FBMKLCI 1523.37 DJ+75.68 CRUDE OIL104.52 RM2.9570

Investors can look forward to two large initial public offerings (IPOs) coming on board the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia in the second half of this year. One is UOA Development Bhd, which is expected to be listed in June, with a potential market capitalisation of RM3bil. The other is Axis Global Islamic Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), a unit of Axis REIT Management Sdn Bhd. It is set to be the world's largest Islamic REIT, also valued at some RM3bil once it is listed.

Dialog Group Bhd said it was still bidding with potential Australian partner Roc Oil Co Ltd for contracts pertaining to Petroliam Nasional Bhd's (Petronas) marginal oilfield developments. The company told Bursa Malaysia yesterday that Roc Oil was its business partner and was presently tendering for upstream oil and gas prospects in Malaysia with the possibility of a joint venture between the two companies if the tender was successful. “To date, Dialog and Roc Oil are still in the bidding process and have not entered into a joint-venture agreement and neither parties have received any letter of intent for marginal oilfield projects from Petronas,” it said.

Maybank is raising its deposit and base lending rates effective Wednesday. Its deposit rates will be revised upwards by up to 30 basis points, while its base lending rate (BLR) will be increased by 30 basis points from 6.30% per annum to 6.60% per annum.

RHB Bank Bhd is also raising the BLR from 6.30% per annum to 6.60% per annum, effective Wednesday.

Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) will announce on Friday plans to invest around RM50bil in an integrated downstream oil and gas complex in Pengerang, Johor, reliable sources said.

Shell Refining posted net profit of RM135.54 million in the first quarter ended March 31, 2011, up 131% from RM58.61 million a year ago. Revenue increased by 29% to RM3.20 billion from RM2.48 billion while earnings per share were 45.18c versus 19.54 sen a year ago. Shell Refining reported after tax stockholding gains of RM153 million for 1Q11.

Hartalega’s net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2011 rose 12.9% to RM52.39 million from RM46.41 million a year ago, driven by continuous expansion in production capacity, increase in demand, effective cost control and improvement in production processes. Revenue for the quarter was up 17.8% to RM192.52 million from RM163.39 million. Earnings per share were 14.41 sen while net assets per share was RM1.36.

HONG LEONG BANK BHD [] has proposed to increase the size of the renounceable rights issue by RM1 billion from RM1.6 billion to RM2.6 billion to further strengthen its capital base and for working capital purposes. HONG LEONG FINANCIAL GROUP BHD [] is providing a RM2.3 billion loan Hong Leong Bank to assist it with its risk weighted capital adequacy ratio (RWCAR).

FBMKLCI 1519.41 DJ+45.94 CRUDE OIL101.37 RM 2.9570

The ringgit, Asia's best performing currency since last year, is expected to strengthen further on the weakness of the US and its economy. RAM Holdings Bhd group chief economist Dr Yeah Kim Leng said the Government was on the right track in raising the overnight policy rate (OPR), which would increase the likelihood of the ringgit strengthening further. He said the ringgit would strengthen to RM2.90 to the US dollar by year-end because the growth prospects in the United States' economy were still dim. “The dollar will continue to decline as it is still mired in its housing and financial bubble,” Yeah told a media briefing following the rating agency's AGM yesterday.

Airport operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) would likely see passenger volume grow at a slower pace between 7% and 8% this year, after posting a 12.7% growth last year driven by growth in international and domestic passengers. Although MAHB recorded a 12% passenger volumes growth in the first quarter of this year, its passenger movement could soften in the coming quarters as full service carriers feel the effects of higher oil prices, said analysts. “However, MAHB's passenger growth is projected to remain relatively resilient as the airport should also capture the shift in passenger traffic from full service to low cost flights. We nudged down our passenger growth projection to 7% this year (from 8%) after taking into account the potentially adverse impact of higher fares - in view of high oil prices on travel demand,” HwangDBS Vickers Research said in a report mid last month.

three questions about TCUBES being hotly debated about:

Why did Commerce Technology Ventures (CTV), a long time investor in Tricubes, sell 14.5 million shares (which amounted to most of its shareholding in Tricubes) from April 24 to 27, days after details of its involvement in the 1Malaysia email project were revealed?

Was the Performance Management & Delivery Unit (Pemandu) right to spend all that money in two full page advertorials that appeared last week, to defend the 1Malaysia email project, considering that the project is a private sector initiative by Tricubes?

Are Tricubes shares a good buy now, considering that its share price has retreated somewhat over the last few days?

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/5/10/business/8649761&sec=business

Ajiya Bhd will invest RM15mil this year to expand operations at its four metal roll forming and safety glass processing plants in Malaysia. Managing director Chan Wah Kiang said the move would further strengthen its position as the leading player in the metal roll and safety glass processing activities in the region. The plants are located in Senai, Johor; Shah Alam, Selangor; Bukit Minyak in Penang and Sungai Petani in Kedah. Demand would come from several upcoming redevelopment projects in Kuala Lumpur, the Riverside City project in the Klang Valley, the Greater Kuala Lumpur and Iskandar Malaysia, he said.

