20100813 1054 Malaysia Corporate News.

P&O receives nod to talk to Prudential
Bank Negara Malaysia has given the nod for Prudential Holdings Ltd to begin talks to buy a stake in insurer Pacific & Orient (P&O), a source with direct knowledge of the deal said yesterday. According to the source, P&O has received the approval via fax on Wednesday morning but there have been no discussions about a price yet. P&O declined to comment while Prudential’s Malaysian officials were not immediately available. P&O had said this month it asked the central bank for approval to begin preliminary talks for the potential divestment of an equity interest in Pacific & Orient Insurance to Prudential. (Financial Daily)

Genting New York wins racino franchise bid
Genting Malaysia’s subsidiary Genting New York LLC has won a 30-year franchise to redevelop the Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, New York, according to a Singapore Straits Times report. The franchise will give Genting New York the licence to operate the city’s first slow machine-styled “racino” video lottery terminals. The Singapore Straits Times yesterday said Genting New York had won the bid, but the deal was “not fully in the bag” yet pending approvals from the city’s top politicians. New York State Division of Lottery had on 3 Aug recommended a bid by Genting New York to implement the “racino” project. Yesterday, a Bloomberg report said the state Senate majority leader John Sampson announced he had accepted a lottery commission recommendation for Genting New York to be awarded the licence to install 4,500 slot machine-styled “racino” terminals at the Aqueduct site in the borough of Queens. (Starbiz)

Petra Perdana cancels ship purchase
Petra Perdana has cancelled one of two so-called anchor handling/offshore support vessels ordered from Nam Cheong Dockyard SB. The vessel costs USD29.5m (RM93.96m) a unit, and a deposit of USD8.85m was paid for each one, according to the filing to Bursa Malaysia yesterday. Nam Cheong agreed to refund the deposit paid, Petra Perdana said. However, no reason was provided for the cancellation. (Malaysian Reserve)

Move to stop 19 Aug EONCap meeting
A small investor has gone to court to have the meeting to vote on Hong Leong Bank's RM5.06bn offer declared invalid. It is possible that EON Capital's (EONCap) much-anticipated shareholder meeting on 19 Aug may be delayed as a small investor has gone to court to have it declared invalid. The meeting is to vote on Hong Leong Bank's RM5.06bn takeover offer. EONCap, in a stock exchange filing late yesterday, said it received a summons filed by Shu Pei Huang, who owns 200 shares, to attend a High Court hearing on the matter next Monday. Little is known about Shu, who, among other things, is challenging the EGM's timing and whether it fulfills a requirement for shareholders to have at least 21 days' notice. He wants the court to declare the notice for the meeting invalid. (BT)

Khazanah has 64% acceptance level for Parkway
Khazanah Nasional had secured a 64.1% level of acceptances in its voluntary general offer (VGO) for the takeover of Singapore hospital group Parkway Holdings Bhd as at Tuesday. While the actual closing is at 5pm on Monday, Integrated Healthcare Holdings Ltd (IHHL), which is an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Khazanah, has in effect gotten the necessary majority to take over Parkway at SGD3.95 (RM9.25) per share. As at 5pm on Tuesday, IHHL had received 458.37 million shares, or 40.2%, of Parkway. Sources said this also included Fortis Healthcare Ltd’s 23.9% stake in Parkway. Taking into account the 269.83m shares or 23.8% stake by Khazanah, this means that Khazanah already has a 64.1% acceptance level. (Starbiz)