April 23rd - Stocks To Watch SP Setia, Sime, MBSB, Versatile, Utopia, TH Plant, Sealink, Talam, AirAsia, SOP

by **Cals** Tue 22 Apr 2014, 19:56

Stocks To Watch SP Setia, Sime, MBSB, Versatile, Utopia, TH Plant, Sealink, Talam, AirAsia, SOP

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Ho Wah Foon of theedgemalaysia.com

Tuesday, 22 April 2014 19:34

KUALA LUMPUR (April 22): Based on news flow and corporate announcements today, the companies that may be in focus tomorrow could include:

SP Setia Bhd and Sime Darby Bhd are leading a consortium to seek as much as 2 billion pounds ($3.4 billion or RM11 billion) from local and international banks to renovate a derelict site on the River Thames, reported Bloomberg.

Foreign acquisitions by Malaysian-based companies since Dec. 31 reached the highest for any similar period since 2010 amid favourable borrowing conditions for dollar-denominated debt.

Average margins for Asean loans in the currency during the period were 69 basis points lower than for the whole of 2013, while yields for top-rated five-year ringgit bonds rose this month to the highest since July 2010.

Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) aims to sustain its revenue for financial year ending Dec 31, 2014, on expectations of growing business in the corporate segment.

For financial year ended Dec 31, 2013, MBSB posted revenue of RM2.51 billion and pre-tax profit of RM932.35 million.

Its President/CEO Datuk Ahmad Zaini Othman said the company had started to diversify its business strategy since the last three years to include corporate and wholesale banking businesses.

"This year alone, we have added another team to improve the market penetration for the corporate business," he told a media briefing after the company's annual general meeting here today.

Versatile Creative Berhad (VCB) announced that IRIS Healthcare Sdn Bhd, Versatile Credit & Leasing Sdn Bhd, Datuk Tan Say Jim and Datuk Lee Kwee Hiang have collectively requested VCB to undertake a voluntary withdrawal of the listing of VCB from the Bursa Securities.

To facilitate the proposed delisting, the four today offered to acquire all the remaining 11,631,745 shares in VCB (or 10.51% of paid-up share capital) not already held by them, at an offer price of RM0.50 per share.

In their earlier voluntary take-over offer, the offerors had raised their holdings to 99,011,336 shares (89.49% of the issued and paid-up share capital of VCB).

VCB shares, which have been rising from 42.5 sen in the past several trading days, rose one sen today to close at 48 sen per unit.

1 Utopia Bhd has been slapped with an unusual market activity (UMA) query by Bursa Malaysia on the high trade volume of the company’s shares today.

Utopia, the most active counter today, saw trades of some 203 million shares. It closed flat at 8 sen.

Bursa has ordered the IT firm to respond to its queries immediately for public release.

Bursa queried if there is any corporate development relating to the group’s business and affairs that has not been previously announced.

TH Plantations Bhd, announcing its headline key performance indicators (KPIs) for FY14, said it targets to achieve 6.0% return on equity (ROE), fresh fruit bunches (FFB) yield of 22.40 mt/ha, and dividend payment of about 50% of its net profit.

“These headline KPIs have been set by the board of directors of TH Plantations, as prescribed under the Government Linked Companies Transformation Programme,” said the group.

The group said it is also aiming to acquire an additional 30,000ha of landbanks from FY13 to FY15.

Sealink International Bhd declared a final single-tier tax exempt dividend of one sen per share for the financial year ended December 31, 2013.

The proposed dividend entitlement date is September 5, 2014 while the proposed payment date is September 18, 2014.

Sealink International Bhd is an integrated service provider which builds, owns and operates a diverse fleet of offshore marine support vessels serving mainly the global offshore oil and gas industry.

Talam Transform Bhd said today it was unaware of any new investors coming to invest in the company.

The company said this in response to an article published by a newspaper (not from the Edge) yesterday entitled “Talam to get new shareholders”.

“We wish to inform that the company is not aware of any new investors to invest in the company,” Talam Transform told Bursa Malaysia at noon.

AirAsia may attract some interest after news that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in India is expected to clear AirAsia's operating permit this week, paving the way for the launch of the low-cost airline's India operations.

"Our team is in Chennai to conduct inspections and assess preparedness. If no deficiencies are found we will clear the application,” An Indian official was quoted as saying so by India’s Business Standard.

But currently AirAsia India is facing a legal challenge from existing domestic airlines and political party leader Subramanian Swamy, who filed a petition against the issue of the permit in the Delhi High Court.

Swamy also approached the Election Commission of India asking it to restrain the DGCA from issuing the permit.

The petition will come up for hearing on Wednesday and the permit issue will be subject to the outcome of the petition, the civil aviation ministry said in its response to the Election Commission earlier this month.

The ministry said AirAsia's application for the permit was made to the DGCA last October long before the elections were announced.

Sarawak Oil Palms Bhd (SOP)'s unit SOP Green Energy Sdn Bhd has signed an agreement with the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) to build a palm phytonutrient production (Vitamin E) plant in Bintulu, Sarawak.

The plant is slated for completion in the second quarter of 2015, said MPOB in a statement here today.

Under the agreement, MPOB will undertake the commercialisation of palm phytonutients using its own technology to produce carotenes and tocol concentrates (palm vitamin E).

MPOB has also signed similar project agreements with Adeka Foods (Asia) Sdn Bhd and Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd.