KUALA LUMPUR (May 27): Based on corporate announcements and news flow today, companies that may be in focus on Monday (May 30) could include the following: UEM Sunrise, TM, WCT, IHH Healthcare, AMMB, Maybank, Petra Energy, Karex, MKH and AppAsia.
UEM Sunrise Bhd, which saw its net profit plunge 94.3% in its first financial quarter ended March 31, 2016 (1QFY16), is teaming up Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) to jointly undertake a high-rise mixed development project on the latter's Bukit Mahkamah land, along Jalan Raja Chulan in the city centre.
The project, according to the property developer, will be developed by its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Sunrise Quality Sdn Bhd (SQSB) on the 1.69-acre land and comprise serviced apartments and retail elements.
[X] CLOSE
Advertisement
"The project is expected to span over a period of six years. The gross development value (GDV) for the project will be subject to the development order approval and mutual agreement of the parties," it told the exchange.
In return, TM said it is entitled to 5% of the GDV, as well as receive from SQSB a guaranteed land cost of RM150 million. TM will net RM114.1 million or three sen per share gains from the proposal.
On earnings, UEM Sunrise's 1QFY16 net profit plunged 94.3% to RM3.02 million or 0.07 sen per share from RM53.14 million or 1.17 sen per share, dragged down by lower profit from operations, higher finance cost and lower contribution from associates and joint venture.
Revenue was 38.3% lower at RM257.75 million from RM417.45 million previously, due to reduction in property development sales in the Southern region.
WCT Holdings Bhd, which intends to launch a real estate investment trust (REIT) by this year, said it will list its REIT by the first or the second quarter of 2017.
Subsequently, the construction and property developer will be looking at floating its engineering and construction division.
"WCT will put Bandar Bukit Tinggi Mall and Paradigm Mall, which are collectively valued at RM1.2 billion, into the REIT," said WCT chairman Datuk Captain Ahmad Sufian.
WCT general manager, corporate and finance Chong Kian Fah said the group is also considering injecting gateway @ klia2 into the REIT later.
Currently, WCT's tender book stood at RM10 billion, of which RM5 billion has been submitted, and RM5 billion is under preparation. It aims to secure at least RM2 billion worth of projects from the jobs it is bidding for.
Its outstanding construction order book stood at RM4.4 billion, mostly from projects in Malaysia.
IHH Healthcare Bhd has earmarked RM4.83 billion until 2018 as part of its global expansion, which includes an additional 3,000 beds in the near term.
"The company was focusing on growing in China, India and Turkey," said IHH managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Dr Tan See Leng, adding 70% of the group's targeted expansion next year would be in China, where the emphasis would be in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
"In India, IHH planned to become a leading healthcare provider in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bombay," he shared.
On Turkey, he said IHH intends to open a 325-bed hospital in Istanbul in early 2017.
Despite global headwinds and volatile currency exchange rates, Tan said IHH is not slowing its expansion.
AMMB Holdings Bhd's net profit dropped 46% to RM280.2 million in its fourth quarter ended March 31, 2016 (4QFY16) from RM519.22 million a year earlier as net interest, Islamic banking and insurance income fell.
In a statement to Bursa Malaysia today, the banking group said its revenue was lower at RM2.1 billion versus RM2.22 billion.
The lower quarterly earnings also dragged its annual net profit to RM1.3 billion from RM1.92 billion a year earlier. Revenue fell to RM8.42 billion compared with RM9.14 billion.
Despite the lower earnings, it plans to pay a dividend of 10.5 sen a share for the quarter in review, bringing full-year dividends to 15.5 sen a share.
Looking ahead, AMMB said it was mindful of potential slower growth in the Malaysian banking sector.
"The banking sector is poised to experience slower growth, as the economy expands at a more moderate pace and subdued business sentiment. Despite the potential headwinds in the economy, there are still some bright spots and opportunities, such as the SME sector which has consistently outpaced the GDP growth since 2005, and still has room for growth," said AMMB.
Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) posted a 16.1% decline in net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2016 (1QFY16) to RM1.43 billion from RM1.7 billion a year earlier, though revenue climbed 21.8% to RM11.18 billion from RM9.18 billion a year earlier.
It told the stock exchange that the increase in provisioning was primarily owing to the rise in number of corporate loans undergoing restructuring and rescheduling of their repayment to better match their projected cash flows, arising from the subdued operating environment.
The banking group said all key business sectors registered higher net operating income in the quarter, led by Group Global Banking (+21.1% y-o-y), Group Community Financial Services (+12.4%) and Group Insurance & Takaful (+8.4%).
"Many challenges in the business environment across its operations, necessitated enhanced focus for the bank to ensure we maintain quality in its portfolio, whilst continuing to grasp growth opportunities," said its chairman Tan Sri Megat Zaharuddin Megat Mohd Nor in a statement today.
