June 14-Seacera Group, UEM Edgenta, BCorp, BAuto, Favelle Favco, Tiong Nam, Sunway, Perstima, Knusford, Puncak Niaga, LTKM, CN Asia, Prolexus, Kim Tec

by **Cals** Tue 14 Jun 2016, 02:37

Companies in the news

[size=28]Seacera Group, UEM Edgenta, BCorp, BAuto, Favelle Favco, Tiong Nam, Sunway, Perstima, Knusford, Puncak Niaga, LTKM, CN Asia, Prolexus, Kim Teck Cheong and AirAsia

By Sangeetha Amarthalingam / theedgemarkets.com | June 13, 2016 : 11:51 PM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR (June 13): Based on corporate announcements and news flow today, companies that might be in focus tomorrow (Tuesday, June 14) include: Seacera Group, UEM Edgenta, BCorp, BAuto, Favelle Favco, Tiong Nam, Sunway, Perstima, Knusford, Puncak Niaga, LTKM, CN Asia Corp, Prolexus, Kim Teck Cheong and AirAsia.

Seacera Group Bhd has fixed the issue price for the third tranche of its private placement exercise at RM1 per share.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, the ceramic tiles manufacturer said the issue price of RM1 apiece represents a premium of approximately 9.89% to the five-day volume weighted average price (VWAP), including June 10, of 91 sen per piece.

"The payment from the placee is expected to be received within five market days from the price fixing date," it added.

Seacera had in January announced the private placement of up to 18.93 million shares, which could raise as much as RM18.93 million, to be used mainly in its property and construction businesses.

Infrastructure engineering group UEM Edgenta Bhd's 61.2%-owned subsidiary, Opus International Consultants Ltd (OICL), warned that the softer Canadian market, with the fall in oil and gas prices, has had a negative impact on its results.

OICL, which is listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange, said this has had a sharp impact on Opus Stewart Weir Ltd (OSW), its 49.9%-owned entity, which in turn negatively affected OICL's financial performance.

"In the five months to May 2016, work in hand in OSW has fallen from 47% to 33%, reflecting widespread project deferrals and less new work from clients, resulting in a trading loss of 5.2 million Canadian dollar," said OICL.

Nevertheless, OICL said its management's "very focused" responses are expected to achieve a better trading outcome in the second half of 2016.

Berjaya Corp Bhd (BCorp) will be disposing of its remaining 9.09% stake in Berjaya Auto Bhd (BAuto), held under wholly-owned unit Berjaya Group Bhd, to a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for RM218.61 million or RM2.10 per BAuto share, to be satisfied by cash and new securities in the SPV. The stake comprises 113 million shares.

It had earlier disposed of a 0.77% stake via direct business transactions at the same price for RM18.69 million. This follows the disposal of 137.6 million BAuto shares in the same manner and price between April 14 and June 10, for RM288.96 million in total, cash.

The disposal price of RM2.10 per share for BAuto was at a 7.89% discount to its current market price of RM2.28 per share.

Meanwhile, pressured profit margin in its Malaysian subsidiaries due to intense competition, coupled with foreign exchange losses and higher vehicle costs here as the local currency depreciated against the Japanese yen, caused Berjaya Auto’s earnings in the fourth quarter ended April 30 (4QFY16) to slip by 6.6% to RM51.6 million.

In comparison, the group posted a net profit of RM55.3 million in 4QFY15.

The crimp in its earnings was, however, mitigated by improved results from its Philippines operation, which saw a 128% jump in pre-tax profit to RM15.3 million, from RM6.7 million, and lower group employee stock option scheme expense incurred (halved from RM1.6 million to RM800,000).

Crane maker Favelle Favco Bhd’s subsidiary Favelle Favco Cranes (M) Sdn Bhd (FFCM) will face arbitration proceedings for a sum of US$6.3 million (RM25.8 million) sought by Carigali Hess Operating Company Sdn Bhd (CHOC), relating to a crane accident in 2012.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, Favelle Favco said CHOC is seeking the sum for the loss, cost of removal of a damaged crane and related costs of a temporary crane and replacement crane, as well as interest and legal costs, following the incident on a CHOC platform.

Favelle Favco does not expect any financial and operational impact, because notwithstanding the outcome of the arbitration proceedings, FFCM is fully covered by insurance.

Tiong Nam Logistics Holdings Bhd has filed a RM82.88 million counter claim against Tan Ngee Hong Construction Sdn Bhd (TNHC) in a dispute arising from the termination of a contract for a mixed development project in Johor Bahru.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, Tiong Nam said the counterclaim — together with its statement of defence — includes costs and expenses incurred by its wholly-owned subsidiary Terminal Perintis Sdn Bhd (TPSB), due to substantial delay in the project caused by TNHC.

Tiong Nam said TPSB’s solicitors are of the view that it has a good chance of defending the RM56.9 million claim by TNHC and a reasonable chance of succeeding in the counter claim.

