Ramunia turning around?

PETALING JAYA: The uptrend and high trading volume of both the mother share and warrants of Ramunia Holdings Bhd continued to fuel speculation that the company is poised for a turnaround soon.

Ramunia shares and warrants were among the top 10 most actively traded counters yesterday.

The mother share went up by 2 sen to 42 sen with trading volume of 54.95 million shares. It touched an intra-day high of 44.5 sen, which is also its six month high. Meanwhile, the warrants rose in tandem and gained 2.5 sen to 23.5 sen with 75.24 million units done.

The mother share has spiked since April 20 from the 32 sen level. At its closing price of 42 sen, the stock is now up 31.25% in four trading days.

Sources close to the company said Ramunia was near to clinching a contract from Shell Sarawak worth more than RM100mil. While the nature of the contract is unknown, it is believed to be related to welding and amalgamation works.

The company may be preparing for a new dawn as it is seeking the approval of its shareholders for the company's name to be changed to TH Heavy Engineering Bhd at its forthcoming EGM.

Bursa Malaysia on Jan 19 approved the regularisation plan, which was submitted by AmInvestment Bank Bhd on July 13, 2011. Ramunia is currently a PN17 status company.

On March 13, the company said it had been awarded an RM23.62mil contract by Aquaterra Energy Ltd for the fabrication of well-head support structures for the West Desaru project. The structures comprise two subsea structures and one topside structures with a boat landing facility.

Last May, Ramunia told Bursa that its regularisation plan would comprise of capital reconstruction where it would cancel 25 sen from the par value of the existing ordinary share of 50 sen each, and the credit would be used to offset its accumulated losses.

Ramunia also proposed a renounceable two-for-five rights issue of up to 391.44 million new shares at an indicative issue price of 40 sen per rights share.

It has received a letter of support from Lembaga Tabung Haji, its major shareholder which holds 166.8 million shares or 25.17% in Ramunia, to subscribe for its entitlement under the proposed rights shares.

The proposed rights issue could finance the acquisition of a fabrication yard in Pulau Indah for RM83.8mil, from Oilfab Sdn Bhd, without incurring further interest costs.

The proposed rights issue is expected to raise gross proceeds of up to RM156.6mil.

For the two months to Dec 31, 2011, Ramunia posted net loss of RM14.39mil on revenue of RM3.87mil. For the fourteen months to Dec 31, it recorded net loss of RM9.73mil on revenue of RM22.89mil.