KUALA LUMPUR (March 26): Based on corporate announcements and news flow today, companies that may be in focus on Friday (March 27) may include the following: Tadmax Resources Bhd, Sunway Construction Group Bhd (SunCon), Pestech International Bhd, AirAsia Group Bhd, AirAsia X Bhd (AAX), Uchi Technologies Bhd, VS Industry Bhd, Eco World International Bhd and Marine & General Bhd.
Worldwide Holdings Bhd plans to acquire an additional 40% stake in Tadmax Resources Bhd’s RM Pulau Indah power plant project, on top of the 35% stake it already owns.
Tadmax said it received a letter dated March 16 from Worldwide expressing interest to acquire the additional 40% equity interest in the project company, Pulau Indah Power Plant Sdn Bhd (PIPP).
Earlier this month, Tadmax announced that it has inked a share sale agreement (SSA) to transfer the 35% stake in PIPP to Worldwide for RM58.45 million. However, it has not inked an SSA with Korean Electric Power Corp (Kepco) for the other 25% stake.
Sunway Construction Group Bhd (SunCon) said it has received a letter of award for highway construction, from the National Highways Authority of India worth a total of 8.64 billion rupees (RM508 million).
SunCon said the project was awarded to the consortium company established between Sunway Construction Sdn Bhd — a wholly-owned subsidiary of SunCon — and RNS Infrastructure Ltd.
The construction duration for the project is estimated to be two years, and work is expected to commence in October 2020.
Pestech International Bhd has bagged a US$7.34 million (RM31.8 million) contract for a project in Cambodia, which entails works for the 230/11kV Okvau Transmission Substation for the Okvau Gold Mine.
Pestech said the project is the first gold mine transmission substation asset to be undertaken by its subsidiary Pestech (Cambodia) Plc and had commenced on March 1 and will be completed within 12 months of commencement.
Low-cost carrier AirAsia Group Bhd and its long-haul arm AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) will ground most of their fleet and suspend flights from March 28 except a small number, mostly within Indonesia and Thailand.
To further manage and contain costs, AirAsia said its management and senior employees will forego their salary, ranging from 100% at the very top to 15%.
AirAsia will temporarily suspend all international and domestic flights in Malaysia from March 28 to April 21, while that of its flights operated by AirAsia Philippines will be suspended from March 20 to April 14.
AAX will also ground most of its planes in Malaysia from March 28 to May 31, while AirAsia X Thailand has suspended its operations for three months since March 16.
Uchi Technologies Bhd, a company specialising in the design of electronic control systems, warned that it expects revenue in US dollar terms to decline by a low double-digit for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2020 (FY20) on lower demand.
Nevertheless, the group is confident of remaining profitable in FY20 amid the unprecedented challenges.
Uchi said like the movement control order currently in place in Malaysia, the countries where its customers are located are also experiencing lockdowns as part of COVID-19 containment measures.
VS Industry Bhd, which has just enjoyed a record high annual net profit last year, is expecting its performance for the current financial year ending July 31, 2020 to weaken amid headwinds posed by the virulent COVID-19 pandemic, as its second quarter earnings showed a 12% decline amid lower sales.
Its net profit for the second quarter ended Jan 31, 2020 retreated to RM33.2 million from RM37.94 million a year ago, as it recorded lower sales, which resulted in revenue falling 16% to RM820.33 million from RM978.99 million.
The group said its order flow from customers is expected to slow in the coming months, the integrated electronics manufacturing services provider said, given the extent and reach of the coronavirus, which had affected global trade activities.
Eco World International Bhd’s (EWI) net profit for the first quarter ended Jan 31 slumped by 95.61% in the absence of higher sales registered a year prior. Net profit for the quarter amounted to RM5.19 million against RM118.29 million in the same quarter last year.
EWI recorded revenue of RM492.69 million from its JV projects in 1QFY20 versus RM852.28 million in the corresponding quarter last year. Its effective share of revenue from the JV projects amounted to RM358.72 million against RM629.95 million in 1QFY19.
Marine & General Bhd (M&G) posted a net loss of RM11.04 million on the back of revenue of RM50.34 million for the third quarter ended Jan 31, 2020. There is no comparison figures due to a change in financial year end from Dec 31 to April 30, effective from the period ended April 30, 2019.
For the nine months ended Jan 31, 2020, the group posted a net loss of RM31.62 million, on the back of revenue of RM158.69 million.
In its upstream division, M&G said the increasing demand for offshore support vessels for the past two years, has pushed up the charter rates for a modest increase during the third quarter.
https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/tadmax-suncon-pestech-airasia-aax-uchitech-vs-industry-eco-world-international-and-marine
