KUALA LUMPUR (June 30): Based on corporate announcements and news flow today, companies that may be in focus on Monday (July 3) may include the following: LB Aluminium, Astino Bhd, Goldis Bhd, Borneo Oil, Prolexus Bhd, Cypark Resources, Pelikan International, Ajinomoto (Malaysia), Subur Tiasa, XingQuan International and Hock Seng Lee.
LB Aluminium Bhd's fourth quarter ended April 30, 2017 (4QFY17) net profit fell 76% to RM1.38 million from RM5.86 million a year earlier mainly on higher taxes, while revenue rose 14.1% to RM124.54 million from RM109.16 million.
"The rise in revenue was due mainly to higher business volume as well as higher average selling prices," LB Aluminium said.
For the full year, LB Aluminium said net profit rose to RM17.95 million from RM15.72 million a year earlier. Revenue was higher at RM465.98 million versus RM444.82 million.
LB Aluminium proposed a dividend of 2.5 sen a share .
Looking ahead, LB Aluminium said it was mindful of aluminium price volatility. As such, the company said it would continue to monitor aluminium prices to protect the company's profit margin and ensure selling prices of the company's products remained competitive.
Higher sales and profit margin pushed metal roof sheet maker and seller Astino Bhd's net profit up 18% to RM11.71 million in the third quarter ended April 30, 2017 (3QFY17), from RM9.92 million a year earlier.
Revenue was up 2% to RM128.43 million in 3QFY17, compared with RM126.18 million a year ago, as overseas sales jumped to RM12 million from RM7 million last year.
In the cumulative nine-month period, Astino's net profit grew 34% to RM29.38 million, from RM21.92 million last year, as revenue rose 4% to RM375.77 million, from RM360.85 million a year ago, thanks to higher steel price and stronger overseas market demand.
Moving forward, Astino said global economies are expected to grow moderately, in tandem with slower growth in China, as well as modest and uneven recovery in advanced economies.
Goldis Bhd is revising the options for its takeover offer for IGB Corp Bhd.
Originally, Goldis offered three options available to IGB shareholders — cash only or a cash plus Goldis shares on a 30:70 ratio respectively, and the third option is cash plus new redeemable convertible cumulative preference shares (RCCPS) on a 20:80 ratio respectively. Meanwhile, shareholders owning fewer than 100 IGB shares would be offered cash only.
However, Goldis said it wants to allow all scheme shareholders to have the same election rights, whereby those with fewer than 100 IGB shares can elect for the Cash Option, the Cash and Share Option or the Revised Cash and New RCCPs Option.
Secondly, the proportion of cash to new RCCPS to be offered under the Cash and New RCCPS Option has been revised from 20% in cash and 80% New RCCPS to 12% in cash and 88% new RCCPS.
Borneo Oil Bhd’s net profit for its first quarter ended April 30, 2017 fell 50.8% to RM5.3 million from RM10.7 million a year ago, mainly because the previous period had recorded a one-off property disposal gain of RM4.3 million.
Quarterly revenue was down 98.7% to RM19.4 million from RM1.5 billion a year ago, mainly because its gold spot contract trading revenue for the quarter was not included in its 1Q report due to a change in the basis of revenue recognition from its third quarter ended Oct 31, 2016.
Lower contribution from Prolexus Bhd’s apparels division dragged its net profit down 54% in its third quarter ended April 30, 2017 to RM1.6 million from RM3.5 million a year ago. Earnings per share fell to 0.93 sen from 2.57 sen.
Revenue was down 15% at RM61.7 million compared with RM72.9 million previously.
The group declared an interim dividend of 1.25 sen at an entitlement date to be determined later.
For the cumulative nine months (9MFY17), its net profit fell 14% to RM15.7 million or 9.15 sen per share, from RM18.2 million or 13.55 sen per share in 9MFY16, as revenue slipped 7% to RM258.1 million from RM277.5 million.
The group expects the coming quarter to be challenging.