Sunway Bhd's subsidiary Sunway City (Ipoh) Sdn Bhd plans to dispute a notice from the Perak state secretary requesting it to return an undeveloped portion of land to the Perak government.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, Sunway said the notice states that a development agreement between Sunway City and the state government signed on Sept 11, 1997 has lapsed.

The notice also accordingly requested Sunway City to return the undeveloped portion of the land to the government.

"Sunway City shall dispute the notice and refer the matter to arbitration pursuant to the Development Agreement," said Sunway.

Tin plate manufacturer Perusahaan Sadur Timah (Perstima) Bhd said today that its plant in Vietnam, which was partly damaged in a fire in April has fully resumed operations last Friday (June 10).

In a bourse filing today, it said the plant's tin free steel operations resumed work on May 27, while its tinplate operations came back online on June 10.

The plant belongs to the group's wholly-owned unit Perstima (Vietnam) Co Ltd (Perstima Vietnam).

"The company has yet to finalise the financial impact on the group as the assessment and loss survey by the insurance company are still pending," it added.

Knusford Bhd has secured engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) jobs for buildings in Pengerang, Johor, from a subsidiary of Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), under a contract worth RM42.89 million.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, the oil and gas services provider said the contract was awarded by PRPC Utilities and Facilities Sdn Bhd to the group on June 3, for the EPCC of buildings in Pengerang, Johor.

The project's contractual period is 22 months, the group said. Engineering and construction works have already begun on June 3 and is expected to be completed in March 2018.

Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd had terminated the sub-contractor for the sewerage pipe network project at the Bunus catchment area here, for slow progress of work.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia today, the group said its wholly-owned subsidiary Puncak Niaga Construction Sdn Bhd (PNCSB) has served a notice on Genbina Sdn Bhd to terminate the contract contained in a letter of award (LoA) issued in 2014.

"The contract was terminated due to various breaches of contract under the LoA and slow progress of work at the work site, despite several notices given to Genbina, and PNCSB had also exercised its rights to accept Genbina's repudiation of the contract under common law," it said.

LTKM Bhd, a poultry player cum property developer, is buying four adjoining plots of leasehold land in Seri Kembangan, Selangor, with a combined size of 2.58ha, for RM58.4 million cash, to stock up its land bank.

LTKM said its wholly-owned subsidiaries LTK Properties Sdn Bhd and LTK Development Sdn Bhd have entered into four different sale and purchase agreements for the proposed acquisitions.

Among the four parcels of land, two of them are owned by CN Asia Corp Bhd's subsidiaries, namely Chip Ngai Engineering Works Sdn Bhd and Douwin Sdn Bhd; these plots are collectively worth RM36.68 million.

The third parcel of land, currently owned by Crystal Bond Sdn Bhd, is priced at RM10.76 million, while the final parcel, owned by Marvellous Production Sdn Bhd, is being purchased at RM10.96 million.

Meanwhile, Practice Note 17 (PN17) company CN Asia Corp said its disposal of two parcels of the leasehold land for RM36.68 million is part of its initiative to regularise its financial condition.

In a separate filing to Bursa Malaysia, the group said it will announce additional details of the regularisation plan at a later date.

CN Asia said RM11.79 million from the proposed disposals will be used to repay its outstanding borrowings and RM22.8 million for future working capital or investment. The rest of the funds will be for real property gain tax and estimated expenses for the disposals.

Prolexus Bhd's proposed rights issue with free warrants has been oversubscribed by 21.46 million shares, or 37.75%.

In a bourse filing today, KAF Investment Bank said that as at June 6, the date for the closing and acceptance of payment, the company received 55.69 million or 98% of acceptances for its rights shares, and another 22.59 million or 39.75% of excess applications.

This brings the total acceptances and excess applications for the rights shares to 78.29 million, representing 137.75% of the 56.83 million rights shares available for subscription.

Kim Teck Cheong Consolidated Bhd said its subsidiaries have been appointed to distribute Marigold products in parts of Sabah and Sarawak.

The company said wholly-owned Kim Teck Cheong Distribution Sdn Bhd and 80%-owned Kim Teck Cheong (Sarawak) Sdn Bhd signed separate distributorship agreements with Cotra Enterprises Sdn Bhd (CESB) today, appointing them as distributors in Kudat, Kota Kinabalu, Beaufort and Miri.

“The appointment of Kim Teck Cheong Distribution and Kim Teck Cheong Sarawak as the distributors of CESB will enable the company to further expand its portfolio of distribution of third party brands and products across the territories,” it said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia.

AirAsia Bhd has appointed Kathleen Tan as its North Asia president to build the budget carrier's market in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

"Kathleen lives and breathes North Asia. She was the first to spot the massive potential of China when no budget airlines operated to it. She made sure we were the first low-cost carrier to fly to China and built a strong network of 14 hubs there," said group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.

He said North Asia is an important long-haul market that will take on greater significance, after the group launches AirAsia Japan which is expected to be in October.

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