Work on the solar energy plant in Perak, which will produce renewable energy with green and clean technology, will start by Jun-2010. Perak MB Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir said Perak's foray into solar energy will be through a JV with Silicon Valley-based TCTI Inc. Perak will now host cutting edge photo-voltaic (PV) cell production facilities involving an initial FDI of US$250m (RM877m) to produce 100 MW of PV cells per annum by 2011. The eventual production is slated to 500 MW per annum. (Starbiz)
SP Setia is eyeing more land in the Johor Baru district for future development projects in view of the good long-term business prospect, said CEO Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin. To date, the company has 607ha left for development from four projects, according to Liew. "The remaining land here will keep us busy for the next three to five years and we are looking to add 607ha for future projects," he said. Liew said Johor's contribution to SP Setia's earnings was significant and for the financial year ended Oct 31, RM500m of its RM1.6bn turnover came from Johor. (Starbiz)
Ekuiti Nasional Bhd (Ekuinas), will call for proposals from other private equity firms keen to help it manage close to RM300m of funds next month. CEO Abdul Rahman Ahmad said it expects to commence the request for proposal (RFP) in late Jan-10, upon which a detailed evaluation and selection process will be undertaken to identify and select the outsourced private equity partners for Ekuinas. The selection process will be based on a two-phase approach. Yesterday’s session is aimed at soliciting interest as well as feedback from third party private equity firms while the second phase would be a RFP, where interested private equity firms would be asked to submit a detailed proposal, Rahman said. Over 50 private equity firms including independent, institutional and foreign fund management firms attended the briefing session. (BT)
Malaysia and Indonesia, the world's leading palm oil producers, and other palm oil producing countries may group together and file a case to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against the European Union (EU) for introducing new laws skewed against the commodity. "The palm oil industry has received legal opinions that the EU Renewable Energy Directive could infringe the WTO's basic regulations," Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) chairman Datuk Lee Yeow Chor said. The EU directive seeks to restrict the import of palm oil for biofuel usage in Europe in favour of the heavily subsidised home-grown rapeseed oil. Adopted in April this year, the directive will take effect in March next year, with member states given time until October to legislate it. (BT)
Astro All Asia Networks plc will launch high-definition television (HDTV) in Malaysia on Friday, says CEO Datuk Rohana Rozhan. HDTV is a digital television broadcasting system with higher resolution than traditional television systems. "Astro TV is now available to some 2.87m residential subscribers who will be able to subscribe to its next generation of services, commencing with HDTV and high level interactivity and connectivity," she said. "The roll out of these services is estimated to cost some RM200m, including marketing and operating costs of approximately RM150m, over the next FY, ahead of revenue and earnings from these services," she said. (Bernama)
The Coordinating Body for Pos Malaysia Postal Unions on Wednesday submitted a memorandum, calling for a review of postal tariffs, to Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri
Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah. Union of Pos Malaysia Uniformed Staff (UPUS) President Suffian Unoss said if the postal tariffs are reviewed it would facilitate a pay revision for employees. "We can choose to take an aggressive stance by resorting to industrial action but we decided against it as we are an interest group and not a pressure group," he added.
