Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 13): Based on corporate announcements and news flow today, stocks in focus on Friday (Sept 14) may include: Westports Holdings Bhd, Bermaz Auto Bhd, Yee Lee Corp Bhd, Tasco Bhd, SMTrack Bhd, Panpages Bhd, Axiata Group Bhd, FGV Holdings Bhd, Binasat Communications Sdn Bhd, Parkson Holdings Bhd and Dataprep Holdings Bhd.

Westports Holdings Bhd is buying a parcel of land below sea, measuring 154.2ha, off Pulau Indah in Selangor from Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor (PKNS) for RM116.19 million cash.

Westports said the purpose of the land purchase is to expand the container terminals as the current preliminary port design for Container Terminal 10 to Container Terminal 19 requires additional land acreage to accommodate new wharf and container yard space to facilitate the effective operations of the new container terminals.

Bermaz Auto Bhd (BAuto), which distributes Mazda vehicles in Malaysia and the Philippines, saw its net profit surge 2.5 times to RM50.28 million in the first financial quarter ended July 31, 2018 (1QFY19) from RM20.21 million a year ago, on higher revenue and improved gross profit margin from the domestic operations, and higher share of profit contribution from its associate Mazda Malaysia Sdn Bhd (MMSB).

This resulted in a higher earnings per share of 4.33 sen for 1QFY19 compared with 1.75 sen for 1QFY18.

Quarterly revenue also rose 24.1% to RM485.4 million from RM391.23 million in 1QFY18, mainly due to improvement in sales volume from the domestic operations as the change in goods and services tax (GST) from 6% to 0% in June to August this year boosted customer demand, especially for the new CX-5 model.

Boosted by strong 1QFY19 performance, the group declared a first interim dividend of 2.5 sen per share for the financial year ending April 30, 2019 (FY19), payable on Oct 26.
 
YLTC Sdn Bhd, a joint-venture (JV) company between Yee Lee Corp Bhd and Tasco Bhd, has secured a contract with Shell Malaysia Trading Sdn Bhd to provide supply chain services for Shell convenience retail outlets in Peninsula Malaysia.

YLTC today signed the purchase contract with Shell Malaysia, said both Yee Lee, a fast-moving consumer goods manufacturer, and freight forwarder Tasco in separate stock exchange filings.

The contract is valid for a three-year period between Oct 1,2018 and Sept 30, 2021, unless earlier terminated, and Shell may also choose to extend the contract for a further period of two years, up to Sept 30, 2023, the parties said.

SMTrack Bhd has aborted plans to jointly implement the vessel fuel intelligent tracking system (Vessel-FIT) with VFTech Sdn Bhd.

It said the group and VFTech have entered into a termination agreement to mutually terminate the collaboration agreement dated Jan 29, 2018.

“Such termination, the consideration provided and received by each other is fair, just and reasonable and no further consideration, compensation or obligation will be due, payable or owing to either party,” it said.

Hours after shareholders of Panpages Bhd voted not to re-elect the group’s chairman and an executive director, two more of the group’s directors resigned from their positions.

In a stock exchange filing today, Panpages said Fong Wai Leong, the group’s executive director and chief executive officer, resigned, citing personal reasons.

Separately, independent and non-executive director Wong Mun Wai also resigned for a personal reason.

Axiata Group Bhd’s 66.4%-owned Indonesian listed outfit, PT XL Axiata Tbk, has proposed to raise up to five trillion rupiah (RM1.5 billion) through the establishment of a shelf bond and sukuk ijarah programme.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, Axiata said the programme consists of five series with each principal amount of up to one trillion rupiah.

The group said the bonds and sukuk will be issued via shelf registration public offering through bookbuilding process and have been assigned a rating of AAA (idn) — (Triple A) by PT Fitch Ratings Indonesia.

CAB Cakaran Corp Bhd’s 51%-owned subsidiary Tong Huat Poultry Processing Pte Ltd has been fined S$3.58 million (RM10.83 million) for infringing the competition law in Singapore between 2007 and 2014.

However, CAB Cakaran said it will be fully indemnified for the amount by Tong Huat’s previous shareholders, as the group only bought into the subsidiary in 2015.

CAB Cakaran said the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore ruled that Tong Huat and its wholly-owned subsidiary Ban Hong Poultry Pte Ltd had infringed Section 34 of the Competition Act.

FGV Holdings Bhd has suspended its group president and chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Zakaria Arshad with immediate effect.

FGV said the board of directors has issued a notice of inquiry to Zakaria today, following the conclusion of internal investigations into 10 critical issues.

Following the notice of inquiry, Zakaria's powers and authorities vested in him as group president and CEO of FGV have been suspended, pending further notification by the board.

In the interim, the special board committee comprising four FGV directors, namely its chairman Datuk Wira Azhar Abdul Hamid, Datuk Dr Salmiah Ahmad, Dr Mohamed Nazeeb P. Alithambi and Datin Hoi Lai Ping will take over the responsibilities of the CEO, it said.

Binasat Communications Bhd has appointed Tan Sri Cham Hak Lim as independent and non-executive chairman of the group, replacing Tan Sri Ahmad Fuad Ismail, 65, who has resigned citing personal commitment.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, Binasat said Cham, 77, was elected as a committee member of Selangor Turf Club in 1996 and became its deputy chairman in 1998. He was also a committee member of the Malayan Racing Association.

Parkson Holdings Bhd is divesting a 70% stake in its wholly-owned hire purchase unit, Parkson Credit Holdings Sdn Bhd, to Hong Kong-listed subsidiary Parkson Retail Group Ltd for RM49 million.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, Parkson said its wholly-owned subsidiary Parkson Credit Holdings has entered into a sale and purchase agreement to dispose a 70% stake in Parkson Credit Sdn Bhd, to Parkson Retail’s wholly-owned subsidiary Oroleon (HK) Ltd. Parkson Holdings owns a 54.97% stake in Parkson Retail.

Dataprep Holdings Bhd, which has been in the red since 2008, expects to return to profitability soon following its decision to venture into e-wallet services, mobile apps and system integration.

“With these new areas of business that we will venture [into], we are confident that the company can be turned around, the soonest by this current financial year ending March 31, 2019 (FY19) or the latest by FY20,” said group managing director Mohamad Sabir Mohamad Sabri.

“There are a lot of opportunities in this [Industrial Revolution 4.0] segment which Dataprep has not gone into previously, so now we also want to join the bandwagon,” he told reporters after the group’s annual general meeting today.

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