KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 18): Based on corporate news flow and announcements today, stocks in focus tomorrow (Wednesday, Aug 19) may include: AFG, IGB, Wah Seong, Star Media Group, Bina Puri, Berjaya Assets, Magnum, Tune Ins, Padini, Hup Seng, Box-Pak, TIME dotCOM, LFE and DNex.

Alliance Financial Group Bhd (AFG)’s net profit dropped 7% in its first quarter ended June 30, 2015 (1QFY16), from a year earlier, mainly on significantly higher bad loan allowance.

Alliance (fundamental: 1.5; valuation: 2.25) said net profit came in at RM121.93 million versus RM130.81 million in 1QFY15, even as revenue rose 2% to RM344.35 million, from RM336.74 million previously, on higher interest and Islamic banking income.

Its income statement showed bad loan allowance rose to RM17.11 million, from RM1.75 million a year earlier.

IGB Corp Bhd’s net profit for the second quarter ended June 30, 2015 (2QFY15) fell 17% to RM55.35 million or 4.06 sen a share, from RM66.76 million or 4.97 sen a share last year, dragged down by lower contributions from its property development and hotel divisions.

The recognition of an employee benefit expense of about RM11 million from the granting of option shares to eligible employees under an executives share option scheme, also eroded its earnings.

Revenue for 2QFY15 declined 6.5% to RM271.91 million, from RM290.84 million a year ago.

IGB (fundamental: 1.2; valuation: 2) also declared an interim dividend of five sen per share for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2015 (FY15), amounting to RM66.75 million, payable on Sept 18.

For the six months period ended June (1HFY15), IGB's net profit fell 4.3% to RM120.5 million or 8.83 sen per share, from RM125.97 million or 9.37 sen per share, due to same reason; but revenue for 1HFY15 came in at RM606.19 million, 3.64% higher on-year from RM584.91 million.

Pipe coating specialist Wah Seong Corp Bhd has bagged a RM188.96 million sub-contract from Penta-Ocean Construction Co Ltd for the supply and delivery of coated steel pipe piles for the Pengerang Deepwater Petroleum Terminal Project in Johor.

Wah Seong (fundamental: 0.95; valuation: 3) said the sub-contract, which is project specific and non-renewable, is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2016.

Star Media Group Bhd’s net profit for the first six months ended June 30, 2015 (1HFY15) rose 7.6% to RM59.84 million or 8.11 sen per share, from RM55.64 million or 7.54 sen per share in 1HFY14, mainly due to higher profit recorded for the print and radio segment.

It declared an interim dividend of 9 sen per share for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2015 (FY15), payable on Oct 16. The stock will trade ex-dividend on Sept 22, according to its filing to Bursa Malaysia.

Its 1HFY15 revenue, however, declined a marginal 0.4% to RM483.75 million, from RM485.67 million a year ago, largely due to contribution from its print and radio segments.

But its print and digital segments for the period saw a higher profit before tax of RM84.23 million versus RM72.94 million in 1HFY14, mainly because the previous year recorded expenses incurred from its voluntary separation scheme.

Meanwhile, its second quarter ended June 30 (2QFY15)’s net profit came in at RM33.29 million or 4.51 sen per share, versus RM39.38 million or 5.34 sen per share a year ago; while revenue was down 3% to RM266.31 million, from RM274.53 million in 2QFY14, largely due to lower revenue contribution from its print segment.

Bina Puri Holdings Bhd has secured an island resort work contract that is worth RM100 million at Pulau Poh, which is located at Kenyir Lake, Terengganu.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, Bina Puri said its wholly-owned subsidiary Bina Puri Sdn Bhd (BPSB) had accepted the letter of award from the Terengganu State Public Work director on June 22, 2015 to undertake the project to design, build and complete the resort.

The completion period is three years. Bina Puri said the resort will have 150 rooms, a banquet hall that can hold up to 300 guests, restaurant, retail areas and a swimming pool.

The Kenyir Lake project is expected to contribute positively to the assets and earnings of Bina Puri (fundamental: 0.15; valuation: 2.6) for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2015.

Berjaya Assets Bhd (Bassets)'s profit declined 71.7% in its fourth quarter ended June 30, 2015 (4QFY15) to RM5.8 million, from RM22.93 million last year, due to lower profit contribution from its gaming business under Natural Avenue Sdn Bhd (NASB), and its hotel and recreation business.

BAsset’s (fundamental: 1.05; valuation: 2) revenue for the quarter came in 5.14% lower at RM101.02 million, versus RM106.49 million a year earlier, due to the same reason.

It has proposed a final single tier dividend of one sen per share for the current quarter, subject to approval of shareholders at the forthcoming annual general meeting.

For the full year, Berjaya Assets' net profit grew 59.68% to RM72.4 million, as compared to RM45.34 million in FY14. This is despite revenue fell 2.11% to RM410.56 million against RM419.43 million last year.

Meanwhile, Magnum Bhd posted a 12% decline in its net profit for the second quarter (2QFY15) to RM59.83 million, due to fair value loss of quoted investments and incurrence of Goods and Services Tax (GST) expenses.

Magnum’s (fundamental: 1.7; valuation: 2) revenue for the quarter fell 5.64% at RM657.29 million, against RM696.6 million a year earlier.

It declared a second interim single tier dividend of five sen per share for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2015, payable on Sept 25.

