Holdings the RM339m that has been included by the latter in its quarterly results. Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said while it had not consented to Puncak’s subsidiary Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd’s (Syabas) increase in water tariff, it had not considered compensating the company.
- “The state government would like to stress that although these terms are included in the concession agreement between the state and Syabas, the terms are applicable only when the state gives its consent,” he said. Khalid said in board meetings, Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Bhd (KDEB), the Selangor state government’s investment arm, had always stated that Syabas must get approval from the state to arrive at an agreed tariff. He added that as there was no such “agreed tariff”, the question of compensation did not arise.
- However, yesterday Khalid said by including the compensation in its 3Q09 results, Puncak did not comply with the arrangement with the state. He said therefore, it appeared that Puncak had overstated” its profits and urged the company to take responsibility to its shareholders with regard to the state’s view.
- Khalid said the state was in the midst of negotiating with the federal government and the state’s water concessionaires and hoped to come up with a solution that would give the people of Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya “the best value for money”. (The Edge)
- A CPO futures trader told StarBiz that CPO prices would continue to gain momentum on positive factors such as the current abnormal heavy rainfall that would affect production in the coming months and encouraging exports for November. “CPO is still the world’s most tradeable edible oil with continued strong demand in India, China and the United States mainly for food-related industries,” the trader added.
- Both independent cargo surveyors Intertex and Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) yesterday reported higher CPO exports for Nov 1-25. Intertek said Malaysia’s palm oil exports rose 1.2% to 1.13 m tonnes while SGS reported 1.18m tonnes, up 6.4% from October. (Starbiz)
- He said Singapore users pay nearly US$85 or US$10.20 mbps. For 4mbps in Malaysia, consumers pay US$76 or US$35 mbps. Vietnam's 3mbps bandwidth - although a tad slower - costs users US$50.55, or US$16.85 mbps. There is no shortage of gateway service providers seeking landing rights because of the pent-up demand for quality bandwidth, but the government must deregulate or liberalise gateways in order to improve competitiveness by providing larger broadband at lower costs, said Patel.
- Malaysia Australia Business Council vice-chairman Michael Halpin said large technical documents from Australia had difficulty getting sent over because of the poor quality broadband. 'Australian and American investors see this as a nuisance and an impediment to them to do business successfully here,' he said. (SBT)
- Prasarana would also assess the feedback from the three-month public display for the proposed LRT line extension ending Dec 14, said Idrose.“If everything goes well, the construction of the LRT extensions will start in 1Q10,” he said. When completed in three years, the LRT extension is expected to double the current daily passenger volume of 170,000 for Ampang LRT and 180,000 for Kelana Jaya LRT. (Starbiz)
- This could push the auction process to mid-February ‘10, an official with direct knowledge of the developments said, while adding: “The focus is to ensure that the auctions are held before the end of this fiscal. The DoT will meet the finance ministry’s target and ensure that the proceeds from the sale of airwaves are included in the government receipts for this year.” (Economic Times of India)
- The regulator also notified certain charges associated with MNP and said switching charges for users must not exceed Rs 19. However, operators are free to levy any amount less than or equal to this charge. (Economic Times of India)
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will launch 2x new weekly non-stop flights from Kuala Lumpur to Brisbane from March 28 2010. The flights, on Fridays and Sundays, will complement its current five times weekly flights from Kuala Lumpur to Brisbane via Sydney. (BT)
MMC Corp said an initial pact with Dubai World to develop a major industrial project in south Johor has been terminated. The proposed plan, announced in Sep-07, was to have comprised oil terminal activities, drydocks, a shipyard, conventional cargo handling facilities, logistic parks and real property development on MMC's 913ha at Tanjung Bin, Johor. MMC gave no reason for the termination. However, it had said on August 18 that Dubai World was reassessing its priorities because of the global financial crisis. Dubai World, set up by the Dubai government, is a holding company for a specific portfolio of investments. (BT)
The Naza group, through Naza Kia Sdn Bhd, will launch four Kia models next year as it seeks to double sales volume to 26,000 units, its chief said. Two of the models will be replacements of the Sportage and Sorento multi-purpose vehicles, Naza group joint executive chairman SM Nasarudin SM Nasimuddin said. The other two will be the all-new Kia Soul and a Forte coupe model. Nasarudin added that the Forte, locally assembled at Naza's manufacturing plant in Gurun, Kedah, could be exported to Brunei, Thailand and Indonesia. (BT)
Mercedes-Benz Malaysia Sdn Bhd expects the improving market landscape and launch of new car models to drive sales of its passenger cars to over 4,000 units next year. President and chief executive officer Peter Honegg said next year’s passenger car market was projected by the Malaysian Automotive Association to be better than this year. He said the company sold 4,200 passenger cars last year and planned to sell between 200 and 300 units more than its initial target of 3,600 units this year.
