FBMKLCI 1521.29 DJ -2.42 CRUDE OIL 88.50 RM 3.108

Construction and infrastructure giant Gamuda Bhd is eyeing Qatar's mass rail transit (MRT) project next year, ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, said group managing director Datuk Lin Yun Ling.

TNB is confident it can maintain its profitability for FY11 ending Aug 31, unless coal prices continue to climb, breaching the US$110 (RM345) per tonne mark. 

Malayan Banking Bhd’s (Maybank) Indonesia unit, PT Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII), saw its shares jump to a 10-year high amid comments by the country’s regulator that Maybank “refloat a 20% stake in BII within six months.” 

SP Setia Bhd’s net profit rose 32.2% year-on-year to RM75.2mil in the fourth quarter ended Oct 31 due to higher sales and gain from the disposal of Tesco Hypermarket in Bukit Indah, Johor.

Peter Chin: No water bailout, but the Federal Government will help to ensure the people of Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya have a continuous supply of water. That was Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin’s message in response to the ongoing water dispute between the Selangor and federal governments. Asked if there is a deadline, Chin said “as long as we cannot resolve the issue on a willing buyer, willing seller basis, how can we set a deadline?”.

Kamaruzzaman is new JCorp CEO. Kamaruzzaman Abu Kassim was appointed chief executive officer of Johor Corp (JCorp) at a board meeting chaired by Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman yesterday.

FBMKLCI 1510.06 DJ +13.32 CRUDE OIL 88.74 RM 3.113

The federal Cabinet has agreed in principle to a revision of electricity tariff but has not decided when it should take place. Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui said an electricity tariff revision was on the cards but the Government had not decided when. He said there were many issues that the Government needed to address before a time could be set for the revision.

Dayang Enterprise Holdings Bhd is disposing of its 40% stake in Syarikat Borcos Shipping Sdn Bhd to AWH Equity Holdings Sdn Bhd for RM135mil.

Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary is believed to be considering taking auto and banking group DRB-HICOM private, people familiar with the plan said yesterday. It is further believed that the tycoon is being advised by Maybank Investment Bank on the plan, which could cost him close to RM2bn. Sources said the offer will be comparable to DRB-HICOM's NTA value, which stood at RM2.50 as at end of September this year. As at July this year, Syed Mokhtar held a controlling 55.9% of DRB-HICOM, via privately held Etika Strategi SB.

Paramount Corp Bhd announced yesterday a special dividend of 40 sen per share, less tax at 25%, for the year ending Dec 31, 2010.

Alam Maritim Resources has seen its share price plummet on potential debt write-offs owed by Vastalux SB, a debt-ridden subsidiary of another O&G firm, Vastalux Energy. It is mulling a provision for the total debt owed by Vastalux this fiscal year and may even consider liquidating Vastalux given the remote chance of the former recovering its debt.

KFC India, a subsidiary of Kuala Lumpur-based KFC Malaysia, has been operating in India since a year, and has already opened six stores in the state of Maharashtra - four in Mumbai, one in Pune and one in Aurangabad. It has plans to increase its number of stores to 17 next year, says Hezal Ahmad, CEO of KFC
India.

Proton’s subsidiary Group Lotus plc will buy a major equity stake in the Renault F1 team, which will be renamed Lotus-Renault GP team, from the start of the 2011 Formula 1 season onwards. Group Lotus will buy a 25% stake from Luxembourg-based investment group Genii Capital. The price tag was not mentioned.

Bina Puri Holdings Bhd has won a Stormwater pipeline project worth 23.99 million riyal, or about RM19.91mil, from the Saudi Arabia’s City Council of Northern Border (Turaif), through its associate company, Bina Puri Saudi Co Ltd.

Hartalega Holdings has clarified that its factory in Ijok, Kuala Selangor, has never been ordered to close, suspended, nor issued serious warnings of any kind. In a statement issued yesterday, its executive director Kuan Mun Leong categorically denied the allegations reported to have been made by Deputy Minister at the Prime Minister's Department Datuk T. Murugiah and some residents of Taman Suria.

FBMKLCI 1501.74 DJ -3.03 CRUDE OIL 88.23 RM 3.104

KNM finally held an analyst briefing after pausing for a few quarters as management believes the company’s operation is finally turning around and the outlook for its process equipment segment is getting brighter. Going forward, it will expand its services business and go into nuclear energy. KNM is still supported by strong orderbook of over RM2.0bn.

AirAsia Bhd, Southeast Asia’s biggest budget carrier, plans to form a Philippine unit by the first quarter of next year. Sepang, Malaysia-based AirAsia may expand into the Philippines as airlines including Cebu Air Inc increase their fleets and services to meet rising demand in the archipelago. The government has set a target to double tourism arrivals in six years to help spur economic growth.

Scomi Marine Bhd has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to form a framework of cooperation for the provision of maritime academic programmes in Malaysia. 

UEM Land Holdings Bhd said it planned to acquire two parcels of freehold agricultural land in Bangi for RM268.5mil from Inch Kenneth Kajang Rubber Public Ltd Co to develop the land into a comprehensive and integrated township. It told Bursa Malaysia yesterday that its wholly-owned unit UEM Land Bhd wanted to buy the land measuring 463.51 acres at RM13.30 per sq ft.   

Spritzer Bhd is in talks with potential joint venture partners in China and Australia on the possibility of producing bottled mineral or drinking water in these countries and expects to conclude these discussions sometime next year.  

Malaysian banks have extended their streak of sterling double-digit net earnings growth to a fifth straight quarter by posting a 20.1% year-on-year growth in the third quarter (Q3) of this year.

