Johor Corporation and CVC Capital Partners Asia III Ltd have teamed up to take over QSR Brands and KFC Holdings Malaysia (KFCH). Johor Corp and CVC Capital made the offer via a special purpose vehicle Massive Equity SB (MESB) in which Johor Corp holds a 51% stake and CVC Capital 49%. MESB offered RM6.80 for the shares in QSR Brands and RM3.79 for the warrants. At RM6.80, this is 80 sen above the closing price of RM6 on Tuesday, while the offer price for the warrants was a premium of 77 sen from the closing price of RM3.02. MESB also made an offer to KFCH of RM4 per share and RM1 per warrant. (Financial Daily)
Sime Darby buys part of Caterpillar distribution biz for RM1.1bn cash
Sime Darby’s industrial division buys Caterpillar Inc’s former Bucyrus distribution business, involving mining machinery, in Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia for USD360m (RM1.1bn) cash. Sime Darby said on Wednesday the acquisition would enable its industrial division to strengthen its position in the mining industry by offering a wider range of mining equipment and services to its customers. (Financial Daily)
Naza joins in race for Proton
The Naza Group, the country’s biggest privately-held automotive group, made a closed-door presentation to Khazanah Nasional yesterday to buy its stake in Proton Holdings. The presentation came just a day after UMW Holdings made a similar presentation to the government’s investment fund. The other bidder for the national carmaker is DRB-HICOM, the country’s biggest publicly-traded automotive company. (BT)
RM1.4bn capex plan for SapuraCrest Kencana
Sapuracrest Petroleum plans to spend RM1.4bn in capital expenditure (capex) in the next two years. It will be used for buying new vessels and as part of SapuraCrest's new investments and expansion plans. SapuraCrest is merging with Kencana Petroleum to create Malaysia's oil and gas (O&G) largest player by assets. (BT)
SapuraCrest's shareholders have given the go-ahead for its merger with Kencana with 99.5% in favour of the deal. Shareholders also approved SapuraCrest's acquisition of Australia-based Clough's marine construction and offshore engineering operations in Australia, UK and US for RM409m cash. executive vice chairman Datuk Seri Shahril Shamsuddin said that moving forward, SapuraCrest will focus on streamlining its operations with Kencana and expanding its workforce, adding that the oil & gas business is coming off its base and poised for an upswing. Kencana's shareholders are scheduled to vote on the merger today. (Star)
Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) will officially look into the deal between Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and AirAsia when the Competition Act comes into effect on Jan 1 next year. However, CEO Shila Dorai Raj said neither MAS nor AirAsia had submitted any report to MyCC. MyCC received several complaints from consumers, especially during its road show in Sabah and Sarawak recently. "Our priority is the consumers. We will investigate the deal next year onwards. From our initial analysis, we think there could be something," she told reporters. Yesterday, International Chambers of Commerce (ICC) organised the "ICC Malaysia CEO Business Luncheon Talk on Competition Act 2010: An Insight into What to Expect". The Competition Act is to prevent business monopolies or cartels. It will apply to all commercial activities undertaken within and outside Malaysia that affect competition in the country. The Act will provide a regulatory framework including powers to investigate, adjudicate and impose penalties. (BT)
Malaysian Airline (MAS) will axe eight loss-making routes under its route rationalisation exercise which will take effect early 2012. The withdrawal was based on internal profitability and yield analysis. This account for almost 12% of passenger capacity and the ongoing route rationalisation will improve loads, improve yields and have a profit impact of RM220m to RM302m for 2012. (Financial Daily)
Qantas should base its Asian operations in Malaysia rather than Singapore if it is serious about expanding in the region, said Tan Sri Tony Fernandes. ―Singapore is the better business hub for sure, but the majority of Singapore traffic is transit traffic – just like Dubai. Whether you connect in KL or Singapore, the key is connectivity,‖ adding that Qantas would have lower costs if it chose Kuala Lumpur. (BT)
The additional costs and delays to KLIA2 can be blamed on Malaysia Airports’ (MAHB) decision to move the new low-cost terminal from its original northern site to the current spot in the west, Tony Pua said. This was due to poor soil conditions at the new site as noted in the 1992 KLIA Masterplan, estimating that earthworks alone accounted for about RM1.2bn of the additional RM1.9bn in additional cost. The report clearly says don’t build anything here. Pua pointed out the move to KL IA West meant a third runway had to be built for RM270m and also the construction of a second control tower for RM500m, the only modern airport in the world with two control towers. (Malaysian Insider)
Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) expects 2012 to be a challenging year in the midst of increasing demand for electricity and the shortage of gas supply, said its VP of planning, Datin Roslina Zainal. However, she was confident the gas problems would be resolved by next July when Petronas' regasification terminal in Melaka was ready. "We are hopeful the government will allow the present cost-sharing mechanism to continue until the problem is resolved". Moving forward, she said, TNB will focus on the local front where the competitive bidding for 4,500MW of new generation by 2016-2017 would commence early next year. She said although the LNG bought by Petronas for its regasification terminal in Melaka was at market prices, the price of gas paid by the power sector would not reach market prices by 2012. "This is not expected to be a major problem since LNG makes up a smaller portion of gas for the country and indigenous gas will still be available," she said. (Bernama)
The proposed cost-sharing mechanism agreed to by the government addresses the cost incurred by using alternative fuels up to Oct 2011, said Tenaga Nasional Bhd VP of planning, Datin Roslina Zainal. However, the power sector experienced gas shortage in Nov and was continuing this month, thus Tenaga is still using alternative fuels to power its gas plants. She said, "Tenaga has brought up this matter to the government, requesting the cost sharing mechanism be put in place until the gas shortage problem is overcome". At the current level of gas volume supplied to the power sector, Tenaga would need to incur additional cost of between RM300-400m a month, which was unsustainable. She said that officers from Petronas, Energy Commission and Tenaga would be involved in the review process to ascertain the cost incurred by using alternative fuels. The process was envisaged to start by mid-Dec 2011 after the Economic Planning Unit gave the mandate to the Energy Commission to act as witness for this matter. "The documents, which are being reviewed, will date from Jan 2010 until Oct 2011 and therefore, the review process will take some time before it is completed," she said. Roslina said the mechanism for review and audit would be similar to the way it was done in 2002 under a cost-sharing mechanism. "Tenaga is confident this process will proceed smoothly since the documents are ready for review by Petronas and the Energy Commission." The exact figures will be finalised once the review process is completed," she said. (Bernama)
RHB Capital and OSK group will soon submit to Bank Negara Malaysia a detailed proposal on the merger of the investment banking units of both groups. ―The parties have been in negotiations and seem to have come to more definite terms on the proposed merger. They are nearing completion of discussions and aim to submit the details of the merger as early as this month,‖ said a source familiar with the matter. The proposed merger is targeted to be finalised by Mar 2012. RHB Capital is believed to be looking at bringing in an ―outsider‖ who is not from either entity to lead the investment banking business of the merged entity. (Financial Daily)
PLUS Bhd, the company taking over Malaysian highway operations of PLUS Expressways Bhd, set indicative pricing to sell RM23.4bn of Islamic bonds in the country's record corporate debt offering. The company, part-owned by Malaysia's largest pension fund, started inviting bids for RM11.3bn of syariah-compliant notes with maturities ranging from five to 19 years, and to yield between 3.8-5.07%, according to a sales note sent to investors yesterday. PLUS will also privately place some of the bonds, which will have maturities of 20-25 years, it said.(BT)
UDA Holdings Bhd will be reviewing the proposal by Ministry of Finance (MoF) to divide the former Pudu Jail site, better known as Bukit Bintang City Centre (BBCC) into three plots, to ensure the value of the land can be maximised. UDA chairman Datuk Nur Jaz-lan Mohamed said the study is being conducted by a special committee chaired by a board member before it is presented to MoF for consideration. It was reported that the MoF had asked UDA to divide the former Pudu Jail land into three plots with two being given to Bumiputera companies and the remainder to a non-Bumi entity. The directive was issued after the MoF did not consider UDA's proposal to appoint a China government-linked company, Everbright International Construction Engineering Corporation, as its joint venture partner for the land. (BT)
Goldis has accepted an offer from Trigoh Sdn Bhd to dispose of its 70% srake in Macro Kiosk (MKB) for RM15m cash. The proposed disposal will be a management buyout (MBO) by Goh Chee Ken, Goh Chee Heng and Goh Chee Seng who are the CEO, COO and head of corporate affairs of MKB respectively. The 70% stake in MKB was originally acquired for RM105,000 on Feb 1, 2002. The expected gain on disposal of MKB will be about RM9.5m. (Financial Daily)
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