Tan Chong Motor Holdings has won the sole and exclusive rights to sell Nissan vehicles in Cambodia under a distribution agreement entered into with Nissan Motor Co Ltd yesterday. It would start selling Nissan cars in Cambodia in the second quarter of this year with an initial sales volume of 200 units per year, Tan Chong Motor added. (Starbiz)
Berjaya Sports Toto would replace its Super Toto 6/49 with another lotto game, Supreme Toto 6/58. Supreme Toto would be launched on 18 March 2010, while its first draw would be held on 20 March 2010. (Financial daily)
As the tussle for control at
EON Capital (EON Cap) simmers on,
Affin Holdings, the parent company of Affin Bank, may be gearing itself to launch a takeover of EON Cap. Unfazed by criticisms of it being among the smallest banking groups in Malaysia, Affin Holdings is confident of its improving financials and the fact that it has not raised its tier-2 capital indicates that it may be timely to do so.“People usually think that a bank has to be big to be successful,’’ said a source. “Not every big bank has good ratios and look what happened to some of the world’s biggest banks. “Affin Bank has been quiet but producing the results,’’ another source said. “In the last few years, it has been improving to a point where it is quite comfortable with the numbers but some people have not gotten over their previous perceptions to appreciate the changes that have taken place. (Starbiz)
Gamuda and
WCT, whose joint-venture firm in Qatar is being sued for RM101m by a local contractor, are not expecting significant losses arising from the arbitration case. “The financial impact of the claim can only be ascertained upon the conclusion of the arbitration proceedings,’’ the firms said. (Starbiz)
Telekom Malaysia and Manchester United have forged a 5-year agreement to link the two brands in marketing campaigns and promotional activities. With the deal, TM becomes MU's official integrated telecoms partner in Malaysia with licensing, intellectual property and dealership rights to produce and distribute merchandises bearing the club's crest and team images. (StarBiz)
Axiata is proposing to offer up to 20% equity interest in its 86.5%-owned XL Axiata via an international private placement of secondary shares. It is envisaged that the exercise will enable investors to participate in the growth of XL directly. The final offering price and size will be determined after the completion of the bookbuilding process. Dato’ Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim, President and CEO of Axiata said, “As the majority shareholder of XL, Axiata believes an increase in the free float is positive for XL’s long term corporate development as one of Indonesia’s flagship companies. ...Our shareholders and shareholders of XL can be reassured that XL shall remain as a subsidiary of Axiata Group after the offering, and we will remain fully committed as a strategic shareholder of XL.”Goldman Sachs has been appointed as Sole Global Coordinator and along with CIMB Investment Bank are acting as Joint Bookrunners. Goldman Sachs, CIMB Investment Bank,PT Mandiri Sekuritas are Joint Lead Managers of the Offering. The offering is expected to be completed by April of 2010. (Axiata)
Fitch Ratings affirmed
XL Axiata's National Long-term Rating at 'AA-(idn)' with a Stable outlook. It also affirmed XL's IDR1.5tr senior unsecured notes at 'AA-(idn)'. The agency also rates XL's foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings at 'BB' with a Stable Outlook. XL's ratings reflect its entrenched third position in Indonesia's cellular market, reasonable growth prospects, and strategic importance to its Malaysian parent, Axiata. Fitch has incorporated a one-notch uplift from XL's standalone rating to reflect the company's strategic importance to its parent. (Fitch)
SP Setia has in principle bagged a property project from Vietnam's Investment and Industrial Development Corp to develop a 10.8ha land in Binh Duong province, Vietnam, for a 50-year term. SP Setia said it has received an investment certificate from the People's Committee of the Bunh Duong Province for the establishment of Setia Lai Thieu One Memer Co Ltd with a charter capital of US$6.5m. (BT)
Qatar-based Gulf Petroleum is leading a consortium of Gulf banks and energy firms to build a RM17bn integrated
oil & gas complex on 1,000-1,500 acres of land in Port Dickson next year. On Wednesday, the company signed agreements with parties that include South Korea's GS Engineering & Construction, Saudi Arabia's Haykalah, the UAE's Geodynamics International Co and Singapore's Gas & Oil Support Services Pte Ltd. The agreements cover the financial, construction, operation and maintenance, equity-holding, off-take arrangement for end-products, and technical aspects of the project. (BT)
Singapore Technologies Telemedia and
U Mobile will sign a “strategic partnership” agreement on March 15, according to a media invitation, which didn’t give details. (Bloomberg)
India is set to miss the Mar 31 deadline for implementing
mobile number portability (MNP), junior minister for communications and IT Gurudas Kamat told Parliament on Thursday. This will mark the third instance of the country missing out the deadline to offer its 550m cellular users this facility. The earlier date for introducing MNP was Dec 2009 in the metros and the category A circles. But, with the department of telecom (DoT) being unable to meet this deadline, it had then announced that this facility would be rolled out simultaneously across the whole country from Apr 2010. (Economic Times of India)
Adventa announced that it is acquiring the remaining 40% stake of its 60% owned subsidiary Utama Associates Sdn Bhd. The company stated that it had on 11 March 2010 entered into a Share Sale Agreement to acquire 248,000 ordinary shares of RM1.00 each in Utama Associates, representing 40% shares of the total issued and paid-up capital of Utama Associates at a purchase consideration of RM459,847 to be satisfied wholly by cash. Upon the completion of the acquisition, Utama Associates will become a 100% wholly-owned subsidiary of Adventa. (BMSB)
Khazanah Nasional Bhd is placing out 7.7% of
Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd, following a similar exercise in September last year when it sold a 5% stake in the airport operator as part of its programme to reduce its holdings in government-linked firms. The new placement of 85m shares, via a book building process, is aimed at raising as much as RM400m. Prior to the current placement, Khazanah had a 67.7% stake in MAHB. CIMB and JPMorgan are joint bookrunners in the placement exercise, the term sheet showed. (Reuters)
RAM Ratings says
YTL Power International's move to roll out its RM2.5bn WiMAX network is quite unexpected and this was not in line with its track record of investing in long-term concession assets with stable and sustainable cashflow. "Although RAM Ratings is less sanguine about the group venturing into a non-concession-based business, we note that YTLPI’s power and water concession assets will remain its major cashflow contributors.” The ratings agency said while the group will be viewed to have a more aggressive risk appetite if it deviates further from its strategy of only investing in concession-based utility and infrastructure assets, "we note that the management has been circumspect in its investment decisions and has demonstrated good acumen in business execution thus far". RAM Ratings, meanwhile, reaffirmed the AA1 ratings of YTLPI’s RM2bn 2007/2014 (CP/MTN) and RM2.2bn billion serial redeemable bonds (2008/2013); long-term ratings have a stable outlook. (BT)
YTL Corp is planning an issue of up to US$400m worth of five-year bonds that can be exchanged into ordinary YTL shares, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters. The exchangeable bonds, which mature in 2015, will pay a coupon of 1.375-1.875%. YTL plans to issue US$350m worth of the bonds with an option to increase the issue by another US$50m. The bonds' strike price will be 20-25% above the share's closing price of RM7.48, the term sheet said. (Reuters)
China's Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE), which currently settles an average of 300,000 refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD)
palm oil contracts a day, plans to lower transaction fees by 25% to woo more trades. "We're looking at reducing settlement fees from 4 to 3 yuan per contract to make it more attractive for traders. That's a 25%," said DCE senior manager Wang Yun Tao. "We'll be conducting hedging seminars to some 1,000 enterprises that buy RBD palm oil for their factory use. Through this we hope to attract more traders and more volume at our exchange," he added. (BT)
The Palm and Lauric Oils Conference & Exhibition Price Outlook (POC 2010) was a lot more crowded than last year and there were more Americans. The higher turnout was in anticipation of CME Group announcing the launch of its new US dollar-denominated cashsettled
CPO futures contract, called CUPO, on CME Globex electronic trading platform. Traders in Chicago get to trade CUPO from May 23 this year but those in Kuala Lumpur will get access to it on May 24 due to the 12-hour difference. (BT)
The
International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects Asia-Pacific carriers to turn in a combined US$900m profit this year - versus their US$2.7bn loss in 2009 - on the back of a rapid economic recovery driven by China.
- Overall, the industry loss forecast for this year is lowered to US$2.8bn - from the US$5.6bn IATA predicted in December last year. Revenue is tipped to rise to US$522bn, which is US$44bn more than forecast previously and a US$43bn improvement from 2009. It also cut its 2009 industry loss estimate to US$9.4bn - from US$11bn.
- Key factors that led to the lower loss forecast include an expectation that passenger demand will grow 5.6% this year, versus a 2.9% fall in 2009. This is an improvement on IATA's December 2009 forecast of 4.5% growth this year.
- By January, the international passenger load factor was 75.9% and cargo utilisation was 49.6%. Tighter supply and demand conditions are expected to lift yields by 2% for passengers and 3.1% for cargo in 2010, a big improvement from a 14% fall for both in 2009.
- Cargo markets are particularly strong, with long-haul cargo capacity for shipments from Asia suffering a shortage. Cargo demand, which fell 11.1% in 2009, is now expected to grow 12% in 2010. This is also significantly better than the previous 7% forecast. (SBT)
MISC’s unit MISC Agencies Sdn Bhd has signed a joint-venture deal with two India-based companies, Crescent Shipping Agency (India) Ltd and Sivaswamy Holdings Pvt Ltd. Called MISC Agencies India Pte Ltd, the joint-venture company will act as the sole and exclusive shipping agent for MISC in India. MISC Agencies will have a 60% stake in the joint-venture company, while Sivaswamy and Cresent will own 25% and a 15% respectively. The authorised capital of MISC Agencies India will be 50m rupees (RM3.82m) and the issued and paid-up capital 40m rupees (RM3.06m). (BT)
A planned jumbo-scale commercial development on the current Majidi army camp site could make shopping in
Johor Baru city a vastly different experience when the RM12bn project is completed over the next decade. The blue-print of South Key - the fullyintegrated commercial development - which envisages street malls, offices, hotels and shop-lots, is to be built on 300 acres (121.4 ha, about the size of 270 football fields) in the city, said CH Williams Talhar & Wong director Danny Yeo Soon Kee. (SBT)
TA Enterprise (TAE) has proposed to dispose of a 100%-owned four-star hotel in Singapore to its property arm
TA Global for shares in a deal worth RM651.78m. Under the deal, TA Gobal will assume RM398.6m worth of loans obtained by TAE as part of the purchase consideration. The final purchase amount of RM253.18m will be settled via the issuance of 506.36 m new shares in TA Global at 50 sen each to TAE. “The proposed disposal would enable TAE to streamline its two main core businesses – financial services and property and hospitality division,” it said. (Starbiz)
Datuk Low Tuck Choy’s second bid to regain control of the
Ho Hup Construction Co board was dealt a major blow after an ex parte injunction order barred him, his sister and their company Low Chee & Sons Sdn Bhd (LCS) from voting at an upcoming EGM. (Starbiz)
