Stocks to watch: Affin, Sarawak Plantations, Mitrajaya, Nilai Resources, Notion VTec

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Business & Markets 2012
Written by Joseph Chin of theedgemalaysia.com
Monday, 20 February 2012 20:35


KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 21): As the corporate reporting season picks up pace, there seem to be a mixed bag of results, with banks and PLANTATION []s providing slight upside compared with the other sectors.

AFFIN HOLDINGS BHD []’s earnings rose 4.7% to RM132.54 million in the quarter ended Dec 31, 2011 from RM126.57 million a year ago. Its revenue increased by 14.4% to RM709.81 million from RM620.54 million. Earnings per share were 8.87 sen compared with 8.47 sen.

For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2011, the banking group said it recorded its best ever performance so far, with record profit before tax (PBT) of RM709.1 million compared with RM637.5 million in 2010. This was a RM76.1 million or 11.2% increase.

SARAWAK PLANTATION BHD [] posted net profit of RM19.66 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2011, up 139% from the RM34.35 million a year ago when there was impairment losses of RM10.60 million. Revenue fell 3.4% to RM111.62 million from RM115.61 million a year ago. Its administrative expenses declined to RM8.83 million from RM18.60 million

For FY11, Affin said the earnings rose 139% to RM82.24 million from RM34.35 million. Revenue increased by 40.6% to RM479.36 million from RM340.83 million following the increase of revenue from the oil palm operations segment.

MITRAJAYA HOLDINGS BHD [] has secured three projects valued at RM181.55 million, of which two are for the light rail transit (LRT) contracts and one for a housing project in Putrajaya.

The major shareholders of Nilai Resources Group Bhd have proposed a selective capital repayment (SCR) of RM1.50 a share, which is a premium of 20 sen above the Feb 17 closing price of RM1.30.

The major shareholders are Akarmas Sdn Bhd and Tan Sri Dr Gan Kong Seng who collectively hold 62.937 million shares or 55.1% equity, who will not be entitled to the SCR.

NOTION VTEC BHD [] has proposed a bonus issue of up to 138.91 million new shares on the basis of three bonus shares for every four existing shares held.

It reported net losses of RM4.83million in the first quarter ended Dec 31, 2011 compared with net profit of RM13.41 million a year ago. Its revenue fell 33.9% to RM39.63 million from RM59.98 million. Its loss per share was 3.13 sen compared with earnings per share of 8.79 sen.

ESSO MALAYSIA BHD []’s earnings fell 71.5% to RM34.58 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2011 from RM121.51 million a year ago. Its revenue was 16.5% higher at RM2.75 billion compared with RM2.359 billion a year ago. Earnings per share were 12.80 sen compared with 45 sen.

For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2011, it reported a 42.9% decline in earnings to RM153.35 million from RM268.58 million in FY10. Revenue, however, increased 33.6% to RM11.26 billion from RM8.42 billion.

POS MALAYSIA BHD [] recorded net profit of RM25.06 million in the October-December quarter in 2011 compared with RM6.08 million a year ago mainly due to a provision of investment and a one-off impairment provision. It said revenue increased by 4.4% to RM289.63 million from RM277.33 million.

In the 12-month period from January to December 2011, its earnings rose about 66.8% to RM112 million from RM67.11 million. Its revenue increased 15.6% to RM1.173billion from RM1.014 billion.

The group’s profit from operations rose 38.2% to RM146.0 million (2010: RM105.7 million) for the period ended Dec 31, 2011, due to the full year impact of domestic tariff increase commencing July 1, 2010 coupled with the benefits realized from transformation initiatives.