Telcos defer plan on prepaid service tax
Telecommunication companies DiGi, Axiata, Maxis and U-Mobile SB agreed to defer the 6% service tax for prepaid users, slated to come into effect on Thursday. The decision to defer the service tax was arrived at after a meeting with Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim at Angkasapuri yesterday. (Financial Daily)
Court acquits ex-Sime Bank CEO
Former Sime Bank CEO Datuk Ismail Zakaria was yesterday acquitted and discharged by the Sessions Court here from four charges of acting beyond his authority to approve credit facilities totaling RM175m to an investment company. Judge Datuk Khadijah Idris said the defence succeeded in casting reasonable doubts on the prosecution’s case. (Financial Daily)
Wenzhou bureau to invest RM900m in ECER
The East Coast Economic Region (ECER) has received a RM900m investment pledge from China-based Wenzhou Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau to establish an integrated industrial park in Kuantan, Pahang. The integrated industrial park comprises logistics and warehousing facilities at ECER’s Special Economic Zone in the state. Wenzhou will have its first trading complex in ECER which will be based in the integrated industrial park to boost bilateral trade. (Malaysian Reserve)
KKB Engineering bags contracts worth RM31m
KKB Engineering has secured two contracts worth RM30.7m – for water pipes and gas cylinders. It received a local purchase order from YWP Builders SB via its subsidiary, Harum Bidang SB, to manufacture and supply MSCL water pipes and pipe specials for the Bekalan Air Luar Bandar project in Sarawak. (Malaysian Reserve) Please see accompanying report
SFP, ECM Libra form strategic partnership
Financial advisory firm Standard Financial Planner SB signed an agreement with ECM Libra Investment Bank to offer its financial products and services to the latter’s affluent, high net worth individuals and corporate clients. “The partnership is synergistic as both parties will be able to focus and provide their expertise in their respective areas. This will eventually lead to keeping costs down and the main beneficiaries from this partnership would ultimately be the clients” ECM Libra executive vice president of wealth management Martin Chu said. (Malaysian Reserve)
DBE Gurney sell its Lumut land for RM30m
DBE Gurney Resources wholly-owned unit, DBE Poultry SB, has entered into a MoU with Mutiara Bernas (M) SB (MBSB) to sell its property in the Lumut Port Industrial Park in Lumut, Perak for RM30m The property consists of land and poultry processing plant built on the site. (Malaysian Reserve)
Oil development pact
Dialog Group’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Dialog D&P SB entered into a shareholders’ agreement with Roc Oil Malaysia (Holdings) SB (ROC) and Petronas Carigali SB (PCSB) to jointly develop and produce petroleum from the Balai Cluster Fields, offshore Bintulu, Sarawak. The deal will pave the way for Dialog, ROC and PCSB to be strategic business partners in the equity ownership and development of the small field risk service contract. (BT)
Sime Darby Bhd : SC’s Sime-E&O dilemma
After being bombarded with queries by the investing public and shareholder activists alike, the Securities Commission (SC) has issued a statement saying it is viewing all “stock transactions by all parties” in Sime Darby Bhd’s acquisition of a 30.0% stake in property developer Eastern & Oriental Bhd (E&O). In accordance with the SC’s internal governance processes, the reviews on the acquisition are being led by the two most senior commission members, Datuk Francis Tan and Datuk Gumuri Hussain. SC chair Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar recused herself from the onset. – The Edge
JAKS Resources Bhd : To expand power project in Vietnam
In diversifying its business into the power sector, JAKS Resources Bhd said the company will focus mainly on the Vietnamese market, with plans to expand its power generation capacity to between 5,000 MW and 10,000 MW over the next five to 10 years. JAKS executive chairman T.H. Goh said that they have managed to secure the strong support of the government for their venture and that their power plant project in Vietnam will lead to spinoff projects in the country later on. JAKS is a key player in the water-related industry in Malaysia. It is involved in a wide range of other businesses through its subsidiaries such as water infrastructure construction work, the manufacturing and trading of pipes and related products, general infrastructure and construction works and property development. Venturing into the power-generating industry is part of a plan to diversify its business. - StarBiz
Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, said the stability of the CPO price, which is trading above RM3,000 per tonne, was well supported by lower production and inventory in August. He pointed out that the lower CPO output last month was mainly attributed to palm fruit harvesters, mainly Indonesian workers, who went home for Hari Raya Aidil Fitri in the final week of August.
• Palm oil inventory in August also eased despite lower exports as most major importing countries like China, Egypt and several other Middle-East nations had increased their imports during the JuneJuly period to replenish their stocks prior to the Hari Raya celebrations.