- Honegg said Mercedes-Benz currently held about 43% in the luxury car segment and it aimed to improve its position “a little” next year. “There are more competitors coming in but we try to maintain the leading position in this segment,” he said. (Starbiz)
- Lim also called on the Federal Government to re-start the RM353m project to deepen the North Channel at Penang Port to facilitate smooth sailing-in of container vessels. " If the deepening work is not done in compliance with environmental requirements, it will harm plans to turn Penang into a green state," he said. He also hoped projects promised for Penang under the current Ninth Malaysia Plan but have not been implemented due to various reasons would be carried forward to the 10th Malaysia Plan. (Bernama)
- Under the rationalisation exercise, all container operations would be moved to PTP while Johor Port would handle all other cargo such as bulk and liquid shipments from Jan-10. It also estimates that the haulage costs are expected to double after taking into account the higher port charges at PTP. “The sudden introduction of the weighbridge charges of RM7.50 per container at PTP is unjust.
- It was never implemented prior to the rationalisation,” it added. FMM Johor Branch also said PTP was not ready for such a move because there are only two main line operators operating in PTP notably Maersk and Evergreen. (BT)
- The proposed Chinese plant would be its second wholly-owned asset. It has one in Malacca, set up in 1990, which is producing 200,000 Bonia leather bags annually. Bonia currently has a plant in Guangzhou, but on lease, operating since Nov-08. It makes 100,000 pieces of bags and wallets annually, but would double in a few years in tandem with demand, Chong said.
- Bonia ED Alex Chiang said the company has also identified South Africa and Sweden as new markets to grow its business. "We have entered into formal agreements with local distributors there. We aim to set up our own outlets but it would be a long-term strategy," Chiang said. He sadi Bonia will open 10 new counters and outlets over the next 12 months. We have capital expenditure of RM10m for this and also to upgrade a few of our existing outlets," Chiang said. (BT)
Kelington Group, an ultra high purity (UHP) gas and chemical delivery systems provider, has been awarded a job worth RM5m in a wafer fabrication facility in Dalian, China. The group, via its subsidiary Kelington Engineering (Shanghai) Co Ltd, will be responsible to design, install, test and commission the UHP water and chemical delivery system. The facility is expected to be completed by 1Q10. (BT)
Frontken Corp hopes to raise up to RM31.8m through a rights issue. It plans to issue up to 288.9m new Frontken shares together with 288.9m warrants, on the basis of two rights share with two warrants, for every five existing Frontken shares. Proceeds raised will mainly be used to reduce borrowings, as well as for future expansion plans. (BT)
Golden Frontier is spending over RM20m to expand its operations in Penang and Vietnam for the rest of this year and the 1H10. Executive chairman Datuk Khor Teng How said that the market demand for corrugated packaging materials in Vietnam and Malaysia, estimated to be about RM2.5bn in 2009, was expected to grow by 10% in 2010.
- “The driver for growth would come from food and beverage products, electronic and electrical goods, and wood-based furniture,” he said. The expansion exercise would increase the group’s yearly ouput to 120,000 tonnes next year from 90,000 presently, he added. (Starbiz)
No comments:
Post a Comment