For the six months, it recorded a net profit of RM150.59 million, as compared to RM150.53 million last year; but revenue declined 2.68% to RM1.45 billion, versus RM1.49 billion.

General and life insurance underwriter Tune Ins Holdings Bhd posted a 12.5% increase in net profit for the second quarter ended June 30, 2015 (2QFY15) at RM16.14 million, from RM14.35 million a year ago.

Tune Ins  (fundamental: 1.8; valuation: 1.2) attributed the better earnings to the increases in pre-tax profit (PBT) of RM4.9 million in general insurance and RM400,000 in general reinsurance respectively, offset by higher management expenses.

Revenue for 2QFY15 was up 13.5% at RM115.25 million, compared with RM101.51 million in 2QFY14.

Tune Ins' net profit for the cumulative six months (1HFY15), however, was down 2.9% to RM32.62 million, from RM33.59 million in 1HFY14. This is despite revenue for the period growing 5.1% to RM226.5 million, from RM215.46 million last year.

The decline in net income was due to higher management expenses of RM6 million, offset by an increase of RM800,000 in PBT from general reinsurance and RM700,000 in share of profit from associates in Thailand.

Fashion retailer Padini Holdings Bhd saw its its net profit rise 33.05% to RM18.18 million for the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2015 (4QFY15), as compared to a net profit of RM7.25 million a year ago.

Padini’s (fundamental: 2.8; valuation: 1.5) net profit rise was helped by larger absolute amount of gross profit earned, an increase in other incomes, and a slower relative rise in operating costs.

Its revenue for the 4QFY15 also rose 13.23% to RM221.94 million, from RM196.01 million the previous year, driven primarily by the five Brand Outlet Stores and five Padini Concept Stores that were opened after the end of the previous year’s corresponding quarter.

The fashion retailer declared a single tier dividend of 2.5 sen per share in respect of the financial year ending June 30, 2016, payable on Sept 21.

Hup Seng Industries Bhd posted a 49% rise in net profit to RM14.55 million in the second quarter ended June 30, 2015 (2QFY15), from RM9.74 million a year ago, mainly on improved sales margin due to lower input costs.

According to Hup Seng (fundamental: 3.0; valuation: 2.1), the weak ringgit and successful modification in pricing strategy for its biscuits were also contributing factors to the better earnings. The benign growth in demand for biscuits in the local and export market had contributed to the increase in sales volume.

Its revenue came in 4.4% higher at RM71.24 million, from RM68.25 in 2QFY14.

For the six months ended June 30, 2015, net profit stood at RM27.78 million, up 44% from RM19.29 million a year ago; while revenue was 7.3% higher at RM142.35 million, from RM132.70 million.

Carton box manufacturer Box-Pak (Malaysia) Bhd’s net profit more than doubled to RM4.07 million in the second quarter ended June 30, 2015 (2QFY15), from RM1.69 million a year ago, as revenue from its Vietnam operations received a boost from the ringgit’s depreciation.

The improvement was mainly contributed by increase in sales from the Ho Chi Minh plant and reductions in losses from the Hanoi and Johor (Malaysia) plants.

Revenue came in higher by 12.4% at RM97.81 million in 2QFY15, from RM87.00 million in 2QFY14.

In the six months ended June 30, 2015 (6MFY15), Box-Pak’s (fundamental: 0.6; valuation: 1.7) net profit tripled to RM6.59 million, from RM2.19 million in 6MFY14. Revenue also came 16.5% higher at RM193.92 million, from RM166.47 million.

Fixed-line telecommunications provider TIME dotCom Bhd plans to raise up to RM1 billion by issuing a sukuk programme to fund expansion of its fibre footprint, further development of its data operations, refinancing of credit facilities and for working capital.

RAM Rating Services Bhd has assigned a preliminary rating of AA3/Stable to TIME’s (fundamental: 2.4; valuation:1.4) proposed RM1 billion Islamic MTN programme (2015/2035).

Mechanical and electrical engineering services provider LFE Corp Bhd has fixed its proposed rights issue, which forms part of its regularisation plan, at 30 sen per rights share, to raise up to RM12.74 million.

LFE said the issue price of the 42.45 million shares represents a premium of about 30.43% to its theoretical ex-rights price of 23 sen, based on the five-day VWAMP.

The group is undertaking a series of regularisation plans, to uplift the Practice Note 17 (PN17) status that has been shadowing the group since 2012.

LFE slipped into PN17, when its shareholders’ equity dwindled to less than 25% of the group’s issued and paid-up capital that year.

The proposed rights issue is part of its regularisation plan to lift itself out of PN17.

Dagang NeXchange Bhd (DNeX), through its 71.25%-owned subsidiary company, Dagang Net Technologies Sdn Bhd, has been appointed by the Royal Malaysian Customs Department as the National Single Window (NSW) service provider that will front the trade community by providing access to Trade Facilitation services.

In a filing, DNeX said Dagang Net has received the appointment letter from Customs to be the service provider to design, develop, install, configure, test, commission and provide support and maintenance services for the Trade Facilitation Portal.

The appointment is for a continuous tenure and will commence from the date of issuance of the Certificate to Operate (CTO) by the government of Malaysia. The CTO is renewable every two years.

The NSW service, dubbed uCustoms, is a fully-integrated, end-to-end, customs modernisation solution that delivers Single Window for goods clearance — an initiative lead by the Royal Malaysian Customs Department, DNeX said in a statement today.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)