April 14th - Stocks To Watch Matrix Concepts, Gas Malaysia, Tropicana, icapital, YTL Power, MKH, KLK

by **Cals** Sun 13 Apr 2014, 23:59

Stocks To Watch Matrix Concepts, Gas Malaysia, Tropicana, icapital, YTL Power, MKH, KLK

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Ho Wah Foon of theedgemalaysia.com

Friday, 11 April 2014 20:16

KUALA LUMPUR (April 11): Based on corporate announcements on Apr 11, companies that may be in focus on Monday (Apr 14) could include the following:
Matrix Concepts Holdings Bhd (MCHB) has proposed a one-for-two bonus issue to reward its shareholders.
MCHB’s chairman Datuk Mohamad Haslah Amin said the company has garnered more participation from local and regional retail and institutional investors.
“This has given a tremendous boost to our market capitalisation, from RM660 million at debut (last year) to more than RM1.2 billion today. Our bonus issue is in tandem with the group’s current scale of operations, and is anticipated to allow greater participation in the equity of the group,” he said.
Gas Malaysia Bhd said the government has given approval to the company to increase natural gas tariff for non-power sector in Peninsular Malaysia. This will take effect from May 1, 2014.
But the tariff for residential consumers and those consume less than 600 MMBtu (retail commercial segment) annually will stay unchanged.
In addition, this tariff revision does not apply to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Natural Gas for Vehicle (NGV).
For other classes of consumers, the increase in gas price range from 18% to 26%, with an average of 20.22%, according to the prices announced by Gas Malaysia.
In a statement to Bursa Malaysia, Gas Malaysia highlighted that the purchase price of gas that Gas Malaysia procures from Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) will be adjusted upwards accordingly.
“On the assumption that the company continues to supply natural gas to customers based on volume at prevailing levels, the impact of this tariff revision to the company’s earnings is not expected to be material for financial year 2014.”
Gas Malaysia said it “is confident that its long term profitability will remain healthy and is poised for better position on the back of pent-up demand.”
Tropicana Corporation Bhd may be in the centre of controversy after Selangor Umno Youth lodged a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in connection with the land sale agreement in Kuala Langat between Permodalan Negeri Selangor Berhad (PNSB) and Tropicana.
UMNO Youth is urging MACC to investigate elements of fraud in the transaction, Bernama reported.
Its youth chief Zainuri Zainal urged investigation be conducted on Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim and the land owner relating to the transaction, allegedly undervalued.
The politician questioned the state government's rationale in selling the land to Tropicana at RM17 per sq ft, when Tropicana could sold the same land to another private firm at RM35 per sq ft.
In April last year, the state government through PNSB sold 474.3 ha (1,172 acres) of marshland to Tropicana. The buyer recently sold a quarter of the land to Eco World Development Group Berhad at a higher value.
Separately, Tropicana declared an interim single-tier dividend of 4.0 sen per share.
The book closure date for the interim dividend is fixed on April 25 and the payment date is May 9.
Icapital.biz Bhd may attract some interest after it announced that City of London Investment Management Company Ltd had bought a total of 446,400 shares in i-capital biz over four trading days (April 4,7,8,9) on the open market.
As a result of these purchases, City of London’s shareholding in icapital has risen to 13.92 million shares equivalent to 9.94% stake.
No prices of the purchases made were stated.
At market close today, icapital closed flat at RM2.38 per share on trades of 35,800 shares. On April 9, the company announced that the net asset value per share of icapital.biz as at 9 April 2014 was RM3.09.
YTL Power International Bhd is seen facing pressure on its future earnings by RAM Ratings as a result of a recent UK rule on the rate of return of companies.
“The UK Water Services Regulation Authority’s recently published guidance sets the rate of return that companies can earn on their assets at 3.85% over the next 5-year regulatory period.
“Additionally, extra pressure is envisaged to stem from retail competition in the (water and sewerage) sector, commencing in 2017,” said RAM in a rating statement.
However, RAM noted that these plans will only be finalised in January 2015.
RAM made this observation in a statement when reaffirming the AA1/Stable rating of YTL Power Generation Sdn Bhd’s (YTLPG) RM1.3 billion MTN Programme (2003/2014).
YTLPG, a wholly owned unit of YTL Power, is an independent power producer and indirect owner of Wessex Water Services Limited – a water and sewerage company in the UK.
MKH Bhd said that it will be launching two more new high-rise residential projects within Kajang and greater Kuala Lumpur, to add to its current six planned launches in 2014.

With the new launches, the total gross development value (GDV) of the projects in the pipeline for 2014 will amount to RM1.6 billion.

The property developer said that the projects to be launched soon include the affordable landed properties Hillpark 3 in Semenyih and the two new high-rise residential projects namely Saville @ Kajang and Saville @ Cheras.

Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KLK), via its wholly-owned subsidiary, will inject a total of RM24 million to fund a joint venture (JV) for its oil palm plantation in Liberia, West Africa.
In a statement to Bursa Malaysia, KLK said its wholly-owned unit KLK Agro Plantations Pte Ltd had today entered into a JV with Equatorial Biofuels (Guernsey) Limited (EBGL) to govern the funding arrangement, management and operations of the Liberian oil palm plantation.
EGBL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Equatorial Palm Oil Plc (EPO), which in turn is a 63.2%-owned subsidiary of KLK.
The statement said as per the terms in the JV, KLK Agro and EBGL shall each subscribe for RM24 million (US$7.5 million) of the share capital in proportion to their 50%-50% shareholding in the Liberian oil palm plantation.
Further to that, KLK has agreed to inject any additional funding required by the JV of up to a maximum of RM66.4 million (US$20.5 million).