• Another point of interest in the MPOB's August statistics is the higher exports of palm biodiesel by almost 63 times to 13,783 tonnes from just 24 tonnes in July. According to MPOB director-general Datuk Dr Choo May Yuen, the significant jump in biodiesel exports was due to the strong demand from the European Union at 12,017 tonnes in August compared with only 18 tonnes in July. (Starbiz)
Malaysia’s palm oil exports fell 36.4% in the first 10 days of September compared with the same period a month earlier, independent market surveyor Intertek said. (Bloomberg)
AirAsia has signed a term sheet with an intention of a formal agreement with QPR Holdings (parent company of Queen Park Rangers) for the sponsorship of the QPR’s away shirt in the Barclays Premier League. The sponsorship will stretch for seasons 2011/2012 and 2012/2013.
• Malaysia Airline (MAS) also inked a deal with the football club to sponsor the home jerseys for the next two seasons. (Malaysian Reserve)
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has chosen corporate veteran Ahmad Jauhari Yahya as its new chief executive in an effort to nurse the national carrier back to profitability and launch an express airline named Sapphire in November, sources say. He will be assisted by newlyappointed executive director Mohammed Rashdan Yusof as the number two.
• Ahmad Jauhari’s only experience in aviation is his appointment to the Malaysia Airports board last March. He is now the managing director and chief executive officer of Premium Renewable Energy (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd since March 2011 and has previously served as the managing director at several companies, including Malakoff, Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd and Time Engineering.
• Sapphire is planned to start in November as a premium short-haul carrier against Fernandes’ AirAsia budget airline. Firely will stop using the Boeing jets from September 15 and instead focus on turbo-prop operations within the Malay peninsula from its Subang Skypark base. (Malaysian Insider)
Axiata is in the latest list of Forbest Asia's Fab 50, the only Malaysian company to have made the cut this year. It was chosen to join the list from a total of 1,073 companies after its sales jumped by one third to US$5.1 bn (RM15.4 bn). The Fab 50 list takes into account companies with at least US$3 bn (RM9 bn) in revenue or market cap and five-year track records for revenue, operating earnings, return on capital, recent results, share price movements and outlook. It excludes companies with too much debt or where the government owns half the shares. (BT)
General Motors (GM) officially opened a new state-of-the-art US$200m (RM606m) diesel engine plant in Rayong, Thailand, its most significant power-train investment in South-East Asia. The new 54,275 sqm facility, GM's first diesel engine plant in the region, is the first in the world to produce an all-new family of Duramax four-cylinder diesel engines. The highly flexible plant has the capability to manufacture about 120,000 engines per year for use in vehicles built in Thailand and other global markets. (Malaysian Reserve)
Shell Malaysia will expand the newly refurbished Westport Terminal with an additional three new storage tanks and cargo pipelines to cater to growing demand for fuel and future growth in the Klang Valley. Managing director of Shell Malaysia Trading and Shell Timur, Azman Ismail said the expansion work, set to commence in November, illustrates the company's confidence in Malaysia's growth potential for its downstream retail business. "We expect the expansion work to be completed by the fourth quarter of next year". (BT)
Lion Group Bhd may consider moving its steel manufacturing operations to Indonesia as it faces unfair competition from imported hot rolled coils. Chairman Tan Sri William Cheng said the Malaysian government allows zero import duty on hot rolled coils from Indonesia and Thailand but these countries impose import duties of 48% and 43% respectively on the same product from Malaysia. (BT)
TMC Life Sciences is making a cash call to raise some RM60m from existing shareholders to pare down debts and finance its capital needs. TMC plans to undertake a renounceable rights issue of 200.59m new shares at 30 sen each, together with 401.19m free new detachable warrants to sweet the deal. (Financial Daily)
Insas raised its equity stake in Formis Resources to 15.09m shares or 8.12% after the former bought an additional three million shares last Thursday. The shares were acquired by its subsidiary Insas Plaza via a direct business transaction. (Financial Daily)
Mulpha Land has decided to postpone its proposed rights issue due to the uncertain market conditions at present. Mulpha is seeking a six-month extension to May 19, 2012 to implement the proposed rights issue which would have involved a renounceable rights issue of 456.6m rights shares with 273.96m free warrants. (Malaysian Reserve)
Citta, the newly constructed suburban mall in Ara Damansara, has been put up for sale by the owners, sources say. "The vendor is already in talks with interested parties," a source said. The Citta Strip Mall – 70% owned by German real estate fund SEB Asset Management and 30% by property developer Puncakdana Group - is said to be looking at raking between RM700 psft and RM800 psft. This open air shopping mall has some 424,467 sq ft of nett lettable space which means that the mall may fetch as high as RM340m. (BT)
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