KEuro to sign West Coast Expressway concession within 2 months
Kumpulan Europlus (KEuro) is set to ink the concession agreement for the West Coast Expressway within the next two months. Its chairman Datuk Abdul Halim Mustapha said on Tuesday the draft agreement was ready to be signed. “Construction work will begin in the second quarter of 2013 while a tender will be called in the early part of 2012”, said Abdul Hamid. He said work on the Banting to Taiping stretch would take five years with the first three years in works will take place in the Selangor stretch. (Financial Daily)
SILK Unit wins ExxonMobil job
SILK Holdings unit Jasa Merin (M) SB has won a RM35m contract from ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc for two anchor-handling tug-supply vessels. It said the 18-month contracts were expected to take effect this month, with an extension option exercisable by ExxonMobil for 12 months. “The contracts are expected to contribute positively to the group’s earnings and assets for the financial tears, ending 31 July 2012 and 2013,” it added. (StarBiz)
Naim plans RM21m private placement
Naim Indah Group will raise gross proceeds of RM21.4m from its private placement. Naim told Bursa Malaysia it planned to implement a private placement of up to 70.2m new ordinary shares of 20 sen each to an independent third-party investor. The proceeds would be used for working capital (RM12m), repayment of bank borrowings (RM3m), capital expenditure (RM5.8m) and estimated expenses for the exercise (RM600,000). (StarBiz)
Aeon scraps land purchase plan
Aeon Co (M) has terminated a sale and purchase agreement with the Datuk Bandar Kuala Lumpur and Dwitasik Sdn Bhd to acquire a piece of land with a proposed shopping centre for RM107.2m. Aeon said the 18 Feb 2009 agreement was terminated due to the non-fulfillment of the conditions precedent. Under the RM107.2m aborted deal, Aeon was to acquire 6.25 acres or 272,250 sq ft of land for RM27.2m and a shopping centre and department store for RM80m. (StarBiz)
Several parties keen to take Ingress private
Speculation has been rife that major shareholders of Ingress are mulling taking the company private in a deal worth more than RM300m. Ingress Corp, a car parts supplier listed on Bursa Malaysia's Main Market, has received offers from several parties to take the company private, but so far nothing has been decided."There are several parties who have approached us, asking us to take the company private. But nothing has been decided," chairman and chief executive officer Datuk Rameli Musa told Business Times after a shareholders' meeting yesterday. (BT)
Top Glove Corp Bhd has entered into a conditional sale and purchase agreement to acquire 100% of the equity in GMP Medicare Sdn Bhd (GMP Medicare) from Matang Manufacturing Sdn Bhd for RM24.1m. Management expects to complete the transaction within six months of the execution fo the sales and purchase agreement. (BMSB)
Tenaga National Bhd and a consortium of Pendekar Power Sdn Bhd (Pendekar Power) and Mitsui & Co Ltd are said to have put in the lowest bids for the new Prai gas-fired power plant in Penang. Although the exact tariffs are not known, the range is said to be between RM0.35-0.40/kwh. The first generation power plants had rates that ranged from RM0.35-0.50/kwh. The Energy Commission (EC) is expected to announce the winning bid in Oct 2012. The capacity of the Prai-power plant will range from 1.0-1.4GW. The gas price quoted in the tender documents is RM42/mmbtu compared with the subsidised rate of RM13.70/mmbtu. The bidding closed on Monday. Pendekar Power comes under the umbrella of Powertek Bhd, whose parent company Tanjong Energy Holdings Sdn Bhd was recently bought over by 1Malaysia Development Bhd. (Financial Daily)
CIMB Group is introducing Indonesia‟s first Shariah-compliant fixed returns on deposits, five years after their adoption in its home market. PT Bank CIMB Niaga Syariah, a unit of the Kuala Lumpur- based bank, started offering the accounts to lenders on June 24 and plans to introduce them for consumers, Badlisyah Abdul Ghani, the head of Islamic banking at the parent, said in a July 4 interview. Indonesia‟s Islamic finance assets total 147.9tr rupiah (RM50bn), trailing Malaysia‟s RM350.4bn, partly because depositors only receive floating payments based on profits or price swings. (BT)
