20100406 1019 Malaysia Corporate News.

Malayan Banking says it wants to realign its insurance and takaful business and remain flexible for any potential business expansion. The banking group is proposing to transfer 165.32m shares of RM1 each in Mayban Fortis Holdings Bhd, representing its direct equity interest of 69.05% to Etiqa International Holdings for RM359.34m. Maybank said the proposed transfer would also allow it to build on its existing platform internationally, hence raising the insurance and takaful business profile. (BT)
The purpose of the proposed transfer is to assist the group to realign its insurance and takaful business and provide itself the flexibility for any potential business expansion. Meanwhile, the proposed transfer would also allow Maybank to build on its existing platform internationally, hence raising the profile of its insurance and takaful business. Maybank stated that the above would not lead to any gains or losses to the group as (1) the purchase consideration is equivalent to the audited cost of the investment, and (2) Etiqa International is its wholly-owned subsidiary.

Maybank Islamic, the largest Islamic banking player in the Asia Pacific, expects its syariah-based financing to grow by more than 18% this fiscal year. It grew by around 17% in the last fiscal year ended 30 Jun 09. "We typically grow at double the rate of conventional (loan) growth, so we expect that trend to continue. Growth may be at around 18% upwards," said Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar, president and CEO of Maybank.

• Maybank Islamic registered 18% growth in financing and 15% growth in deposits in the first half of its financial year. Maybank Islamic made RM475.6m in profit before tax and zakat last year. (BT)

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has no plans to raise its cash offer for the conditional takeover of Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd’s (MRCB) shares at RM1.50 apiece as it deemed the offer “fair and reasonable”, said a source. The source close to the Government was referring to speculation that the EPF might raise its offer price for MRCB’s shares on expectation that the latter stands to gain handsomely from the recentlyannounced joint venture involving the Government and EPF to develop the prized 3,400 acres in Sungai Buloh.

• The market has been misreading and putting too much into that announcement. Under the proposal, both the Government and EPF will invest in the land via a joint venture. 
• The Government’s view is that rather than an individual company or businessman getting a piece of the land, EPF will be its partner.” This way, EPF and by extension, the public, will be the biggest beneficiary. The plan will maximise EPF’s revenue and gain over the next 20-25 years,” said a source close to the Government.(Starbiz)

CIMB Group Holdings has received Bank Negara Malaysia's approval for a proposed dual listing on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). CIMB said on Monday, April 5 it had received a letter from BNM that it has no objection to the proposed SET listing. In granting its approval, BNM stipulated CIMB had to put in place a mechanism to monitor the movement of its shareholding to ensure all shareholding requirements under the Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989 and the foreign equity limit are complied with at all times. (Financial daily)

The Securities Commission's proposed moved to raise the shareholder approval threshold in the takeover of companies' assets and liabilities may result in unintended consequences, said a top banker. CIMB CEO Datuk Seri Nazir Razak warned of the danger of a severe drop in M&A activities if the SC's proposals were to be implemented. (Financial daily)

CIMB Group has pledged RM5m annually to set up a Jakarta-based research institute that promotes Asean economic and social integration, said CEO Datuk Seri Nazir Razak. The body aims to provide a platform for corporates to come together on issues that affect them as they expand in the region. "There is currently insufficient critical mass support for Asean integration. The efforts of the Asean secretariat and governments need to be supplemented by the private sector," he added. (BT)

Ramunia and Sime Darby Engineering can now proceed with the necessary actions to complete the RM530m sale of Teluk Ramunia fabrication yard and other assets sited there. This is after all conditions precedents to the definitive S&P agreement signed in Aug 09 had been fulfilled. (BT)

AirAsia X has introduced new ‘flatbed Premium seats’, with standard business class specifications of 20” width, 60” pitch and stretches out to 77” in full recline position. AirAsia X has also revamped its economy class seats with new ergonomical, reclineable seats at 31” pitch equipped with comfortable adjustable headrests. CEO, Azran Osman-Rani said, “We concede that the old seats were neither suitable nor comfortable for long-haul flights. After reviewing all the feedback that we received from business and leisure travellers, the need for better and comfortable seats tops the list.” AirAsia X is currently upgrading its whole fleet with the new seats in stages and the refurbishment process is expected to be completed by June 2010. (AirAsia Press Release)

AirAsia X will add more flights to Melbourne and Perth, with three more Airbus A330 aircraft coming in, as securing routes to Seoul and Sydney is a challenge. Currently, it is using six A330 and two A340 aircraft. “For some reason we are not privileged enough to get some routes. So, we will be adding more flights to Perth and Melbourne and keep pushing Mumbai and New Delhi routes in 2010,” said CEO Azran Osman-Rani. AirAsia X will service the New Delhi route in August. As for Mumbai, Azran said AirAsia X had the rights to fly four times a week to the Indian city and was pursuing three more landing rights as only then would the route be economically viable. (Bernama, Star)

Boustead Holdings is seeking compensation in the form of land replacement from Penang state government as it will reduce the height of its new Royale Bintang Hotel. The group had agreed to alter its hotel construction plans to comply with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) guidelines on World Heritage which recommends that buildings in Penang's heritage zones should be less than 5 storeys tall. "We are seeking compensation; we are still in talks with the state government. It could be in the form of land compensation," said Boustead MD Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin.

