20100430 1049 Malaysia Corporate News.

Berjaya Corp has announced its plan to implement a Restricted Offer for Sale of up to HK$491.5m Cosway ICULS to its shareholders. Under the proposal, Berjaya Corp shareholders will be offered one unit of Cosway ICULS of 20 cents each at nine sen per unit for every two BCorp shares they hold on entitlement date. Cosway is listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.

• BCorp has also proposed a special interim tier-one cash dividend of 4.5 sen per BCorp share conditional upon the ROS being implemented.
• BCorp shareholders could opt to apply the special dividend to take up their entitlement of the ROS without having to come up with any additional cash.
• Each Cosway ICULS can be freely converted into one new Cosway share without any further cash injection (Financial daily)

This is positive as Berjaya Corp shareholders will be receiving special dividend of 4.5sen per share and can use the dividends to participate directly in the future growth of Cosway through the ROS. At Cosway’s current market price of HK$1.12, we estimate the ROS will yield 13.6% return for shareholders against a yield of only 2.6% if shareholders opted for the special dividend only. The key risk is that this may result in some share overhang in Cosway shares which may lead to share price weakness. Also, shareholders will only be receiving the shares/special dividend around 4Q10. The ROS will also reduce B Corp’s current stake in Cosway from 72.86% to 55% on a fully-diluted basis, assuming the ROS are fully subscribed. Overall, this exercise will not impact our estimated FD SOP for the group of RM2.88.

Berjaya Group is planning to develop a US$500m (RM1.6bn) property project encompassing a hotel and residential properties in Okinawa Island in the south of Japan. Development is due to start in 2011 or 2012 and the work will take about five years. ED of Berjaya Hotels and Resorts Valen Tan said the group was building a community which will have exclusive residential properties.

• Berjaya has yet to decide if the residences will be sold or leased out. Tan said that the island is an ideal location as it offers year-round sunshine, compared with other parts of Japan where it snows. (BT)

Marina Bay Sands (MBS) has revealed that 36,000 people visited the IR in its first 24 hours of operations. MBS, however, did not say how many people entered the casino, which requires a $100 entry levy for Singaporeans and PRs. (SBT)
In comparison, we note that RWS welcomed 35,000 casino patrons over its first two days of operations.

PT Bank CIMB Niaga Tbk's (CIMB Niaga) unaudited consolidated net profit for the 1QFY10 rose by 100% to 524.2bn rupiah from 262.7bn rupiah in the same quarter last year. CIMB Group Holdings said its Indonesian unit's higher profit was largely due to the increase in total operational income, absence of merger cost in 2010 and lower provisioning.

• "CIMB Niaga maintains its position as the fifth largest bank in Indonesia in terms of total assets, loans and deposits," it said. It said the bank's total assets as at 31 Mar 10 rose by 11% to 114.6tr rupiah, from 102.9tr rupiah in the corresponding period last year. 
• Loans grew by 14% to 83.7tr rupiah, driven by growth in all business segments, it said. "CIMB Niaga's loan-deposit ratio as at 31 Mar 10 reached 88.5% compared with 85.8% in the corresponding period last year. "More than 18% of total loans were disbursed outside of Java, reflecting CIMB Niaga's diversified approach to loan distribution in Indonesia," it said.
• The bank's gross NPL ratio of 3.1% as at 31 Mar 10 was below the industry's average of 3.5% in Feb 10, it said.
• CIMB Group said the unit's financial ratios in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009 showed improvement. "Return on asset rose from 1.44% to 2.54%, while return on equity increased from 10.9% to 20.6%.
• "In addition, the bank has also made some improvements in third-party deposits which reached 93.7tr rupiah, an increase from the previous corresponding period of 84.4tr rupiah," it said.
• The bank has increased its branches to 676 from 659 during the 1Q10.
• CIMB Niaga would continue to maintain a balanced approach in all aspects of business comprising corporate, commercial and retail banking segments including syariah. (Bernama)

Maybank had on 21 Apr, completed the rights issue exercise of its subsidiary PT Bank Internasional Indonesia Tbk (BII), of 6.253bn new ordinary shares of Rupiah 22.5 each (rights shares) at an issue price of Rp225, which amounts to Rp1.407tr (rights issue). In a statement here, the bank said the subscription received for the rights issue, amounted to 6.279bn rights shares totalling Rp1.412tr, which resulted in an over subscription.

• Maybank, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Mayban Offshore Corporate Services (Labuan) Sdn. Bhd and Sorak Financial Holdings Pte. Ltd, subscribed for 97.5% of the entire rights issue which comprised its entitlement pursuant to the rights Issue. Due to the over-subscription of the rights shares, Maybank as a stand-by buyer, did not have to exercise its obligation to take up any excess rights shares, which had not been taken up by the other entitled shareholders and/or their renouncees under the rights issue. (Bernama)

The palm oil industry contributed an export revenue of RM49.6bn last year, said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok. Dompok said Sabah's oil palm industry had shown an encouraging improvement over the past few years.

