KUALA LUMPUR (November 14): GD Express Carrier Bhd’s (GDEX) share price rose as much as 2.4% on Friday morning after the group proposed a bonus and warrants issue to reward its shareholders.

The company had also announced its first quarter results yesterday, posting a 35% year-on-year (y-o-y) rise in net profit to RM4.98 million, while revenue rose 18% y-o-y to RM43.74 million.

At 10.32am, the counter was traded at RM2.13, up 1 sen or 0.5%, with 533,900 shares done. Earlier, GDEX rose as much as 5 sen or 2.4% to reach a high of RM2.17.

In an announcement yesterday, the company proposed a one-for-three bonus issue and a one-for-five warrants issue to reward its shareholders, while also improving its trading liquidity.

GDEX said that it will issue up to 310.85 million bonus shares and 186.51 million warrants.

To accommodate the bonus issue, GDEX has also proposed to increase its authorised share capital to RM500 million comprising 10 billion shares, from RM50 million comprising 1 billion shares.

In a note today, RHB Research Institute Sdn Bhd said GDEX’s 1QFY14 results were within expectations, and said it remained positive on the company’s growth prospects.

“We continue to like GDEX for its proven growth track record, strong growth potential in the region, leveraging on the booming e-commerce activities, strong balance sheet (net cash) to withstand business uncertainties, and healthy profit margin to withstand the intense competition within the industry,” said RHB.

The research house maintained “buy” on GDEX, with an unchanged target price of RM2.42.