Sime Darby Bhd's former president and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Zubair Murshid @ Ahmad Zubair Murshid, was charged at the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur on two counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT) in a Native Customary Rights (NCR) land development project in Sarawak causing the company to incur losses of more than RM100m. Ahmad Zubair pleaded not guilty to both charges and to two alternative charges of deceiving the company's board of directors on the same project. (Malaysian Reserve)
Maxis unit in India, Aircel, will invest US$500m (RM1.6bn) to launch its 4G services between October and December this year. Business Standard reported that Aircel, which has spectrum in eight circles, would start rolling out the services from Chennai and other cities of Tamil Nadu. "Our focus is on creating a big data business. We‟ll award contracts for 4G equipment soon and launch between October and December. We are putting in US$500m," Maxis‟ chief executive officer, Sandip Das, said. Aircel would be an integrated provider of 4G services, he said. The telecommunications firm would not only provide mobile 4G services through dongles and devices but also get into consumer homes by offering broadband internet, broadcasting, video on demand, education and healthcare services, among others, he said. "It is already working on creating a fibre optic backbone, partly by leasing and partly by investing on its own," he said. On speculation that the telco was up for sale and has been approached by buyers like Sistema, Sandip said, Aircel was open to the idea of going into a strategic partnership, which could include having financial investors, but would continue to hold a majority stake in the company. (Bernama)
Malaysia's broadband penetration rate continued to expand at a brisk pace of 19.6% by the end of the first quarter 2012 from 19.4% as of last year, reflecting the people's propensity to embrace information, communications and technology. According to a pocket book of statistics released by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) Tuesday, the 19.6% increase from a population of 28.78m clearly signalled the acceptance and adaptation of the latest internet revolutions by Malaysians. The increase was also in line with the government's National Broadband Initiative, it said. MCMC said the percentage reflected 5.75m subscriptions from fixed broadband lines, wireless and 1 Malaysia Netbook. (Bernama)
Telekom Malaysia (TM) is tying up with Milan Utama Sdn Bhd to provide enhanced content, including Yellow Pages, for a global positioning system (GPS) navigation system. Milan Utama, a member of the Amtel group, develops GPS navigation system under the brand Lokatoo. The tie-up will result in all new Lokatoo GPS navigators to be embedded with Yellow Pages business listings and TM WiFi sites. This means by using the device, one will be able to locate any companies listed in the Yellow Pages or the nearest TM WiFi sites. To date, there are more than 3,500 of existing categories in Yellow Pages' listing and over 23,000 TM WiFi sites. Azizi added that the partnership will benefit TM's Yellow Pages business significantly as it would increase the user base of the product. Milan Utama executive chairman Datuk Wan Mohd Saleh Wan Mahmood said "This year, with the partnership, we are looking at a 20% increase in sales". The company, which sells its navigation systems to Proton, Perodua as well as Isuzu, hopes to expand to the overseas market soon. "We are looking at a few neighbouring countries, in particular Indonesia and Thailand. We hope to set up our presence in these countries by the end of this year," he said. (BT)
Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), through investee company UMW Holdings Bhd, has announced plans to sell three more firms, namely U-Travelwide Sdn Bhd (U-Travel), U-Insurance Sdn Bhd and Inobel Sdn Bhd to qualified Bumiputera entrepreneurs. "The proposed divestments will be carried out via the process of open tender," UMW and PNB said in an advertisement published in BT yesterday. At a Bumiputera Agenda Action Council meeting on Feb 9, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that PNB would sell five assets to Bumiputera companies.(BT)
Boustead Holdings Bhd's unit BH Petroleum Marketing Sdn Bhd is building between 10 and 12 petrol stations a year, adding to its current portfolio of 330 stations in peninsular Malaysia. The company‟s MD stated that the average cost was about RM4m to RM5m per station. BHPetrol‟s newly launched fully synthetic SynGard 8000 was also expected to double monthly sales of the company‟s fully synthetic oil, of which 100 cartons were sold monthly. (Star Biz)