• Last year alone, the area under oil palm in Sabah, increased to 1.36m hectares compared to 1.33m in 2008. "The area under oil palm cultivation in 2009 represented 29% of the country's total," he disclosed. 
• He said Sabah now had 28,858 oil palm smallholders with an area of 153,444.39 hectares, which is 11.27% of the overall total under palm oil cultivation in the state. (Bernama, Malaysian Reserve)

MMC Corp is keen to spend as much as US$1.2bn (RM3.9bn) to expand its 2,100MW Tanjung Bin power plant by another 800MW if the government is agreeable. MMC has yet to submit any proposal to the government. “We are hoping that the government will make a decision fast and invite all IPPs to submit a competitive bid to build additional capacity," CEO Datuk Hasni Harun said.

• Peninsular Malaysia may not be able to meet the increasing demand for power by 2015 and the country's electricity reserve margin could fall below the 20% threshold if there are no efforts made to boost production capacity. (BT)

MMC Corp is looking at power sector opportunities abroad with a focus on the Middle Eastern and North African countries where opportunities exist for new generation capacity. CEO Datuk Hasni Harun said the group is also looking to raise some SAR3bn (RM2.56bn) funds for its Saudi Arabian JV, The Jazan Economic City project, with the Saudi BinLaden Group, partly from various Saudi government development grants as well as a possible listing of the JV company. (Malaysian Reserve)

Petra Perdana aims to be solidly in the black this year on the back of expected improvement in oil and gas activities in 2H 2010. MD Shamsul Saad, said with oil prices estimated to stabilise around US$80-85/barrel, activities had started to pick up and charter rates for vessels would be on the uptrend again. Meanwhile, when asked if Petra Perdana would divest its 29% stake in Petra Energy, he said: "We have made a commitment to shareholders that such an intention will only come with their approval." (Bernama)

Plus Expressways hopes to offer technical and consultancy services to highway operators overseas by early next year, its top official said. The company sees opportunities to export its expertise to Vietnam, the Middle East and some South African nations. Meanwhile, MD Noorizah Abd Hamid said that PLUS is expecting its toll collection to increase 3-4% this year, after growing 7% last year. (BT)

Malaysia Building Society (MBSB) expects higher revenue and net profit this year on stronger growth from its retail business and corporate financing. "The retail business financing will be supported by personal financing to government servants at a competitive rate. We will support any effort by the government to provide home-financing for government servants for second homes," said MBSB CEO Datuk Ahmad Zaini Othman.

• As for its corporate loan portfolio, MBSB will provide financing for government contracts which includes construction and supply or even project financing, said Ahmad Zaini. 
• On its plan to become a full-fledged bank, MBSB said the rationale behind it was to strengthen its presence and a banking platform would allow it to do so.
• With some 32 branches at present, MBSB will add one in Sabah or Sarawak and two in Peninsular Malaysia this year.
• On the development plans for its 2ha land in Sungai Buloh, Selangor, Ahmad Zaini said a possibility was to have a mixed development with an estimated gross development value of RM300-400m. (BT)

DRB-Hicom and its 40%-owned Suzuki Malaysia Automobile (SMA) are working on becoming a regional hub for Suzuki Motor Corp to export Suzuki cars to other countries in Southeast Asia.

• After having assembled the Swift 1.5L for three years solely for the domestic sales, SMA has been asked by its Japanese principal to make its first overseas shipment. SMA is hopeful Suzuki would allow it to export to other regional markets but SMA managing director Ibrahim Maidin stressed that it will focus on developing sales of the Swift in Brunei. (BT)

Multi-Purpose Holdings has received a confirmation from AmBank that the Put Option Agreement in relation to the 41.63% equity interest in U Mobile has been terminated with effect from 29 April 2010 and that the company has been released and discharged from all agreements. (BMSB)

MAA Holdings has received Bank Negara approval to pursue M&As, including a potential sale of its subsidiary Malaysian Assurance Alliance (MAA) within 12 months to further strengthen its capital base. (BT)

QSR Brands will invest some RM80m this year to open more outlets and refurbish the existing ones. Its chairman Tan Sri Muhammad Ali Hashim said that he expected performance to improve this year if current economic conditions continued. KFC samestore sales growth this year is projected at 5%, and for Pizza Hut, 6-7%. (BT)

Scomi Group’s oilfield services business has successfully secured RM60.5m projects in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, which will robustly contribute to the group's revenue in 1Q 2010. These contracts add on to its existing oilfield services order book of RM1.2bn as at end-Dec 09. (BT)

Silver Bird Group expects contribution from its Singapore business to increase to more than 20% of total revenue this year, driven by aggressive marketing campaigns and new products. It plans to launch three new bread products in Singapore within the next two months. Group MD Datuk Jackson Tan is optimistic of Silver Bird turning in double-digit growth this year amid plans to increase production capacity and build up its sales network. (BT)