KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 20): Based on corporate announcements and news flow today, stocks in focus on Tuesday (Nov 21) may include: Zecon, Tanco, Ranhill, Kronologi, Heng Huat, SunCon, Malton, IOI Properties, GDex, Daibochi, Hap Seng Plantations, L&G, TDM, Mieco Chipboard, AYS Ventures and Kelington.
Construction firm Zecon Bhd, which was supposed to sign a proposed disposal of a 49% stake in its wholly-owned subsidiary Zecon Medicare Sdn Bhd for RM155 million, said the signing has been delayed to a date to be determined later.
However, it did not disclose the reason for the postponement.
Zecon said a detailed announcement on the transaction will be made in due course once the agreement has been signed.
In another filing, Zecon said trading in its shares, which was halted since 2.30pm on Friday pending the release of a material announcement, will resume tomorrow (Nov 21).
Property developer Tanco Holdings Bhd has secured a RM12.8 million government grant to fund a theme park and hotel development in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan.
Tanco said its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Palm Spring Development Sdn Bhd has executed a facilitation fund agreement with the Public Private Partnership Unit under the Prime Minister's Department and Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Bhd.
Tanco said the government will make available the grant from the date of fulfilment of certain conditions precedent up to March 31, 2021.
Bank Pembangunan Malaysia has been appointed by the government to manage, monitor and administer and disburse the grant to Palm Spring.
Water supply services provider Ranhill Holdings Bhd is acquiring Australia's Northern Power Group Pty Ltd (NPG) for A$3.2 million in order to procure participation in a new power project in the Northern Territory, Australia.
NPG owns 100% equity interest in Northern Power Opco Pty Ltd (NPO), a special purpose vehicle incorporated to undertake the proposed development of a 60-megawatt (MW) gas-fired power generating station in the Northern Territory.
Ranhill said its wholly-owned subsidiary Ranhill Capital Sdn Bhd has entered into a conditional share sale agreement with Power PI Group Pty Ltd (Australia), FTP Superannuation Pty Ltd (Australia) and PRH Retirement Pty Ltd (Australia) for the proposed acquisition.
Data storage solutions provider Kronologi Asia Bhd has partnered Temasek Holdings' member to provide data backup services.
Kronologi said its wholly-owned subsidiary Kronicles (Singapore) Pte Ltd has signed an agreement with Trusted Source Pte Ltd — a subsidiary of Temasek Management Services, which is in turn a member of Temasek Holdings — on the collaboration.
Under the partnership, Trusted Source and Kronicles Singapore will provide private data backup services for the former's subsidiaries.
Mattress manufacturer Heng Huat Resources Group Bhd, whose production plant in Gua Musang, Kelantan caught fire on Nov 17, said the incident has no material impact on its operations.
Heng Huat said the majority of its production lines in the facility — owned by its wholly-owned unit HK Gua Musang Sdn Bhd — were not affected by the fire and remained functional.
Sunway Construction Group Bhd (SunCon), the country's largest pure-play construction group, saw its net profit rise 11.1% to RM34.59 million in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 (3QFY17) from RM31.14 million a year ago, on higher contribution from the construction segment.
Earnings per share rose to 2.68 sen in 3QFY17 from 2.41 sen in 3QFY16.
Quarterly revenue increased 28.9% to RM491.36 million from RM381.05 million a year ago, mainly due to contribution from the construction segment which offset the decline from the precast segment.
For the cumulative nine months (9MFY17), SunCon's net profit was up 15.9% to RM106.01 million from RM91.46 million a year ago, while revenue rose 7.5% to RM1.33 billion from RM1.24 billion in 9MFY16.
Property developer Malton Bhd saw its net profit surge four times to RM25.93 million for the first financial quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 (1QFY18), from RM6.26 million a year ago, after recognising a gain of RM23.8 million from a subsidiary due to the revocation of a joint development agreement.
Quarterly revenue, however, slid 4% y-o-y to RM125.12 million from RM130.04 million.
IOI Properties Group Bhd saw its net profit jump 28.1% to RM242.85 million in its first financial quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 (1QFY18), from RM189.57 million a year ago, thanks to better operating profit across all three core businesses.
Earnings per share rose to 4.41 sen from 4.02 sen in 1QFY17.
Quarterly revenue, however, declined 3.3% to RM869.98 million from RM899.52 million previously, mainly due to lower contribution from the group’s property development overseas.
GD Express Carrier Bhd’s (GDex) net profit slipped 2.6% in the first financial quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 (1QFY18) due to higher operating expenses incurred for the expansion of network and infrastructure, to cater to higher demand of express delivery by its e-commerce business.
Net profit for 1QFY18 fell to RM7.89 million from RM8.11 million a year ago, while earnings per share dropped to 0.14 sen from 0.15 sen.
Quarterly revenue, however, rose 18.5% to RM68.77 million 1QFY18 from RM58.02 million in 1QFY17.
Flexible packaging maker Daibochi Plastic and Packaging Industry Bhd's net profit rose 20.2% to RM7.22 million in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 (3QFY17) from RM6 million a year ago, on contribution from its Malaysian and Myanmar plants.
