20101124 1001 Malaysia Corporate News.

Korean artillery exchange sinks Asian, Euro markets
Key Asian and European markets tanked yesterday after the long-simmering Korean Peninsula tensions escalated as South Korea returned fire on North Korea after the latter launched artillery shells on to one of the South’s border islands. Asian markets, already grappling with worries over the contagion effects of the eurozone debt crisis, as well as measures taken to cool the property market in Hong Kong and China’s move to raise banks’ reserve ratios to curb inflationary pressures, tumbled further on news of the Korean conflict. The attack, the biggest by the North in years, sent investors fleeing to the safety of the USD, further weighing on commodity prices and shares of resource companies. Meanwhile, European markets opened sharply lower as news of the artillery exchange started filtering out. With the exception of the Japan’s stock exchange which was closed for a national holiday, the rest of the key Asian and European stock markets were mired in red. (FinancialDaily) The MSCI gauge of stocks in developing nations lost 2.6% and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slid 1.4% at 4 p.m. in New York. (Bloomberg)

IJM Land-MRCB deal to create RM7bn merger
IJM Land and Malaysian Resources Corp (MRCB) will merge to create a RM7bn property company that will be the country's second largest after the recently-proposed UEM Land -Sunrise union. IJM Land and MRCB sealed an initial deal on the proposed merger yesterday. It is still unclear who will take the lead in the merger. IJM Land shareholders' funds stood at RM1.65bn as at 31 March 2010, while MRCB's was about RM697.1m as at 31 Dec 2009. According to latest filings on Bursa Malaysia, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) owns an indirect stake of 62.47% in IJM Land and about 42% in MRCB. (BT)

Sunway and SunCity shares suspended on merger talks
Shares of Sunway Holdings and Sunway City (SunCity) have been suspended from trading amid speculation that they may be merged. The construction and property firms, controlled by Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah, asked for their shares to be suspended from yesterday until 5pm today, pending a material announcement. They will be merged into a new company via an exchange of shares and cash, Dow Jones newswires reported yesterday, citing an unnamed source. The new company will continue to be controlled by Cheah, it added. If a merger were to happen, it would be the third property merger to be announced this month. (BT)

YTL Corp to rationalize property assets
YTL Corp has proposed a rationalization that involves the sales of a few companies to its suit YTL Land & Development for a total of RM476m. Under the proposal, YTL Land would settle the purchase through the issue of RM253.03m of 10-year 3% stepping up to 6% irredeemable convertible unsecured loan stock (ICULS) at 100% of nominal value of 50 sen per ICULS and the remaining RM223.02m in cash. The rationalization is expected to result in a net gain of RM51.96m, or 2.9 sen per share in YTL Corp. (FinancialDaily)

Mah Sing acquires Penang land for RM80m
Mah Sing Group continues its shopping spree for land. The property developer yesterday announced it had acquired 61.03 acres of freehold land in Batu Ferringhi Penang for RM157.3m cash at RM59.17 per square foot (psf). The land was for a resort-style development (GDV) of RM800m. The development would be named Ferringhi Residence@Penang and would comprise semi-detached homes with built-up of about 3,000sf indicatively priced from Rm1.4m and bungalows with built-up of about 4,200 sq ft indicatively priced from RM2.2m. (FinancialDaily)