Analysts cautious on billionaire's hard-disk drive maker JCY International

WHEN news that low-key Malaysian billionaire Yong Yoon Kiong's company JCY International Bhd was to be listed on Bursa Malaysia first hit the market back in 2006, there was a lot of excitement.

Not only was the hard-disk drive maker going to be the largest technology firm ever listed on Bursa, it was also supposed to be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) for South-East Asia in many years.

The listing however did not materialise that year.

JCY, which is one of the world's major suppliers to the two global hard-disk drive giants, Western Digital and Seagate Technology Inc, finally made its long-awaited debut on the local bourse on Feb 25 this year. But if its share price performance thus far and latest financial results are anything to go by, it is quite safe to say that JCY has not lived up to market expectations.

The stock has shed close to 50% of its price since its listing to settle 78 sen on Friday, which was also the lowest. In contrast, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KL Composite Index has put on more than 18 % in the same period.

Against its high of RM1.98 achieved on May 3, the stock is trading at a 60% discount. For its IPO, JCY had set the institutional offer price at RM1.60, while the retail portion was priced at RM1.52. For its latest quarter ended Sept 30, JCY incurred a net loss of RM22.56mil against a net profit of RM73.5mil made a year ago, largely on rising expenses and foreign exchange losses. Observers noted that there could be shareholders selling out and some could even be doing so below their IPO prices because of the lower entry cost.

JCY finance executive director James Wong was quick to point out that these issues should not be too much of a concern.

Malaysian investors do not understand tech stocks; you've got to be in for the long-haul, he told StarBiz.

When times in an industry like ours become challenging, we restructure, we adapt and we come off stronger.

The company is working on its labour issues where in the latest quarter, it had incurred an additional RM8mil in workers' salaries due to manpower shortage that resulted in some operations being outsourced and pay rise for the local workers.

We plan to shift some of our labour-intensive operations to China where labour is much cheaper, Wong said.

It currently has about 16,000 workers at its factories in Johor Baru and Penang. Wong said Western Digital had guided for a disappointing December quarter while the March quarter was traditionally a weak one for the industry.

But demand will come back, it always does. We've been in this business for a long time, we understand the cycles, he noted.

JCY has started supplying its components to South Korean and Japan customers to counter the weak demand from its Western customers that are still struggling to surface from the economically challenging times although the impact on bottomline is not expected to be felt so soon, according to Wong. Wong also noted that to his knowledge no major shareholders were selling their stakes in the firm. He added that Yong, the founder of the firm, still held close to 75% stake in JCY.

When the company was listed, some market observers pointed out that valuations were far too high. JCY's IPO was priced at a historical price-earnings (PE) multiple of 15 times when stocks in such an industry which is considered highly cyclical usually trade at PEs of less than 10 times.

Granted, JCY was priced before the acceleration of concerns of a double-dip in the United States, a major customer for the company.

Meanwhile, following the latest results of the firm, some analysts have turned cautious on JCY. In recent notes to clients, analysts said higher wages, shortage of workers, unfavourable foreign exchange rates and high raw material prices would continue to remain challenges for the firm for some time.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/12/6/business/7553769&sec=business

FBMKLCI 1500.98 DJ +19.68 CRUDE OIL 89.28 RM 3.117

New stock listing

No.  Stock  Code    Stock Name     Reference Price      Lower Limit     Upper Limit

1.    0163                CAREPLS           0.023                         0.005             1.15

BSKL is expected to trade higher this week with the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) likely to move towards 1,530 with a strong upside momentum, dealers said. Affin Investment Bank head of retail research, Dr Nazri Khan, said despite profit-taking last week, the benchmark index was likely to get positive spillover from the improving US and Europe. We believe that global tensions have already been factored in by the correction seen last week. We can sense that the flip-flop hot money obviously is making a comeback with year-end bargain-hunting driving the local stocks higher, he said.

Kencana proposed to raise funds via:

1. a proposed issuance of up to 5-year RM350m nominal value Islamic          Securities with detachable warrants on a “bought deal” basiswith AmInvestment Bank as the primary subscriber;
2. a proposed offer for sale by the primary subscriber of the provisional rights to the allotment of the Kencana warrants at an issue price to be determined later.
3. a proposed 10% private placement of new ordinary shares of RM0.10 each in Kencana. In addition, Kencana also proposed to increase its authorised share capital from RM200m divided into 2bn ordinary shares of RM0.10 each to RM300m divided into 3bn shares.

Myagri Group of Companies, an agro-biotechnology outfit, plans to list its unit either on the local or a foreign bourse to raise RM30 million to finance its expansion plans. Myagri helps oil palm plantations convert their waste at the mill into organic matter, enriching it with bio fertiliser microbes. This produces organic fertilisers that are not just good for crops but also protects their health.

The former executive director of Johor Port, Abdul Khalid Khan Lal Khan, is set to lead a revamp of Tanjung Langsat Port (TLP), which will include the set-up of a free trade zone. According to sources, Abdul Khalid will take over the running of TLP to make it a full-fledged container port that will tap the demand in Pasir Gudang. Currently, TLP, now owned by Johor Corp, is operating as a private jetty. It was set up with the aim of making it the largest biodiesel hub in the world.

DiGi.Com announced that the domestic roaming agreement between its wholly-owned unit DiGi Telecommunications SB and U Mobile SB has been terminated yesterday. The agreement was in relation to giving U Mobile access to DiGi Telecommunications’ 2G GSM network for the provision of public telecommunications services in Malaysia.

Ramunia Holdings Bhd's unit O&G Works Sdn Bhd (OGW) is teaming up with Dongnam  Marine  Crane  Co Ltd (DMC) from South Korea to undertake the joint manufacturing of cranes.