KUALA LUMPUR (Apr 7): Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) shares rose as much as 18 sen or 1.26% to RM14.50 on news that the utilities company has upped its stake in port operator Integrax Bhd to 213.7 million shares or a 71.04% stake last Friday.

This follows news that Integrax co-founder Amin Halim Rasip has ceased to be a substantial shareholder in the company yesterday, following his decision to accept the general offer from TNB for his shares, after disputing the offer price for his shares for the past two months.

Amin had parted with 60.69 million shares, or a 20.18% of his shareholdings at a price of RM3.175 per share, bringing the total disposal proceeds to RM192.68 million as part of his acceptance of the offer from TNB.

In a note today, Affin Hwang Capital said that TNB’s second quarter ending Feb 28, 2015 (2QFY15) results may come in slightly above the research house’s expectations, given decent electricity demand growth and more importantly very minimal use of oil and distillates due to good hydro power output.

“With potentially higher electricity unit sales growth and better margins, we estimate 2QFY15 core profit before tax (PBT) to grow at a mid-single digit percentage quarter on quarter to RM2.45 billion–2.55 billion (1QFY15: RM2.37 billion; 1QFY14: RM1.35 billion).

“This implies 1HFY15 PBT may comprise 62% of our FY15 PBT estimates assuming there are no negative surprises in operating expenses,” read the note.

Affin Hwang noted that TNB’s year-on-year PBT growth figures are not comparable as 2QFY14 (Dec 13, Jan 14, Feb 14) had only captured two months of the 14.89% tariff increase that was effective from Jan 2014.

TNB is expected to release its 2QFY15 results later this month.

At 10.55am, TNB (fundamental: 1.3; valuation: 1.8) shares had erased 10 sen, or 0.69% of its morning gains, and was trading at RM14.40 with 2.15 million shares traded.

At the same time, Integrax (fundamental: 1.65; valuation: 1.4) shares remained unchanged at RM3.17 with 38,900 shares changing hands.

(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.)