Cypark Resources Bhd’s net profit for the second quarter ended April 30, 2017 (2QFY17) fell 24% to RM11.61 million from RM15.27 million a year earlier, as it incurred accounting expenses on the grant of equity-settled share options to its employees.
The group said that excluding the grant, its net profit would have been RM16.8 million
Revenue came in at RM83.93 million, up 9.9% from RM76.37 million in Q2FY16.
For the cumulative 1HFY17, Cypark posted a net profit of RM22.94 million, a decline of 9.9% from the RM25.48 million in 1HFY16.
Revenue in 1HFY17, meanwhile, rose 11.9% to RM162.41 million from RM145.16 million in the same period a year ago.
It added that it is optimistic that several of the tenders are at advance stages of negotiations and will likely be secured this year.
Pelikan International Corp Bhd — and its subsidiaries involved in the manufacturing, sales and distribution of remanufactured toner, inkjet cartridge and nylon ribbons — are disposing of their businesses in Germany, France, Czech Republic and China for RM30 million.
The group said its printer consumable business is undertaken primarily via Pelikan Hardcopy Production AG (PHP), Pelikan Hardcopy Distribution GmbH & Co. KG (PHD) and Pelikan France S.a.s, and accounts for RM123.1 million or 9.3% of the group’s revenue in the year ending Dec 31, 2016 (FY16).
However, the group said the business had not fared well in the past years due to declining volume and changes in the market, and that it had to undertake several reorganisation exercises to ensure the value of business is still maintained to allow future monetisation of the business.
The managing director and two other executive directors of Ajinomoto (Malaysia) Bhd have been reassigned to other posts by Ajinomoto Co Inc Japan.
The group said managing director Keiji Kaneko, 53, and executive directors Dr Masata Mitsuiki, 54, and Motohiro Komase, 46, have resigned from their current posts effective today.
Sarawak-based Subur Tiasa Holdings Bhd returned to the black in the third quarter ended April 30, 2017 (3QFY17) thanks to higher average export selling prices for timber and fresh fruit bunches (FFB) and lower production cost of FFB.
The group reported a net profit of RM536,000 for the quarter, compared with a net loss of RM13.87 million in 3QFY16.
Quarterly revenue came in at RM115.39 million, up 4.7% from the RM110.24 million recorded in 3QFY16.
For the cumulative first nine months of FY17 (9MFY17), Subur Tiasa’s net loss contracted 47.4% to RM8.16 million from RM15.6 million a year earlier, although revenue declined 9.5% to RM377.36 million from RM416.91 million.
Moving forward, Subur Tiasa expects the oil palm plantation segment to contribute positively to the group as the upcoming peak crop season will lead to an increase in FFB production in its oil palm plantation.
XingQuan International Sports Holdings Ltd, which faces a trading suspension after it failed to submit its quarterly financial results on time, said it will once again miss its submission deadline as it has not found the right candidates to fill its vacant top corporate roles.
The group said it failed to secure a suitable candidate to fill the vacancy of chief financial officer (CFO) this month. Therefore, it is unable to complete the preparation of its third quarterly financial report by mid-July.
On June 5, XingQuan clarified that it failed to issue the results due to the expiry of the employment contract of its CFO on April 30, and the sudden resignation of its independent director Tan Eng Choon on May 29, who was also the chairman of the audit committee.
It had also said that it hoped to fill the vacancies within June and issue the outstanding report by mid-July.
The High Court in Kuching has fixed Aug 1 for its decision on a stay application made today by the board of Hock Seng Lee Bhd (HSL) against a disclosure order successfully obtained by its shareholder, Yii Chee Ming.
The Sarawak-based construction and engineering group said an interim stay granted by the court yesterday will stay in force until then.
HSL is applying for a stay of the disclosure order pending its appeal against the order, which was made by the court yesterday. Yii had applied for the order in December last year requiring four HSL directors to disclose matters concerning the acquisition and disposal of shares in HSL’s holding company, Hock Seng Lee Enterprise Sdn Bhd.