Maybank group president and CEO Datuk Abdul Farid Alias said the group will focus more on strengthening its capital and liquidity, and also to be more vigilant in managing asset quality by identifying sectors and customers which may be vulnerable to market volatilities this year.
Petra Energy Bhd sank into the red in the first quarter ended March 31, 2016 (1QFY16) — its first quarterly loss since FY14 — with a net loss of RM7.08 million or 2.21 sen per share compared with a net profit of RM2.08 million or 0.65 sen per share in 1QFY15.
The lower earnings was due to lower utilisation of vessels recorded by its marine assets segment, which incurred a bigger loss before taxation of RM8 million compared with RM3.2 million in 1QFY15.
Revenue was nearly 5% lower at RM113.23 million against RM119.07 million previously, Petra Energy told the stock exchange in a filing today.
Going forward, Petra Energy said the business outlook for the oil and gas industry remains uncertain and continues to face challenges driven by the volatility of oil prices, which may affect oil majors' capital and operational expenditure.
Karex Bhd, whose net profit fell 36.7% on year to RM9.63 million or 0.96 sen per share in its third quarter ended March 31, 2016 (3QFY16), is acquiring Pasante, one of the largest independent condom manufacturing companies in the United Kingdom (UK), for £6 million (RM35.84 million).
It told the stock exchange that its unit Karex Holdings Sdn Bhd has today inked the conditional share purchase agreement with vendors Lawrence James Boon, Dominic Frederick Boon and Paul Richard Boon to effect the purchase.
According to Karex, Pasante exports condoms and healthcare products to over 60 countries in the world and owns the condom and lubricant brand "Pasante", besides being the sole official distributor of Sebamed in the UK.
In 3QFY16, Karex's revenue jumped 23.6% to RM88.22 million from RM71.39 million, due to higher volume from condom commercial sales segment.
For the cumulative nine months (9MFY16), its net profit grew 28% to RM54.57 million or 5.44 sen per share from RM42.59 million or 4.64 sen per share in the previous corresponding period. Revenue rose 19.4% to RM260.89 million from RM218.53 million a year earlier.
Property and plantation player MKH Bhd's net profit for the second quarter ended March 31, 2016 (2QFY16) rose over fivefold to RM55.38 million or 13.2 sen per share from RM10.9 million or 2.6 sen per share in the same quarter a year ago, mainly on better contributions from two divisions: property and construction, and plantation.
Quarterly revenue came in 40.3% higher at RM322.23 million from RM229.72 million a year ago. No dividend was declared for the current quarter under review, its bourse filing today showed.
For the six-month period (1HFY16), its net profit gained 185% to RM116.95 million or 27.88 sen per share from RM41.03 million or 9.78 sen per share last year; revenue was almost 35% higher at RM588.59 million from RM437.35 million in 1HFY15.
Going forward, MKH expects to achieve better results for the financial year ending Sept 30, 2016, from the continued recognition of profit from the locked-in sales of its ongoing projects, and profit contribution from the plantation as more palms are entering into maturity stage, coupled with anticipation of an increase in crude palm oil and palm kernel prices.
It also targets a fresh fruit brunch production of 415,000 metric tonnes for the current financial year.
AppAsia Bhd has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a China-based company and Datuk Mohd Nazifuddin Najib, son of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, to develop a big data opportunity in the Asean and Australasia region.
The mobile app and IT security service provider told the stock exchange that the MoU is for the development and promotion of AppAsia's Business to Business to Customer (B2B2C) e-aggregator platform for countries in the region and elsewhere.
Subject to a satisfactory due diligence conducted by AppAsia and Mohd Nazifuddin on Rongxin and all its business activities, a joint venture (JV) company between AppAsia, Rongxin and Mohd Nazifuddin will be set up in Malaysia, with AppAsia holding 60% of the shares, Rongxin 10% and Mohd Nazifuddin 30%.
Rongxin will enter into a service maintenance agreement with the JV company to continue to undertake to provide the services on the terms and conditions to be agreed upon by the both Rongxin and the JV company.
In another filing, AppAsia said it has entered into another MoU with Infinity Channel Sdn Bhd today for the purpose of a strategic partnership to further expand the programmes, which include Malaysia Brand Outlet (MBO), to promote and market Malaysian made products overseas.
AppAsia said the Infinity and AppAsia support will jointly organise the Asia Pacific Young Business Conference as a yearly event where young entrepreneurs from Asia Pacific converge.
http://www.theedgemarkets.com/my/article/uem-sunrise-tm-wct-ihh-healthcare-ammb-maybank-petra-energy-karex-mkh-and-appasia
