20121018 1009 Malaysia Corporate Related News.

Malaysia Airports' retail arm, Eraman Malaysia, along with German airport  giant Fraport plans to pull out of  Delhi International Airport (DIAL), a  media report said. GMR Group is willing to pick up the equity stake of its joint  venture partners.  A senior executive of GMR Group confirmed that both  companies were keen to withdraw from the venture and GMR is willing to buy  them out.  DIAL is a joint venture consortium in which GMR Group has about a 54%  stake, with the state-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI) having 26%,  while Fraport and Eraman Malaysia have 10% each. (Bernama)

Part of  TH Plantations Bhd's proposals to expand its operations involving  sustainable forest management and also teak and rubber plantation  development in Sabah were rejected by the Sabah Forestry Department. It said  on Wednesday the department had  not accepted its proposals which involved  the assignment of the sustainable forest management licence agreement dated  Sep-88 between TH Plantations and the Chief Minister of Sabah to  TH-Bonggaya.The department also did not accept the execution of the teak and  rubber plantation development agreement with TH-Bonggaya.TH Plantations  said it would appeal against the decision.(Starbiz)

New EU rules to limit how much food can be made into  biofuels are "not  perfect" and make it harder to achieve overall goals on switching to low carbon  energy, European Commissioners said on Wednesday. But they insisted the  proposals sent out the right signal to the biofuel industry, which would have to  move on to new-generation fuels that do not compete with demand for food.  The Commission announced a major policy shift in September, saying it  planned to limit crop-based biofuels to 5% of consumption, as part of a  goal to draw 10% of transport fuel from renewable sources, mainly  biodiesel and bioethanol. On Wednesday, it formally  published the  proposal, which biofuel producers have said could devastate their business  and green campaigners say fails to address the problem. (Starbiz)

SapuraKencana has secured a 3-month extension worth US$9.2m starting  from 21 Apr 2013 for the supply of rig T6 to Petronas Carigali. The rig is  currently servicing a 28-month contract effective 21 Dec 2010. (BMSB)

Etiqa Takaful sees vast opportunities to expand its business as only 47% of the  population are insured. Etiqa Insurance and Takaful chief commercial officer,  Shahril Azuar Jimin, said many Malaysians still did not have any kind of  insurance coverage. "The insurance penetration rate here is still low, especially  among the Bumiputera community, where only 11% are covered," he said. He  said the products were launched in partnership with Pos Malaysia. (Bernama)

Ken Holdings, a specialist engineering construction services provider and  green property developer, is looking for strategic partners to venture into the  hospitality sector. Executive Director Sam C.S. Tan said "We've got many  ongoing projects in Kuala Lumpur, Shah Alam, Penang, Melaka, Perak and also  now in Johor Baharu City Centre.  "In JB we are developing the first green township in the southern corridor  after our first green township development in Ken Rimba Shah Alam in  Selangor. We are moving into the hospitality sector and hope to have good  partners who can make our vision of creating better and greener homes for  the public," he said. (Bernama)

Pos Malaysia Bhd hopes to finalise soon the acquisition of a courier company  in the Middle East. Group CEO Datuk Khalid Abdol Rahman said talks on the  acquisition were still ongoing and "we hope to finalise it within this year." "We  are currently in the negotiation process and want to finalise it very soon," he  told reporters at the launch of the Takaful Flexi PA and Takaful Driver and  Passenger PA here on Wednesday.  In another development, Khalid said Pos Malaysia is currently working  with DRB-Hicom Bhd's property development group, to redevelop its  land.Pos Malaysia has land in Brickfields, Kelana Jaya and Batu Pahat.  (Starbiz)

Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd, operator of the country's busiest port, is  looking to raise as much as US$500m (RM1.5bn) in an initial public offering  (IPO) in 2Q13, two sources with direct knowledge of the plan said. The funds  raised from the IPO will help Westports expand Port Klang, which has reported  double-digit growth in container handling over the last five years. Westports,  which counts Hutchison Port Holdings and Khazanah Nasional Bhd as  shareholders, is launching an IPO at a time when privatisation schemes and  economic growth have cemented the country's position as Asia's top destination  for initial share sales. (BT)

Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score) has attracted total  approved investments of RM29.1bn. 12 of the approved projects worth RM27bn  were in energy-intensive or heavy industries in Samalaju Industrial Park,  Bintulu. (Star Biz)

Sarawak Energy Bhd (SEB) plans to build another five coal-fired power plants with a combined generation capacity of 2,400MW to support  energy-intensive industries in Score. The give include the 600MW Balingian I  project, for which the tender for its construction has been called. The other  plants were Balingian II, Mukah West I, Merit Pila and Mukah West II. (Star  Biz)

Semperit AG Holdings said that securing regulatory approvals in Europe for  its acquisition of Latexx Partners Bhd is merely a formality. The company  must file with the competition regulators in Germany and Austria which will  take four to five weeks from the offer date to complete.  Semperit has obtained a controlling interest in the Latexx of 57% and has  no intentions to revise its price. If Semperit is able to acquire more than  75% of Latexx's shares, it will  seek to delist Latexx. However, Semperit is  also comfortable maintaining Latexx's listed status because it would  already control the management team.  The company added that it intends to invest U$60-80m to expand Latexx's  annual production capacity to 15-16bn pieces. The company said its focus is to grow Malaysia and Latexx's chairman and CEO Low Bok Tek is expected  to remain at the helm of Latexx. (StarBiz)

Perodua continued to stamp its dominance on the local automotive industry  with a 30% market share for the first nine months of this year. It sold 139,400  vehicles during the period, an increase of 10% over last year. However,  Perodua's sales on a qoq basis saw marginal decline of 3%, which the company  attributed to the tightened lending guidelines imposed on the industry.  (Financial Daily)

Maxis intends to grow its data centre management. Being the first Tier III  certified data centre facility in Malaysia, maxis is stepping up efforts to attract  international enterprises, leveraging its certified facility and the country's  natural disaster free environment, said senior VP and head of Maxis business  services M Fitri Abdullah. (Financial Daily)

Green Packet, whose share price had risen in very active trade over the  speculation on the sale of its broadband business, declined to comment  yesterday. It had earlier in the day, through a public relations company, sent an  email advisory to the press to expect an announcement later in the day.  Describing the articles as "speculative in nature", it said the company's public  communication policy is not to comment on press articles which are speculative  in nature. "The company holds itself to the highest standards of corporate  governance and will ensure that all announceable agreements or transactions  will be disclosed to Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd and the investors  accordingly," the company said in its filing to Bursa Malaysia.  Various publications reported yesterday that the company is rumoured to  be looking into selling its 61% stake in Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd.  The reports said five parties submitted bids for P1, of which three are  foreign parties. P1's other major shareholder is South Korea's SK Telecom  with a 28.2% stake. (BT)

Siemens it has won a major contract to supply driverless metro trains to the  Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. Siemens said that in a partnership with an  unnamed local company, it had won an order for 58 four-car trains, as well as  the complete equipment for two new depots. The total value of the agreement  was some EUR450m (RM1.8bn), with Siemens' share worth some  EUR260m(RM1.0bn), the statement said. (StarBiz)


SAAG seeks white knight
After seeing its share price collapse earlier in the week, SAAG Consolidated has now slipped into PN17 status due to its inability to regularize its financial position. This in turn is likely to get its creditors, which comprise of some big banking names, more anxious about their exposure. SAAG has outstanding debts of about RM700m, owed to AMMB, Exim Bank Malaysia and the State Bank of India among others. (StarBiz)