KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 17): Based on corporate announcements and newsflow today, companies that may be in focus on Wednesday (Feb 18) could include: Shell Refining Co (Federation of Malaya) Bhd, Uzma Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd, Petra Energy Bhd, Pos Malaysia Bhd, Eco World Development Group Bhd, MNRB Holdings Bhd, AirAsia Bhd and AirAsia X Bhd.

Shell Refining Co (Federation of Malaya) Bhd (fundamental: 0.35; valuation: 0.6) announced that its net loss for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2014 (FY14) has ballooned to RM1.19 billion or a loss per share of RM3.96 from RM155.98 million or a loss per share of 51.99 sen a year ago.

Revenue in FY14 slipped 3% to RM14.26 billion from RM14.7 billion a year ago, due to lower product prices, it said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today.

The group blamed the deteriorating performance to an impairment loss of RM461 million, operational losses of RM102.6 million, as well as stockholding losses of RM625.1 million due to falling oil prices last year (from an average dated Brent marker of US$107 per barrel in January to US$55 per barrel in December).

Uzma Bhd (fundamental:1.7; valuation: 0.7) said its wholly-owned subsidiary Uzma Engineering Sdn Bhd has bagged a RM59 million contract from Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd to provide cased hole electric-line logging perforation and other services for two years.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, Uzma said the contract is effective from Jan 28, 2015, with the option to extend for an addition of one year until Jan 27, 2018.

Petronas Gas Bhd (fundamental: 2.7; valuation: 0.9) saw its net profit grow 45.1% to RM571.29 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2014 (4QFY14), due to the increase in consumption of gas, electricity tariffs and higher revenue from gas transportation and processing.

Revenue in 4QFY14 rose 8.1% to RM1.11 billion, compared with RM1.03 billion in 4QFY13.

Full year earnings, however, fell 11.4% to RM1.84 billion from RM2.08 billion in FY13, despite revenue increasing 12.85% to RM4.39 billion.

The group declared an interim dividend of 15 sen per share, bringing total dividend in FY14 to 55 sen per share.

Petra Energy Bhd (fundamental: 0.8; valuation: 1.2) announced its wholly-owned subsidiary Petra Resources Sdn Bhd has been awarded a two-year umbrella contract by Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd for spot charter marine vessel services.

Petra Energy said in a Bursa Malaysia filing that the contract spans from Jan 29, 2015 to Jan 28, 2017. There is no value stated as the contract is on a call-out basis.

Pos Malaysia Bhd (fundamental: 2.50; valuation: 0.9) announced that its net profit for the third financial quarter ended Dec 31, 2014 (3QFY14) doubled to RM46.05 million or 8.57 sen per share, from RM22.83 million or 4.25 sen per share a year ago; while revenue grew 8.6% to RM358.05 million from RM329.74 million previously.

Pos Malaysia attributed the better performance to more business in the courier segment, which saw higher walk-in customers, as well as the launch of innovative prepaid products that is consistent with the growth in e-commerce transactions.

For the nine months ended Dec 31, 2014 (9MFY14), Pos Malaysia saw a marginal increase of 0.3% in net profit to RM107.15 million or 19.95 sen per share, while revenue grew 9.6% to RM1.1 billion from RM1 billion in 9MFY13.

Eco World Development Group Bhd (fundamental: 0.95; valuation: 0.3) has fixed its rights issue of 656.74 million new shares at an issue price of RM1.20 apiece, and the exercise price for its warrants at RM2.08 each.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, the property developer said the price of rights share represents a discount of 36.51% to the theoretical ex-rights price (TERP) of Eco World’s shares at RM1.89, based on five-day volume weighted average market price (VWAMP) including Feb 16 of RM2.23 per share.

Eco World had proposed a renounceable rights issue of 656.74 million new shares on the basis of one rights share for every two existing Eco World shares. The issue comes with 525.39 million free detachable warrants on the basis of four warrants for every five rights shares subscribed.

Reinsurance and takaful operator MNRB Holdings Bhd (fundamental: 0.7; valuation: 3) slips into the red in the third quarter ended Dec 31, 2014 (3QFY15) after posting a net loss of RM20.09 million or a loss per share of 9.4 sen, compared with a net profit of RM13.98 million or earnings per share of 6.6 sen a year ago.

Revenue in 3QFY15 marginally dipped 1% to RM550.97 million from RM556.57 million a year ago.

MNRB blamed the weaker performance to a few large claims from its reinsurance and retakaful subsidiaries, which included claims related to the recent floods in Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang.

For the nine months ended Dec 31, 2014 (9MFY15), MNRB saw its new profit slump 37.6% to RM50.67 million or 23.8 sen per share from RM81.26 million or 38.1 sen per share a year ago; revenue slipped 2% to RM1.76 billion from RM1.79 billion previously.

Going forward, MNRB warned that it may record a lower profit for its full FY15.

"The group's profit for the financial year ending March 31, 2015 (FY15) is not expected to outperform the previous financial year's results," MRNB said.

AirAsia Bhd (fundamental: 1.3; valuation: 1.8) had on Feb 16 divested its partial stake in Singapore-based online travel outfit AAE Travel Pte Ltd for US$86.25 million (or RM306.19 million).

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, the budget airline said a share purchase agreement had been executed between Expedia Inc, Expedia Southeast Asia Pte Ltd, and its wholly-owned unit AirAsia Exp Pte Ltd (AAE), to divest a total of 6.14 million shares or a 25% equity interest in AAE to the Expedia group.

AirAsia and Expedia both hold 50% stake in AAE via their respective wholly-owned subsidiary, AirAsia Exp and Expedia Southeast Asia. Subsequent to the disposal, AirAsia will be left with a 25% stake in AAE while Expedia will own a 75% stake.

AirAsia expects to realise a gain on disposal of US$78.76 million (RM279.60 million).

Meanwhile, AirAsia saw a 3% drop in passenger load factor to 78% for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2014 (4QFY14) from 81% a year ago, even though the number of passengers carried rose 2% year-on-year, along with a 5% increase in capacity.

AirAsia said the number of passengers carried for 4QFY14 rose to 12.07 million from 11.81 million in 4QFY13, while one additional aircraft was added into the system during the quarter under review.

For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2014 (FY14), the airline recorded a 7% growth in passengers to 45.58 million from 42.61 million in FY13.

AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) (fundamental: 0; valuation: 0.3) saw its passenger size for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2014 (4QFY14) grow 11.7% to 1.09 million passengers from 973,285 last year.

For 4QFY14, AAX's passenger traffic grew 9.3% year-on-year, against an 8.5% increase in available-seat-kilometre (ASK) capacity, the company said in a statement today.

Its 4QFY14 revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) also improved, growing by 9.3% to 5.31 million from 4.86 million. Consequently, AAX said its load factor improved by 0.5 percentage points to 81.4%, implying capacity injected during the peak quarter was well absorbed by demand arising from year-end holiday travel.

For the full year (FY14), its passenger size grew by 33.8% y-o-y or 1.1 million passengers to 4.23 million passengers in financial year 2014 (FY14) from 3.16 million in financial year 2013 (FY13). Its RPK for FY14 was at 20.82 million, up 31.3% from 15.86 million in FY13.

(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.)