Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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Companies in the news: Iskandar Waterfront, Kuantan Flour, Econpile, Eco World, Hua Yang, Zhulian and Brahim’s
Levina Lim

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 21): Based on corporate announcements and news flow today, the companies that may be in focus tomorrow (Thursday, Jan 22) could include the following: Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd, Kuantan Flour Mills Bhd, Econpile Holdings Bhd, Eco World Development Group Bhd, Hua Yang Bhd, Zhulian Corp Bhd and Brahim’s Holdings Bhd.

Shanghai government linked-Greenland Group and Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd (IWCB) — formerly known as Tebrau Teguh Bhd — have inked a RM2.4 billion deal to develop the Tebrau Bay Waterfront City.

Under the deal, Greenland Group will invest RM2.4 billion to acquire 128-acres from IWCB (fundamental: 1.65; valuation: 1.5) under Phase 1 of the project, which will showcase a snow world theme park, an opera house, a hospital specialising in Chinese traditional medicine, and a school.

The project will be 80% owned by Greenland Group and IWCB, 20%.

IWCB is 47%-owned by Johor-based Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH), whose shareholders comprise the Johor government through its investment arm Kumpulan Prasarana Rakyat Johor, and Tan Sri Lim Kang Hoo.

Kuantan Flour Mills Bhd (KFM) has proposed a reverse takeover (RTO) exercise with water filtration systems provider NEP Holdings (M) Bhd, whose products are sold under the ‘Diamond’ brand.

In an announcement today, KFM (fundamental: 0.3; valuation: 1) said it has entered into a heads of agreement with NEP’s vendor Lim Chang Huat for a number of proposals to facilitate the RTO, which will eventually see the creation of a new entity to takeover NEP via the issuing of new shares at 45 sen each, for a total consideration to be determined later.

Piling and foundation specialist Econpile Holdings Bhd (fundamental:1.6; valuation: 0.3) has been awarded a RM128.9 million contract to undertake construction works for a mixed development project in Jalan Conlay.

The project comprises a hotel, serviced and branded residences and a retail podium at Lot 20000 (Lot Lama 111 & 112), Seksyen 63, Jalan Conlay, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur.

“The overall duration of the contract is approximately 23 months and is expected to complete in December 2016,” said Econpile.

Eco World Development Group Bhd surged as much as 12.1%, after its non-independent non-executive director Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin said he plans to step down as chairman of Battersea Project Holding Company Ltd (BPHC), which sparked speculation he may focus more on Eco World.

Eco World (fundamental: 0.95; valuation: 0.3) closed 17 sen or 8.59% higher at RM2.15, with 5.12 million shares traded. The counter was one of the top gainers today.

Liew was quoted by a local news report as saying he had tendered his resignation in BPHC, and was “waiting for a response” from the latter’s board. He has been in the driver's seat of the iconic GBP8 billion Battersea redevelopment, since its launch in 2013.

Hua Yang Bhd (fundamental: 1.7; valuation: 2.4) saw its net profit for the third quarter ended Dec 31, 2014 (3QFY15) jumped 57% to RM30.94 million or 11.72 sen per share. Revenue for the quarter also expanded 19.72% to RM155.5 million, against RM129.89 million last year.

The property developer attributed the better earnings to the steady construction progress from all its on-going projects throughout Malaysia. It also expects the remaining financial quarter of FY15 to continue to be driven by the group’s relatively high unbilled sales, and the steady work progress of all its projects.

Zhulian Corp Bhd saw its net profit fallen 17.73% to RM11.3 million in the fourth quarter ended Nov 30, 2014 (4QFY14), while revenue fell 29.83% to RM54.71 million.

For the full year, the group (fundamental: 0.9; valuation: 2.25) saw its net profit plunged 61.1% to RM47.12 million, as revenue fell sharply to RM243.69 million, compared to last year’s RM417.05 million.
 
It attributed the deterioration in earnings to the fall in both local and overseas market demands.

Brahim’s Holdings Bhd said it intends to form a joint venture with Sevair Investissements Aeroportuaires, a subsidiary of Société Air France, S.A., for the purpose of exchanging expertise.

According to its filing with Bursa today, Brahim’s (fundamental: 0.8; valuation: 1.8) said the co-operation will focus on technical information, knowledge and proprietary data covering aircraft catering, foods and beverages business, procurement of equipment for catering business, and so on.

Brahim’s, which is principally involved in providing catering services to airlines, said it believes this will enable it to benefit from using the Servair brand mark; and the latter could tap on its halal excellence centre’s halal certification expertise.

(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.)

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