• Construction of the RM140m Royale Bintang Hotel project behind the General Post Office in Lebuh Downing hit a snag in Nov-08 when the Penang state government pointed out that the proposed buildings were too high. Boustead is one of four companies which received approvals from the Penang Municipal Council to build hotels in the heritage zone before it was placed on the World Heritage List. (BT)

Boustead Holdings is looking to dispose of its partially planted 17,000ha oil palm land in Sumatra, Indonesia for logistical reasons, with about US$50m (RM162m) being a favourable price for the tract, said its MD Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin. On another matter, Lodin said Affin Holdings, which spearheads the group's finance and investment division, may conclude the acquisition of Indonesia's PT Bank Ina Perdana by 3Q this year. Shareholders approved Boustead's proposed divestment of its 80%-owned BH Insurance to AXA Affin General Insurance. (Financial Daily)

Measat Satellite Systems is looking at options to replace its satellites in Africa to expand its international business as a future growth strategy, said its senior VP for space systems development Dr Ali R. Ebadi. The company is currently looking at opportunities to grow the fleet further to support demand in Malaysia, as well as opportunities to expand the company's international business and one focus is on Africa, he said.

• Annual revenue is expected to continue to increase, reaching RM323m within the next few years. As of yesterday, two-thirds of Measat-3a's capacity has been leased with the company on track to reach 85% utilisation by end-2010. "When fully utilised, we would expect about 50% of the capacity to be leased to customers inside Malaysia and 50% to international customers located across countries such as India, Hong Kong and Singapore.” 
• Demand for satellite capacity is also being driven by the growth of HDTV around the region which, with superior picture quality and Dolby surround sound, requires more bandwidth than the traditional Standard Definition television." (Bernama)

YTL Corp has plans to house its various hotel brands into a real estate investment trust (REIT) and list it on the stock market in the near future, said its MD Tan Sri Francis Yeoh. The REIT will be modelled similar to that of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), a French holding company, recognised as one of the world’s largest luxury goods conglomerate. Yeoh added that the idea of putting the hotels under a REIT was to expand globally, as the group is looking at expanding the brands of hotel through good property buys in the Asia-Pacific region. On the Sentul West housing project, Yeoh said the project has been delayed as the price disparity is too wide compared to Shanghai and Tokyo. (BT)

Kulim has received several bids from third parties to buy its stake in Natural Oleochemicals and is currently evaluating the proposals. (Financial daily)

Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners’ Association (SOPPOA) is unhappy over moves by some Western non-governmental organisations to include greenhouse gas emissions on plantation development on peatland in Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil’s (RSPO) principles and criteria for certification. Chairman Datuk Abdul Hamed Sepawi sees this proposed additional condition as putting more pressures on Sarawak’s plantation owners as they prepare for the certification exercise. He said a RSPO consultant had recommended a total ban on oil palm development on peatland while another group wanted to ban palm oil entering the European Union’s bio-diesel programme. “I am sure these actions will become ever bigger this year,” Hamed added. (Starbiz)

The 14-stick cigarette packs will be phased out soon to deter youths, especially schoolchildren, from picking up the smoking habit, said Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai. The Health Minister said only the 20-stick packs, which were more expensive, would be sold. More no-smoking areas would also be created, Liow said. Liow said that a World Health Organisation study revealed that the increase in the price of cigarettes by 10% had managed to decrease demand for cigarettes by 8% in developing countries and 4% in developed countries. (The Star)

Small Bumiputera contractors in northern part of Peninsular Malaysia are experiencing growth because of the Ipoh-Padang Besar electrified double-tracking project (EDTP). MMC-Gamuda JV, the main contractor for the RM12.5bn EDTP, has been awarding contracts worth between RM100,000 and RM90m to class A to E contractors since the end of 2008. (BT)

Container trade in the international shipping industry is expected to see a capacity increase this year in line with the growth in gross domestic product (GDP) of many countries. Cardiff University's business school lecturer Dr Rawindaran Nair, in stating this, said there was a possibility of the container trade growing by as much as 5-6% this year. He expects shipping rates to be competitive this year, especially with regard to transport to Europe due to the European Union (EU) laws which prohibit price fixing agreements. (Bernama)

The Indian government conducted mock auction for 3G spectrum and has convened a meeting tomorrow in which bidders will be briefed about the nitty gritty of the real auction. The Department of Telecom (DoT) conducted the mock auction to familiarise the nine 3G bidders and 11 broadband wireless access (BWA) bidders with the system and clarify their technical queries about the auction. (Economic Times of India)

Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) has acquired an additional 7.03m shares representing a 2.4% stake in Petra Perdana, upping its direct interest in the offshore marine services provider to 8.21% or 24.44m shares. The latest acquisition makes PNB the second largest shareholder in the company after Lembaga Tabung Haji which holds a 10.16% stake. (Financial Daily)

MTD Capital has completed the RM70m sale of a plot of land with a 14-storey building in Gombak, Selangor, to Haluan Gigih Sdn Bhd. The latter is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alloy Consolidated Sdn Bhd, which in turn is a major shareholder of MTD. MTD also said that it completed the sale of a plot of land with a 12-storey building, called Bangunan Shell Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur to Haluan Gigih for RM105m. (BT)

PLB Engineering has bought via a public auction nearly 20ha of land in Penang for RM38m, in line with its efforts to increase landbank. (BT)

PCCS Group entered into a share sales agreement with Graham Packaging Company recently to dispose of its entire stake in Roots Investment Holdings for about RM81.3m cash. The group said the proposed disposal will raise a gross proceeds of about RM52.6m. Out of these proceeds, RM35m is to be used for bank borrowings repayment and RM15.16m for working capital and the remaining cash for the exercise expenses. The disposal exercise is also expected to give rise to a gain of approximately RM19.9m. (Bernama, Malaysian Reserve)

ECS ICT, an information and communications technology distribution hub, saw the public tranche of its initial public offering (IPO) oversubscribed by 6.9 times. (Bernama, Malaysian Reserve)