United Malacca Bhd (-ve)
SHARES of the usually illiquid UMCCA (Fundamental: 1.95/3, Valuation: 2/3) increased 1.3% to close at RM6.48 last Friday, as volume traded more than doubled to 163,000 shares.

Two of its major shareholders, EPF and Aberdeen Asset Management, have been accumulating its shares throughout the week.

UMCCA is principally engaged in oil palm cultivation and crude palm oil milling, mainly in Sabah and Malacca. At end-April 2014, it has a total oil palm planted area of 22,336 hectares, of which 51% are in prime production, 46% are young mature and immature palms and 3% are old palms.

For 9MFY2015, revenue dropped 8.7% to RM165.1 million while net profit dipped 30.8% to RM37.2 million, largely due to lower average CPO prices, as well as lower production of fresh fruit bunches. The stock trades at a trailing 12-month P/E of 24.2 times and 0.84 times book. Dividends totalled 26 sen for FY2014, giving a net yield of 4.1%.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 25, 2015.