Trinity Corporation Berhad is planning further land sale worth RM100m to RM200m in the current financial year ending Jan 31, 2013 to strengthen its financial footing. The group has 1229.2 hectares balance land bank, mainly in Selangor, comprising commercial, residential, and industrial properties. In the last financial year, Trinity signed a settlement agreement with and disposed RM363.58m worth of properties to Menteri Besar Selangor to reduce some of its long-standing debts owed to financial firms and creditors following long-delayed projects. (Bernama)
Ingress Corp Bhd is in talks with Japan's Katayama Kogyo to penetrate the Indian automotive market. Talks were also centred on Ingress' plan to raise its stake in Ingress-Mayur Autoventures Pvt Ltd, chairman Datuk Rameli Musa said. Ingress currently has a 40% stake in Ingress-Mayur, which designs, develop, manufactures and distribute auto parts to carmakers in India. The rest of the stake is held by India's Mayur Industries Ltd, a subsidiary of Haryana Industries. "Mayur has asked us to take the driver's seat in the joint venture. We are still in negotiations. We believe having Katayama as our technical partner in the joint venture will hold strong."Suzuki also wants our Japanese partner to come in before they hand us more jobs. Talks are on-going," Rameli said after Ingress shareholders' meeting yesterday. Rameli said Ingress is also talking to Korea's Woo Young Group to help penetrate the automotive market in India and Turkey.(BT)
Astro Malaysia Holdings and The Walt Disney Co South-East Asia have teamed up to introduce a new channel for older children. Malaysia is the first of South-East Asian countries to launch the Disney XD, a new channel catered for children aged between six and 14. It will be the first international channel for children on Astro‟s basic platform, offering its content in English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin and Tamil. It will be home to new Marvel series featuring superheroes, amongst others. (Star Biz)
OSK Property Holdings Bhd has fixed the issue price of its rights shares at RM1 and the warrants at 1.0sen each. It said on Tuesday the issue price of RM1 per rights share was equal to the par value of the shares as well as the theoretical ex-all price of RM1 based on the five-day weighted average market price of RM1.20 per share up to July 16. The corporate exercise involved a renounceable rights issue of up to 23.73m new rights shares on the 1:10 basis with up to 71.2m free warrants. This was on the basis of three free warrants for every one rights shares subscribed for. It also proposed a bonus issue of up to 47.4m OSK Property shares on the basis of two new shares for every one rights shares subscribed by the existing shareholders.(Starbiz)
AT Systematization Bhd and MaoMing JiaCheng Industrial Co Ltd of China have formed a joint venture for a possible listing as well as to set up a renewable energy plant in Malaysia. The 50:50 JV could raise at least US$20m (RM63m) from a possible listing in London. "The company is looking at a possible listing in London as it is flushed with capital. We hope to list it in six months," AT Systematization executive director Auniah Ali said during a media briefing yesterday.The funds will be used to build a renewable energy plant in Malaysia, possibly in Klang. (BT)
Fitters Diversified aims to grow its green solutions division into a core business, with a target revenue contribution of 50% by 2014. MD director Datuk Richard Wong said the company expected to grow its renewable energy business by 5% this year and 20% to 30% in 2013. The growth will be achieved through its venture into renewable, alternative and waste-to-energy projects such as palm oil green mills, biomass plants, biogas capture plants and medical waste management. (Star Biz)
Malaysia Building Society (MBSB) expects another year of record profits this year, said its CEO Datuk Ahmad Zaini Othman. The higher profits would be possible because MBSB expected 20% loan growth this year and NPL to be lower at 6% compared with 8% last year. (Star Biz)
KFC Holdings has set aside an annual fund of RM65m for the expansion of its fast food outlets - KFC and Pizza Hut nationwide with the growth projection of 10% yearly. Managing director of QSR Brands dan KFCH Jamaludin Ali said RM40m was allocated for KFC restaurants and RM25m was set aside for Pizza Hut. "The bulk of the allocations would be utilised for the construction of the drive-thru concept which generates higher revenue for us," he said. (Starbiz)
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