Written by Ho Wah Foon of theedgemalaysia.com
Wednesday, 25 September 2013 19:27
KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 25): Based on news flow and corporate announcements today, stocks that may lure interest tomorrow could include Unico-Desa, SP Setia, Bina Puri, Maxis, SBC Corp, SerSol and Pasukhas.
Unico-Desa Holdings Bhd may become a target of mandatory general offer (MGO), if a proposal today that Unico Holdings Bhd and Teoh Hock Chai sell their combined over 60% stake in this plantation firm to a suitor is acted on.
At the AGM of unlisted Unico Holdings, the parent company of Unico-Desa, a shareholder proposed that Unico Holdings (with 29% stake in Unico Desa) and managing director of Unico-Desa Teoh Hock Chai (with over 30% stake) offer to sell all their Unico-Desa shares to the same party to fetch higher prices.
But his proposal at the AGM today received no reply from the Unico Holdings board, which has appointed an investment bank to look for a buyer for Unico Holding’s 29% stake.
If this proposal is taken seriously by Teoh, there would be an MGO for the company.
According shareholders, one of the most likely suitors will be IOI Corporation Bhd, which had been approached some years ago to take up the 29% stake.
S P Setia Bhd reported a 1.5% rise in third quarter net profit from a year earlier. The rise came on lower tax expenses which mitigated the impact of a long-term incentive plan (LTIP) for employees, and higher finance cost on the firm's bottom line.
S P Setia said net profit rose to RM101.88 million in the quarter ended July 31, 2013 (3QFY13), from RM100.4 million. Revenue was higher at RM761.51 million, compared to RM654.19 million.
Cumulative nine-month net profit climbed to RM290.57 million, from RM266.79 million a year earlier. Revenue rose to RM2.16 billion, from RM1.76 billion.
According to S P Setia, it had during 3QFY13 achieved property sales of RM2.91 billion. As at August 31 this year, cumulative sales came to RM6.27 billion.
"The board is pleased to report that as at 31 July 2013 the group has already exceeded its RM5.5 billion sales target for FY2013.”
Bina Puri Holdings Bhd announced it has secured a contract worth RM441 million from a Sime Darby joint venture (JV) company to undertake the construction of super-structure works.
In a statement to Bursa Malaysia, Bina Puri said it had accepted a letter of award from Sime Darby CapitaMalls Asia (Melawati Mall) Sdn Bhd.
The statement stated the contract period would be 24 months.
“With the latest award, we have thus far secured RM775.3 million worth of projects this year. We are confident to add more to our existing book order before the year end,” said Bina Puri.
“Our current un-built book order stands at RM1.9 billion as at to date,” it said.
Maxis Bhd aims to boost its revenue market share with the newly launch #Hotlink plan, the first and only prepaid plan in Malaysia that offers free basic Internet.
Its head of consumer business Dushyan Vaithiyanathan said the telco targets existing users to shift to the new prepaid plan and it hoped to acquire more users from other networks.
"We are hopeful that this plan would really pull us significantly higher in terms of subscribers and revenue," he said at the launch of the new plan today.
The company is Malaysia's only integrated communications service provider with revenue of RM8.9 billion in 2012 and over 14 million subscribers.
On top of that, Maxis sees the smartphone penetration at over 50 per cent in Malaysia currently, thus it believes that more users will use the Internet on mobile devices.
#Hotlink offers free basic Internet at 64 Kilobyte per second (Kbps), a high-speed Internet for only RM1 a day, low flat rate of 12 sen per 30 seconds for voice calls and seven sen per SMS to all networks.
The overall market has over 42 million mobile subscribers.
SBC Corp Bhd expects its revenue to increase by 40% to 50% in the financial year ending March 31, 2014, bolstered by its current and upcoming projects.
SBc managing director Sia Teong Heng said currently their unbilled property sales are at between RM210 million and RM220 million and expects these to contribute to the group's bottomline, Bernama reported.
The group has five projects comprising condominiums, shop offices and landed double-storey houses in Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu and Kuantan.
The group, which has been making inroads in Kota Kinabalu, has embarked on the redevelopment of the Jesselton Waterfront for an estimated gross development value of RM1.8 billion.
The project is a joint venture with the Sabah state-linked company, Suria Capital Holdings Bhd.
SerSol Bhd could be in focus again after Mohd Nazifuddin Mohd Najib, who is a son of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, has acquired a 20.76% stake in the company.
SerSol said today Mohd Nazifuddin has become a major shareholder in the industrial chemical producer after buying 40 million shares in the firm.
Mohd Nazifuddin purchased the stake via private vehicle SerSol Holdings Sdn Bhd. He jointly owns SerSol Holdings with Lim Kim Chai, who has also emerged a substantial shareholder in SerSol.
Shares of Sersol has gained 501% this year.
SerSol had on September 4 this year signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Malaysia Malay Contractor Association to supply paint coatings to the association's members.
Pasukhas Group Berhad (PGB) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Pasukhas Sdn Bhd, has been awarded a construction job worth RM64.5 million.
It informed the stock exchange that the award comes from Emerald Capital (Ipoh) Sdn Bhd, Perak, and an agreement will be signed in due course.
The project, expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2013 and shall be completed within twenty four (24) months, is expected to contribute positively to the future earnings and net assets of the Group.