KUALA LUMPUR (Sep 26): GHL Systems Bhd was among the top 10 gainers in early morning trades on the stock exchange today following its approval of a 2 for 1 bonus issue yesterday.

At 10:55 am, shares of the e-payment services provider rose 5 sen or 4.31% to RM1.21 with 5.08 million shares traded.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors of GHL, AmInvestment Bank Berhad wishes to announce that Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad had vide their letter dated 25 September 2014 approved the listing and quotation of up to 215,130,837 Bonus Shares to be issued pursuant to the Proposed Bonus Issue,” the announcement said.

The company had announced a bonus issue of one bonus share for every two existing GHL shares held by share holders in August 20, 2014.

In an initiation note earlier this month, CIMB IB research analyst Mohd Shanaz Noor Azam placed an “add” call on the stock with a target price of RM1.60 per share.

“We initiate coverage on GHL Systems with an Add call and RM1.60 target price, based on 23.8 times CY16 P/E, about 40% premium to the payment sector P/E of 17 times, in view of its strong earnings earnings per share compounded annual growth rate of 75.2% in FY13-16 and attractive price earnings to growth ratio of 0.48 times,” said Azam.

Back in April the company announced its acquisition of Australia-listed electronic payment service provider e-pay Asia Ltd for A$22.77 million (RM69 million).

CEO and executive director Kanagaraj (Raj) Lorenz then had said that he expected the acquisition to help create a group that is at least double in size in terms of revenue and earnings.

“We can bring e-pay into markets like Thailand and the Philippines and certainly into our own terminal base in Malaysia...This helps us to fast track our growth,” he said.

The company has recorded a year-to-date increase of 64.53% where it has risen from 70.5 sen on January 2 to yesterday’s close of RM1.16.