20100225 1036 Malaysia Corporate News.

Las Vegas Sands said it will open a portion of its Marina Bay Sands in Singapore on April 27. The project's nearly 3-acre SkyPark, which sits atop the hotel-casino's three 55-story hotel towers, will open June 23 as part of the overall grand opening celebration. The hotel will open with 963 hotel rooms and in time to host the Inter-Pacific Bar Association's annual conference.

• Subject to regulatory approval, Marina Bay Sands will open with part of the shopping mall and convention center, several restaurants and the casino. (Las Vegas Review Journal) 

This concrete opening date follows the company's indication last week that it will open its Singapore IR by April. This news should be a slight negative for Genting Singapore given that this firm date essentially limits its gaming monopoly in Singapore to about three months i.e. until end-April.

The proposal paper on electricity tariff is still under consideration by the cabinet. As such, there had been no announcement on the matter, according to the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water. (Bernama)

Palm oil futures fell for the first time in three days yesterday on concern demand may wane as the price gap between the vegetable oil and its rival soybean narrowed. Palm oil for May delivery on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange lost as much as 0.6% to RM2,619/MT, before pausing at RM2,628/MT. (Bloomberg, Malaysian Reserve)

The Selangor Government is ready to face Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) in court, should the water company proceed with legal action after the state government refused to allow it to increase water tariffs.

• Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said Syabas, through the Tetuan Cheang and Ariff law firm, sent a letter dated Feb 12, requesting Selangor to pay RM339m in compensation within 14 days or face legal action. 
• “The state government has been advised by a panel of lawyers which found that there was no need to do so. In relation to that, the state government will stop any attempt to increase water tariffs in Selangor. “We remain firm that Syabas has gone against many important matters in the concession agreement which was certified by the National Audit Department. (Bernama)

Malaysia Airports Holdings has shortlisted five companies to build the main terminal building and satellite tower for the new RM2bn low-cost carrier terminal (LCCT) in Sepang.UEM-Bina Puri JV, Sunway Construction, privately-held AHT Norlan-Carriage JV, IJM Corp Bhd and the Gadang Holdings-PPC JV are the frontrunners to win the tender.

• An MAHB official, who declined to be named, said the five were selected because they had offered the lowest prices for the project and said they could complete the job in 20 months, as outlined by the airport operator. 
• The new LCCT is slated for completion by 3Q11. However, rumours are swirling that it may be delayed by 6-12 months. "The tender process took a longer time (than expected). MAHB had pre-qualified many companies and then invited some on a selective basis to tender," the official said. "MAHB may award the contracts for both buildings in the next one to two months and the two companies are expected to start work immediately", says the official. (BT)

Proton Holdings is holding “intense discussions” with global OEMs on different types of collaborations. MD Datuk Syed Zainal said the national carmaker was talking not only with Volkswagen but also with Mitsubishi and Renault for collaboration in engine and products. However, he said he respect the confidentiality of such high-level discussions and would not want to pre-empt the talks. (Starbiz)

Perodua plans to expand its export market this year to include Thailand, Pakistan and India. MD Aminar Rashid Salleh said the company aimed to increase the sales of engine components and CBUs. “This year, our export target is 2,700-3,000 units but we need time to study the possibility of increasing the volume, particularly in new areas,” he said. “Our emphasis is within Asean. We are already in Singapore and Brunei and we would like to increase the market share. In the long-term, we might also look at South Africa,” he added. (Financial Daily)

Edaran Tan Chong Motor (ETCM), the sales and marketing arm of Nissan vehicles in Malaysia, is confident of maintaining its current growth momentum via core and proven models. "We also plan to introduce two new models," said ED Datuk Dr Ang Bon Beng. (Bernama)

Mercedes-Benz Malaysia is on track to achieving a sales target of 4,200 vehicles this year. VP of Sales and Marketing for passenger cars, Florian Mueller said the C and E class Mercedes-Benz have been the pillar of sales over the past two months with both classes contributing up to 80% of units sold. On the newly launched S300 L, S350 L and S500 L models, he said the company had already received 60 pre-launch bookings and expects another 60 in the second week. (Bernama)

Media Prima has appointed Mohamad Ariff Ibrahim as group CFO effective April 16. Mohamad Ariff is currently the CFO/finance director of New Straits Times Press. He replaces Amil Izham Hamzah who will not be renewing his contract with the group. Meanwhile, Ahmad Izham Omar will take on the role of ED of 8TV. (BT)

Bank Islam Malaysia expects a 10-15% growth in deposits this year, driven by the launch of new attractive products and campaigns. Treasury Division GM Norashikin Mohd Kassim said the bank's current total deposits stood at RM25bn for both retail and corporate segments. (Bernama)

MMC Corp said that the tender award for the construction of a port in its Jazan City in Saudi Arabia has been put on hold pending confirmation from anchor tenants. (Bloomberg, Malaysian Reserve)

YTL Power’s subsidiary, YTL Communications, has entered into contracts with Samsung Electronics Co Ltd to increase the number of base stations towards launching its 4G network nationwide soon. Samsung would provide additional 500 WiMAX 2.3GHz radio base stations to increase coverage in the East Coast, in addition to the 1,990 stations currently being deployed. It said Samsung would also supply 2,000 smaller base stations, for in-building network coverage. (Financial Daily)

Hai-O Enterprise will focus on its expansion in Indonesia going forward while exploring business opportunities in China. Group CFO Hew Von Kin said the company would launch its Indonesia ops in April and had submitted more products for registration approvals, adding that the company expected the Indonesian ops to break-even in two years. Group MD Tan Kai Hee said Indonesia was Hai-O’s only overseas market currently and it planned to venture into China in a year or two. (Starbiz)

Golden Land, an oil palm plantation company, is proposing a private placement exercise of up to 10% of its shares to raise funds to be used as working capital. Based on an indicative issue price of RM1 per share, Golden Land expects the proposed private placement exercise may raise about RM22.3m. (Malaysian Reserve)