KUALA LUMPUR (July 29): Based on corporate announcements and news flow today, companies that may be in focus tomorrow (July 30) include Sime Darby Bhd, CTOS Digital Bhd, Frontken Corp Bhd, T7 Global Bhd, NextGreen Global Bhd, Metro Healthcare Bhd, Genetec Technology Bhd, KIP Real Estate Investment Trust (KIP REIT), LYC Healthcare Bhd and EcoFirst Consolidated Bhd.
Sime Darby Bhd, which has appointed CGS-CIMB Securities Sdn Bhd as the stockbroker to facilitate the diversified group’s share buyback, said today Sime Darby believes there is value in the company's shares and that the share buyback will provide some support to its share price. Sime Darby head of strategy Koh Eng Seng said that once Sime Darby buys its shares on the open market and convert them into treasury securities, the treasury shares can be given out as dividends to reward shareholders.
CTOS Digital Bhd made its first post-listing acquisition by buying a 4.63% stake in credit rating agency RAM Holdings Bhd from CIMB Bank Bhd for RM10.05 million, to extend product offering to its existing customers. CTOS said the acquisition of a strategic minority stake in RAM will allow both companies to leverage each company’s expertise in credit assessment, data and analytics to further extend their product offering and value proposition to their existing customer base.
Frontken Corp Bhd's net profit for the second quarter ended June 30, 2021 rose to RM24.74 million from RM20.33 million for the same quarter last year on improved revenue. Revenue increased 24% to RM108.63 million due to contributions from Frontken Corp subsidiaries in Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore.
Energy solution provider T7 Global Bhd's Bayan mobile offshore gas production unit has reached its second construction milestone, with the keel laying at a shipyard in Qingdao, China. It is set to be installed offshore Sarawak for Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd's Bayan Gas Redevelopment Project Phase 2 to boost gas production in the Bayan field upon completion in 2022.
Nextgreen Global Bhd has proposed to undertake a private placement of 5.32% of its total number of issued shares to raise up to RM21.09 million for its tissue paper mill joint venture. The printing and publishing firm said that the private placement of up to 37 million shares will be issued to third-party investors to be identified later and at an issue price to be determined later. Based on an illustrative issue price of 57 sen per placement
share, the private placement is expected to raise up to RM21.09 million, of which RM16.8 million will be used for its joint venture with Dengkil Paper Mill.
LEAP Market-listed Metro Healthcare Bhd has proposed to undertake a bonus issue of new shares on the basis of two bonus shares for every one
existing share on an entitlement date to be determined later. The exercise will entail the issuance of up to 452.25 million new shares in the group.
Genetec Technology Bhd — whose share price has soared by over 10 times since beginning of the year — returned to the black with a net profit of RM8.18 million in the first quarter ended June 30, from a net loss of RM2.09 million a year ago, underpinned by higher sales volume and improved operational efficiency. Quarterly revenue increased 225% to RM40.28 million from RM12.43 million.
KIP Real Estate Investment Trust (KIP REIT)’s net property income for the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2021 rose 13.94% to RM15.08 million, from RM13.23 million a year ago, on improved average occupancy rate across its six malls, coupled with better promotional area income. Quarterly revenue increased 14.82% to RM19.4 million, from RM16.9 million previously. The REIT declared a final income distribution per unit of 2.1 sen, to be paid on Aug 27.
LYC Healthcare Bhd's wholly-owned LYC Mother & Child Centre Sdn Bhd Sdn Bhd has suspended its confinement centre in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur for 14 days till Aug 11, following the discovery of seven Covid-19 infections there. LYC said the subsidiary had on July 27 conducted Covid-19 screening tests on all its employees and customers at the centre when it discovered the seven positive cases.
EcoFirst Consolidated Bhd posted a 657% jump in net profit to RM15.9 million for its fourth quarter ended May 31, 2021, from RM2.1 million in the previous year’s corresponding quarter, boosted by a fair value gain of RM13.7 million. Quarterly revenue fell to RM14 million from RM24.3 million, due to the postponement of new development launches and lower contribution by the property development segment, which continues to be negatively affected by the pandemic.