KUALA LUMPUR: Brahim’s Holdings Bhd plans to form a joint venture with Sevair Investissements Aeroportuaires, a subsidiary of Société Air France SA, for the purpose of exchanging expertise.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, Brahim’s (fundamental: 0.8; valuation: 1.8) said it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Sevair to outline the scope of cooperation, so as to facilitate negotiations in formalising “definitive agreements”.
Brahim’s said the cooperation will focus on “technical information, knowledge and proprietary data covering aircraft catering, food and beverage business, procurement of equipment for catering business, menu development, promotion and development of catering business among airlines, raw materials sourcing, and in-flight food preparation and recipes”.
The objective of the MoU is to draw on both parties’ core competencies in the airline catering business and airport services.
Brahim’s, which is principally involved in providing catering services to airlines, said it believes this will enable it to benefit from using the Servair brand mark, and the latter could tap into its halal excellence centre’s halal certification expertise.
However, Brahim’s did not specify any date to announce the negotiated outcome of this MoU.
Brahim’s has been conveying the message to the market recently that it is diversifying its revenue stream in order to lighten its reliance on the ailing national carrier Malaysia Airlines (MAS).
One of the notable efforts was its acquisition of the Burger King franchise in Malaysia and Singapore for RM95 million from Ekuiti Nasional Bhd.
On top of that, it was reported that Brahim’s was optimistic in continuing the 25-year concession contract with MAS, while hoping to add another four customers.
Two of them are known to be British Airways plc and the Emirates Lounge, while the other two have not been disclosed by the group.
The in-flight caterer’s share price rose three sen or 2.26% as at market close yesterday, giving it a market capitalisation of RM314.26 million.
This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 22, 2015.