- Meanwhile, Pos Malaysia Chairman Tan Sri Dr Aseh Che Mat, in backing the call for a review, said postal tariffs were last revised in 1992. "We want a 100% revision of postal tariffs, 30 sen stamps should be priced at RM0.60."The existing rates are the lowest in the world. We hope the rates will be reviewed in order to reduce our operational cost," he added. Saying that only 8% of consumers, mainly banks and telecommunication companies used mail services, he added that the increase would not be felt by them.(Bernama)
Maybank expects to increase its retail deposits by RM3.25bn during its "Maybank Extra Rewards' Deposit" campaign period, which is held from 1 Oct to end-Jan 10. Maybank head of consumer banking Lim Hong Tat said the previous four-month deposit campaign held from mid Feb to end Jun 09, registered a positive growth of RM1.45bn. "The last campaign was successful despite the challenging economic environment as well as the issuance of (other funds like) Amanah Saham Malaysia, Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020, Bon Simpanan Merdeka and Sukuk Simpanan Rakyat totalling RM12.33bn during that period," he said. (BT)
Malaysian Airline System (MAS) has signed a supplementary agreement with CIMB Bank to extend the payment period of its RM500m loan for five years beginning 31 Jan 2010. The loan facility, which was obtained in 2007, is used for working capital. (BT)
MK Land Holdings will launch the first phase of its RM3bn affordable housing project in northern Bangalore, India, by Jun-10, 3 months later than initially planned, says chairman, Tan Sri Mustapha Kamal Abu Bakar. Building plans were awaiting the approval of authorities in the state of Karnataka. "Under Phase 1, we will build 4,500 affordable homes which are a replica of MK Land's house design in Malaysia," said Mustapha. MK Land is partnering two other companies in the project: Embassy Group of India and MKN Embassy Development S/B. It will be the group's first project in India and second overseas, after Namibia. (BT)
Puncak Niaga and its consortium partners STX Heavy Industries Co Ltd and Pembinaan Kekal Mewah Sdn Bhd have failed to pre-qualify for Petronas Gas' Kimanis power plant project. The consortium were bidding for the EPCC works in Sabah. (Financial Daily)
Jobstreet has acquired a further 1.94% in 104 Corp raising its holdings in the latter to 16.5%. The total cost of investment in 104 Corp is RM50m and the market value of the stake is RM53m. (BMSB)
The current shareholders of hard disk drive (HDD) components maker JCY International will offer 530.21m existing shares or a 25.9% stake in the group for sale in an IPO exercise at prices to be determined later. Its shareholder YKY Investments would offer 470.32m, representing 23% stake in the group to institutional investors. As for non-institutional investors, YKY is offering 59.9m shares or 2.9% stake, out of which 18.99m shares representing 0.9% stake in the group are reserved for its directors and employees. This means that only 2% stake would be offered to the public. (Financial Daily)
GBH has proposed to undertake renounceable two-call rights issue of up to 124m new ordinary shares of RM1 each in GBH at a proposed issue price of RM1 per rights share. The first call of 60 sen is payable upon acceptance and the second call of 40 sen, representing a total of up to RM49.54m will be capitalised from the company’s revaluation reserves account. (Bernama)
Cymao said the two-year log extraction licence secured from the Forestry Department of Sabah is not subject to renewal. The licence expires on Nov 25, 2011. Cymao said there was no additional financial commitment or capital expenditure with regard to harvesting the forest except that the log harvesting cost to be paid to the logging contractor. (Financial Daily)
Tradewinds (M) has received acceptances to its offer to take over Padiberas Nasional (Bernas) shares totalling 18.81% of the latter’s paid-up capital as of the closing date yesterday. It told Bursa Malaysia that 18.66% were valid acceptances. Thus Tradewinds now holds 50.18% of the voting shares in Bernas. (Starbiz)
CB Industrial Product Holding has bought a 85% stake in PT Sawit Lamadau Raya, which is involved in preliminary establishment of palm oil plantations, for RM4m. CB Industrial said the acquisition is in line with its ordinary course of business in design, manufacturing and trading of a wide range of palm oil mill equipment, and also the cultivation of oil palm from its existing palm oil plantation. (BT)
MAN Truck & Bus (M), which sells commercial vehicles like trucks and buses, is ready to capture one-fifth of the mid-segment truck market share by 2015, with the help of its newly launched Cargo Line A series. The company, which currently has barely 5% of the mid-end truck market share, believes that the launch of the new fleet of trucks is timely, as demand is expected to grow amid the economic recovery. "We believe the goal is highly possible and achievable. Malaysia has limited products, as far as the market is concern. We foresee a strong demand for these trucks," said MAN Truck & Bus Asia Pacific president William Lee. Meanwhile, the company expects its high-end truck market share to grow to 20-25% by end 2015, from 16% now. (BT)
DSC Solutions made a dazzling debut on Bursa Malaysia ACE market yesterday, closing at 74.5 sen, up 198% from its reference price of 25 sen ex-bonus issue. The company, which was the most active counter for the day, traded at a high of 91.5 sen and low of 50 sen. Some 72.8m shares changed hands. For its listing exercise, DSC had offered its shares at 50 sen apiece. After the public issue, it undertook a one-for-one bonus issue, giving a reference price of 25 sen for its shares. (Starbiz)
No comments:
Post a Comment