Business & Markets 2014
Written by Ho Wah Foon of theedgemalaysia.com
Wednesday, 29 January 2014 19:32
KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 29): Based on corporate news and announcements today, the following companies may come into focus tomorrow:
Bursa Malaysia Bhd expects its “positive revenue trend” to continue in the current financial year ending December 31, 2014.
Its CEO Datuk Tajuddin Atan said: "Looking at the past few years, we have consistently delivered higher revenues, while costs remain much more stable. The exchange had been working on improving its cost to income ratio."
Tajuddin was speaking at a press conference here in conjunction with the announcement of its financials for the fourth quarter (4QFY13).
In 4QFY13, net profit fell 5% to RM33.84 million from RM35.76 million a year earlier. Revenue however rose to RM113.93 million from RM104.23 million.
Full-year net profit rose to RM173.08 million from RM150.6 million a year earlier. Revenue was higher at RM474.99 million versus RM424.59 million.
Bursa Malaysia plans to pay a dividend of 16 sen a share for the quarter. This brings its full-year dividends to 52 sen a share.
Bursa Malaysia is optimistic of the initial public offering (IPO) trend here in 2014. Tajuddin said the IPO pipeline "seems quite healthy" based on the number of approvals and submissions.
Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) is looking at an overall loan growth of 12% for 2014, driven by its retail and corporate businesses.
For the full year of 2013 (FY13), the group saw its net loan, advances and financing increased by 25% to RM30.3 billion from RM24.3 billion a year earlier.
Its president and CEO Datuk Ahmad Zaini Othman said MBSB had achieved impressive loan disbursement on the corporate business front with an increase of 30% from that achieved in 2012.
"These disbursements have largely been made to facilitate property development and private finance initiative project financing," he told a press conference.
The group will be introducing palm oil plantation financing in the second quarter of this year, which is expected to contribute to its corporate business revenue.
Quill Capita Trust (QCT) has proposed a RM750 million acquisition of a freehold land and its commercial development in KL Sentral, Kuala Lumpur.
Quill Capita Management Sdn Bhd (QCM), the management company of QCT, said it had today entered into a heads of agreement (HOA) for the proposed acquisition with MRCB Sentral Properties Sdn Bhd (MSP).
MSP is a wholly-owned unit of Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB).
However, QCT said the proposed acquisition is conditional upon MRCB entering into a share sale agreement to acquire a 40% and 1% equity stake in QCM from CapitaLand RECM Pte Ltd and Coast Capital Sdn Bhd (CCSB)respectively.
QCT also said it is conditional upon Quill Resources Holdings Sdn Bhd, a shareholder of QCM, entering into a share sale agreement to acquire an additional 9% equity stake in QCM from CCSB.
QCT said it will fund the purchase via cash and issuance of new units in QCT.
Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB) is selling its 30% associate stake in the concession holder of the 18km Duta-Ulu Kelang Expressway (DUKE) to Ekovest Bhd for RM228 million cash.
MRCB said sale of the stake in DUKE, deemed a non-core asset, will allow it to channel its resources to core operations like property development, specialised infrastructure and environment projects.
MRCB said under the deal, MRCB is selling its 30% stake in Nuzen Corp Sdn Bhd to Ekovest's wholly-owned unit Wira Kristal Sdn Bhd.
Ekovest via Wira Kristal already owns 70% in Nuzen. Hence, the acquisition of the remaining stake will give the buyer full control of Nuzen.
Nuzen owns 100% of Konsortium Lebuhraya Utara-Timur (KL) Sdn Bhd (Kesturi) which in turn is the concessionaire of the DUKE.
MRCB said the exercise is due for completion by the third quarter of 2014.
Meanwhile, Ekovest Bhd said in a separate statement that the acquisition of the balance 30% in the DUKE bodes well for the buyer's financials.
Ekovest said having full control of the DUKE will give the buyer additional recurring income.
"Moving forward, the performance of the DUKE is expected to improve with the expected increase in traffic volume over the duration of the concession period and is expected to strengthen the earnings of the group in future years.
"The expected completion of the DUKE Phase-2 at end-2016 is expected to further increase the traffic volume of the DUKE," Ekovest said.
Salcon Bhd has secured two construction contracts worth RM23 million for projects in Shah Alam and Klang, Selangor.
The water and wastewater engineering company said Envitech Sdn Bhd, a 60% owned subsidiary of Salcon Engineering Bhd, has accepted the awards from Cekal Unggul Sdn Bhd and HNC Jurutera Perunding Sdn Bhd.
Salcon Engineering Bhd is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Salcon.
“The projects are expected to contribute positively towards the earnings and net assets of the group for the financial years ending Dec 31, 2014 and Dec 31, 2015,” said Salcon.
The firm said the project in Klang is for the design, approval, supply, delivery, construction, completion, testing, commissioning and maintenance of a proposed 25,000 P.E. sewerage pumping station and associate works for a proposed mixed development.
It said the other project stipulates the proposed ‘force main works’ from the intermediate pumping station at Tropicana Metropark, Shah Alam to the existing Indah Water Konsortium’s sewerage treatment plant.