Earnings per share rose to 2.2 sen from 1.84 sen. Quarterly revenue also increased 8.5% to RM102.03 million in 3QFY17 from RM94.07 million in 3QFY16.
The group also declared an interim dividend of 1.15 sen per share amounting to RM3.8 million for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2017 (FY17), payable on Dec 28.
For the cumulative nine months (9MFY17), the group's net profit, however, slipped 3% to RM18.03 million from RM18.59 million in 9MFY16, while revenue came in flat at RM282.99 million from RM280.8 million.
Hap Seng Plantations Holdings Bhd saw its net profit for the third financial quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 (3QFY17) fall 39% to RM25.9 million from RM42.7 million a year ago, on lower sales volume of crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel (PK).
Sabah-based Hap Seng Plantations also attributed its drop in profitability to lower average selling price realization of PK but this was mitigated by higher average selling price realization of CPO.
Revenue for 3QFY17 came in 29.1% lower at RM113.58 million from RM160.17million a year ago.
For the nine-month period ended Sept 30, 2017 (9MFY17), Hap Seng Plantations’ net profit grew by 12.3% to RM88.87 million. Revenue for 9MFY17 was 4.3% higher at RM391.19 million.
Land & General Bhd (L&G) saw its net profit for the second quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 (2QFY18) more than double to RM25.36 million or 0.87 sen per share, from RM10.28 million or 0.93 sen per share a year ago.
The property developer said the improvement was attributable to the group’s write back of costs from the finalisation of builder’s work in respect of its Damansara Foresta project, and a RM33.7 million gain from the acquisition of its land for the mass rapid transit (MRT) project.
Quarterly revenue grew 45.2% to RM22.82 million in 2QFY18, from RM15.71 million in 2QFY17.
For the first half of FY18 (1HFY18), L&G’s net profit more than doubled to RM49.29 million, from RM20.56 million in 1HFY17, while revenue grew 25% to RM34.51 million, from RM27.61 million.
Plantation group-cum-hospital operator TDM Bhd saw a 66% year-on-year drop in its net profit for its third quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 (3QFY17) to RM8 million from RM23.42 million, no thanks to higher expenses, particularly administrative.
Quarterly revenue, however, rose 11% y-o-y to RM114.12 million from RM102.78 million, largely due to stronger crop production and higher palm product selling prices.
Its net profit for the first nine months of FY17 (9MFY17) shrank 41% y-o-y to RM25.35 million from RM43.16 million, though revenue climbed 8% to RM327.74 million from RM303.35 million.
Mieco Chipboard Bhd’s net profit surged 3.7 times in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 (3QFY17) from a year earlier, thanks to higher selling price of plainboard and improved production efficiency.
Mieco said net profit jumped to RM15.62 million in 3QFY17, from RM4.23 million in 3QFY16. Earnings per share grew to 2.97 sen, from 0.8 sen.
Quarterly revenue rose 11.1% to RM101.13 million in 3QFY17 from RM91.03 million in 3QFY16.
For the cumulative nine months (9MFY17), Mieco’s net profit came in at RM34.56 million, down 4.6% from RM36.24 million a year ago. Revenue, however, improved by 18.2% to RM273.86 million, from RM231.71 million a year ago.
Steel product manufacturer AYS Ventures Bhd registered a 25% increase in net profit for its second financial quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 (2QFY18) to RM6.55 million from RM5.24 million a year ago, thanks to higher revenue achieved and lower impairment loss of trade receivables recorded during the quarter.
AYS recorded a 22% increase in 2QFY18 revenue to RM154.88 million from RM126.83 million a year ago, attributable to higher sales volume and selling prices of steel products from the trading and services division resulting from higher market demand.
For the first half of FY18 (1HFY18), AYS reported a 21.2% drop in net profit to RM12.59 million from RM15.98 million in 1HFY17, on a lower sales volume recorded in 1QFY18 and higher costs of goods sold.
Revenue for 1HFY18 came in 3% higher at RM279.93 million from RM271.64 million a year ago.
Engineering firm Kelington Group Bhd, whose share price hit a record high of 84.5 sen today, announced that its 94%-owned subsidiary Ace Gases Sdn Bhd has signed a 15-year supply agreement to purify and liquefy carbon dioxide (CO2) waste gas for Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas).
Under the scope of the agreement, Kelington said Petronas’ Gas Processing Plant in Kerteh, Terengganu, will supply CO2 waste gas in excess of 50,000 tonnes per year to a new neighbouring gas plant which will be established by Kelington.
Kelington will purify and liquefy the waste gas to produce liquid CO2 to be sold to end users.
Nonetheless, Kelington said the agreement is on a call-out basis whereby the orders will be issued at the discretion of Petronas based on the schedule of rates set forth in the agreement.
Kelington added that the construction of the new plant would involve an estimated investment cost of RM50 million to RM60 million.
http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/zecon-tanco-ranhill-kronologi-heng-huat-suncon-malton-ioi-properties-gdex-daibochi-hap-seng
