KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 25): Based on corporate announcements on Bursa Malaysia and news flow today, companies that will be in focus on Monday (Aug 28) may include the following: Tan Chong Motor, Westports, Icon Offshore, DRB-Hicom, Padini, Hengyuan, AWC, Bumi Armada, D&O, AirAsia Encorp, UMW-OG and Sime Darby.
Tan Chong Motor Holdings Bhd sank deeper into the red in 1HFY17 on softer demand for new vehicles, with its 2QFY17 net loss expanding 58% to RM23 million compared with RM14.59 million a year ago.
Quarterly revenue dropped 9% to RM1.2 billion from RM1.31 billion.
Consequently, 1HFY17 net loss widened 13% year-on-year to RM58.32 million from RM51.8 million, while revenue fell 20% to RM2.19 billion from RM2.73 billion.
Tan Chong Motor announced an interim dividend of 1 sen per share.
Westports Holdings Bhd has secured an approval-in-principle from the government to expand its container terminal facilities in Port Klang from the current nine to 19.
Westports said it will further deliberate with the government on the terms and conditions for the expansion project that could boost total handling capacity to 30 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per annum.
Icon Offshore Bhd registered losses of RM6.6 million in 2QFY17, compared with a profit of RM617,000 in the same period last year due to an increase in consumables and spare parts costs.
The largest offshore support vessel provider said quarterly revenue dipped 6.8% to RM54.9 million from RM58.9 million a year ago due to lower average daily charter rates.
Its cumulative six-month net loss widened to RM13.2 million from RM4.4 million, while revenue for the period dropped 12.9% to RM96.3 million from RM110.7 million last year.
DRB-Hicom Bhd remains in the red but its net loss did not widen thanks to smaller losses from Proton Holdings Bhd and higher profit contribution from Pos Malaysia Bhd.
The diversified company posted a net loss of RM169.71 million in 1QFY18 compared with RM169.3 million a year ago.
On prospects, DRB-Hicom expects to achieve improved financial performance in FY18.
Padini Holdings Bhd recorded a 6% rise in its 4QFY17 profit, boosting full-year earnings by 15%, as it opened new stores while existing outlets generated higher turnover.
4QFY17 net profit came in at RM39.48 million compared with RM37.36 million a year ago, while revenue grew 32% to RM460.49 million from RM348.88 million.
FY17 profit grew to RM157.39 million compared with RM137.39 million in FY16, while annual revenue rose 21% to RM1.57 billion from RM1.3 billion.
The group announced a first interim dividend of 2.5 sen per share, payable on Sept 29, in respect of FY18.
AWC Bhd has secured a RM31.74 million contract from the Public Works Department to manage the facilities of a building complex in Putrajaya which houses the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia.
The contract involves a five-year maintenance period from Sept 1, 2017, to Aug 31, 2022 and covers all the blocks utilised and occupied by the ministry.
AirAsia Bhd is selling its entire 50% stake in Asian Aviation Centre of Excellence (AACE) for US$100 million (RM429.3 million) to its joint-venture partner, CAE International Holding Ltd.
The sale is part of its plan to "regularly dispose of non-core investments and dividend most of it out", and will realise a gain on disposal of RM304.8 million in 4QFY17 for the group.
Bumi Armada Bhd posted a net profit of RM116.59 million for its second quarter ended June 30, 2017, compared with a net loss RM518.32 million a year earlier.
Quarterly revenue rose to RM694.42 million from RM402.87 million a year earlier.
Bumi Armada posted a net profit of RM164.69 million in 1HFY17, from a net loss of RM494.89 million a year earlier, on the back of revenue of RM1.09 billion, from RM833.64 million.
D&O Green Technologies Bhd is acquiring an additional 12.45% stake in Dominant Opto Technologies Sdn Bhd from Thames Electronics Sdn Bhd and Cambrew Asia Ltd for RM122.62 million as it sees favourable prospects ahead for Dominant.
The acquisition will up D&O's stake in Dominant from 61.84% to 74.3%, after the purchase of 13.7 million Dominant shares at RM8.95 each.
Encorp Bhd has appointed former banker Datuk Syed Mohamed Syed Ibrahim as its chairman, replacing Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad, who resigned in mid-August amid an anti-graft probe over the purchase of a luxury hotel in Kensington, London.
Syed Mohamed’s appointment came following a series of nomination by the controlling shareholder Felda Investment Corp Sdn Bhd (FIC), which is the wholly-owned investment arm of the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda).
Also chairing FIC, Syed Mohamed is now the president and executive director of Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd, a company linked to tycoon Tan Sri Lim Kang Hoo.
UMW Oil & Gas Corp Bhd (UMW-OG) expects the utilisation rate across its seven jack-up drilling rigs to remain high in 2018, despite the impending expiration of some contracts by year-end.
"We are working very hard to replace these contracts with new ones. Even if we cannot maintain the utilisation rate of this year, we believe it will be stable [in 2018]," group president Rohaizad Darus told the press after UMW-OG's extraordinary general meeting (EGM) today.
Just last week, the group's idle UMW Naga 5 jack-up rig commenced a RM113 million contract with Repsol Malaysia, which will bring the overall utilisation rate of its assets to 100% by September from 68% at the end of June.
Sime Darby Bhd, which is set to list its plantation and property arms — Sime Darby Plantation Bhd (SD Plantation) and Sime Darby Property Bhd (SD Property) — separately on Bursa Malaysia by November, has undertaken a record impairment at the group level to provide a clean sheet for their financials, moving forward.
Sime Darby, which announced its financial year 2017 results for the 12 months ended June 30 today, charged a full-year impairment of RM684 million to its books, where the two businesses have been listed as 'discontinuing operations'. This leaves it with the industrial, motors and logistics businesses under its continuing operations.
Sime Darby president and group chief executive Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh said the amount was the largest impairment the group has booked to date.
Consequently, its final quarter of the year reported a 53.4% year-on-year slump in net profit to RM571 million from RM1.22 billion, after accounting for some RM605 million in impairments and provisions during the quarter across its divisions.
Revenue for 4QFY17 grew 6.1% y-o-y to RM8.2 billion from RM7.7 billion.
For the full FY17, Sime Darby's net profit inched up to RM2.44 billion from the RM2.42 billion it posted a year ago, while revenue climbed 5.5% to RM31.09 billion from RM29.45 billion.
http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/tan-chong-motor-westports-icon-offshore-drbhicom-padini-awc-airasia-bumi-armada-do-encorp
