July 25th - Stocks To Watch Cycle &Carriage, PRK, AirAsia, Cepat, Unisem and Pantech

Stocks To Watch Cycle &Carriage, PRK, AirAsia, Cepat, Unisem and Pantech
Business & Markets 2013
Written by Ho Wah Foon of theedgemalaysia.com  
Wednesday, 24 July 2013 19:20

KUALA LUMPUR (July 24): Based on corporate filings to Bursa Malaysia, the stocks that may attract interest tomorrow could include Cycle &Carriage, Perak Corp, AirAsia, Cepat, Unisem and Pantech.

Cycle & Carriage Bintang Bhd reported a 77% drop year-on-year in second quarter net profit as the vehicle distributor posted lower sales of Mercedes-Benz cars.

Cycle & Carriage said net profit dropped to RM1.04 million in the second quarter ended June 30, 2013 (2QFY13) from RM4.59 million previously. Revenue declined to RM130.42 million from RM170.92 million.

Cumulative 1HFY13 net profit fell to RM1.12 million from RM12.97 million while revenue dropped to RM306.4 million from RM331.04 million.  

"The group had a challenging first half with trading conditions remaining extremely difficult… Unit sales were 12% lower than the first half of 2012 while margins were under severe pressure owing to the intense competition in the premium car market," Cycle & Carriage chairman Alex Newbigging said.

Looking ahead, he said the recently-launched new A-Class and facelift E-Class models planned for the second half of the year are expected to result in improvement in sales and margins.

PERAK CORPORATION BHD [] (PRK) has refuted speculation that the property developer and port operator will be privatised, or acquired in a reverse takeover.

The firm's clarification to Bursa Malaysia today follows news reports on the matter.

The statement reads: "After making due enquiry with the directors and major shareholders, we wish to inform that, to-date, the company has not received any proposals from any parties in respect of any potential privatisation or reverse takeover exercise and the company is not involved in any discussions concerning thereto”.

The shares of the company fell 13 sen or 4.5% to end at RM2.79 a unit today after this clarification was made. In the last two days, it had shot up by over 40 sen or 16% to more than RM2.90 on this speculation.

AIRASIA BHD [] could enter into a new venture in Japan, its chief executive Tony Fernandes said today.

His comments came a month after AirAsia agreed to dissolve its joint venture with All Nippon Airways (ANA) over management differences, AFP reported.

AirAsia Japan is expected to stop operating by the end of October, just over a year after it started flying out of Tokyo's Narita airport.

"We had a lot of the staff from AirAsia Japan who have approached us and said we really want to continue with this AirAsia vision," Fernandes (photo) told reporters on the sidelines of a promotional event in Singapore.

He said some of the investors in the new venture could be current employees of AirAsia Japan. "It has to be a fresh venture, it can't completely be mine," he said.

CEPATWAWASAN GROUP BHD [] (Cepat) said net profit for the second quarter ended June 30, 2013 (2QFY13), fell by almost half to RM2.85 million from last year’s RM5.23 million.

The PLANTATION [] company explained it secured a lower net profit in the quarter because of lower crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel (PK) prices.

Cepatwawasan’s revenue in 2QFY13 also slid by 9.49% to RM48.61 million from the previous year corresponding quarter’s RM53.703 million.

It also blamed the low CPO and PK prices for the fall in revenue. This came despite its CPO and PK sales volumes rose by 34% and 35% respectively.

Cepatwawasan’s net profit for the first half of this year (1HFY13) was RM6.67 million or 2.16 sen per share on revenue of RM94.81 million.

“The board is confident that the group’s prospects are still bright as CPO and PK prices have recently stabilised to around RM2,250 and RM1,250 per tonne,” said Cepatwawasan of its prospects.

UNISEM (M) BHD [] said its net loss for the second quarter ended June 30, 2013 (2QFY13) was RM4.195 million, on revenue of RM246.93 million.

In the previous corresponding quarter, the company’s net loss was RM7.58 million and revenue was RM282.95 million.

Unisem said the 2QFY13's narrower loss was due to improvements in gross profit margins. This was a result of rationalisation of certain low margin and unprofitable products and higher foreign exchange gains.

“The decline in revenue for the current quarter and financial year to date was mainly attributable to decreased sales volume as well as lower average selling prices,” Unisem explained.

Cumulatively, the company’s net loss for the first half of FY13 was RM13.94 million or 2.07 sen per share, which was 33.97% lower than the previous year corresponding period’s loss of RM21.11 million or 3.13 sen a share.

Revenue of RM496.65 million in 1HFY13 was 7.95% lower than last year’s RM539.56 million.

Unisem said business will remain challenging for the rest of the financial year.

PANTECH GROUP HOLDINGS BHD [] announced that net profit for the first quarter ended May 31, 2013 (1QFY14), rose 10.4% year-on-year to RM13.8 million.

The steel pipe maker said this came on higher sales from the manufacturing division.  

“The stronger quarterly performance is mainly due to the higher products demand from the local and export market by the manufacturing division,” Pantech said

During the quarter, Pantech's revenue expanded 11.7% to RM162.3 million.

The company said it is giving out its first interim single-tier dividend of 1.2 sen per share in 1QFY14.

Looking forward, it said it expects overall performance for the current financial year to remain satisfactory amid positive long-term outlook of the oil and gas industry.