Berjaya Capital Bhd (BCapital) yesterday entered into a share purchase agreement with Sompo Japan Asia Holdings Pte Ltd (SJAH) for the proposed disposal of its 40% stake in Berjaya Sompo Insurance Bhd (B-Sompo) for RM496mil cash. Berjaya Corp said the consideration of RM496mil or about RM10.51 per B-Sompo sale share represented a price-to-book ratio of about 3.3 times based on the latest audited net asset per B-Sompo share as at April 30, 2010 of RM3.18, a premium of RM7.34 above the audited net tangible asset per B-Sompo share as at April 30, 2010 of RM3.17. It is also a price-earnings multiple of 16.49 times based on the latest audited net earnings per B-Sompo share for the financial year ended April 30, 2010 of 63.7 sen. The proposed disposal is expected to be completed this year.

Dialog Group and its Australian partner Roc Oil are said to be on the verge of bagging the marginal oilfield projects from Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) for Balai and Bentara fields, located off the coast of Sarawak.

Bertam Alliance’s unit has inked a joint development agreement for a mixed development project of residential and commercial shoplots in Johor with a gross development value (GDV) estimated at no less than RM400 million.

KrisAssets posted net profit of RM35.44 million in the first quarter ended March 31, 2011, which was a 31.2% increase from the RM27.01 million a year ago, mainly due to higher total rental income and lower finance and utility costs in the current quarter. Revenue increased by 7.7% to RM63.46 million from RM58.89 million. Earnings per share were 8.17 sen compared with 8.02 sen.

V.S. Industry Bhd (VSI) unit V.S. Plus Sdn Bhd has been appointed by US-based Keurig Incorporated (Keurig) as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partner to produce Keurig’s Single-Cup coffee brewers. V.S. Plus would begin manufacturing Keurig branded single-cup brewers as well as some system-related accessories at a new plant that was acquired in October 2010 for RM12.3 million. Keurig is a unit of NASDAQ-listed Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc., a company involved in specialty coffee and coffeemakers in the US.

FBMKLCI 1515.50 DJ+54.57 CRUDE OIL 98.26 RM 2.9765

Recently, Ramunia Holdings Bhd unveiled a regularisation plan to address its Practice Note 17 (PN17) status that involved a proposed capital reconstruction, rights issue and business rejuvenation plan. Investors obviously didn't like the idea of pumping even more money into a shell company, and this was seen in its share price which was sold down 8 sen to 56 sen on Wednesday. As of Friday, the stock was down 0.5 sen to 55sen. In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, Ramunia said under the capital reconstruction, it would cancel 25 sen from the par value of the existing ordinary share of 50 sen each, or which the credit would be used to off-set against the accumulated losses of the company.

SHARE prices on Bursa Malaysia will likely continue its downtrend this week with rising interest rates and a massive sell-off in commodities expected to be the biggest drag on the local bourse. Head of Retail Research, Affin Investment Bank, Dr Nazri Khan said the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) is expected to continue its downward correction to test the psychological 1,500 support level.

“We believe the old bearish stories are back again with investors worrying about the global double-dip recession and sovereign debt crisis in the developed world,” he added.

EON Capital will distribute the RM312 million, or 44.9 sen per share, which it will receive as special dividend from its unit EON Bank Bhd to all its entitled shareholders. The dividend was proposed by EONCap on April 29 and agreed by HONG LEONG BANK BHD [] as a last-minute extra condition to the latter’s acquisition of EONCap’s assets and liabilities for RM5.06 billion.

Coastal Contracts proposed a corporate exercise involving a bonus issue and free warrants to its shareholders and also to purchase up to 10% of its paid-up capital. It said on Friday, May 6 said it proposed a one-for-three bonus issue and one free warrant for every eight shares held after the proposed bonus issue.

Hap Seng Consolidated posted a strong set of earnings in the first quarter ended March 31, 2011, with net profit surging 108% to RM82.17 million in the first quarter ended March 31, 2011 from RM39.48 million a year ago. Revenue rose 28% to RM751.34 million from RM587.18 million while earnings per share doubled to 14.58 sen from 7.01 sen.

Fitters Diversified Bhd does not expect to be suspended on Tuesday after it submitted its outstanding annual audited financial statements for financial year ended Dec 31,2010 to Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd on Friday, May 6. “There will be no suspension of trading in the above company's securities on May 10,” it said.

Fitters Diversified was due to submit the statements to Bursa Securities for public release on or before April 30. However, due to the delay, it had initially faced suspension on May 10.

Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Bhd (MMHE) posted pre-tax profit of RM114.08 million in the four quarter ended March 31, 2011, down 35.7% from RM177.45 million a year ago. The decrease was mainly due to lower revenue in engineering and CONSTRUCTION and marine repair and conversion segments. However, its net profit was up 11.7% at RM128.64 million compared with RM115.15 million a year ago. There was a tax writeback of RM14.43 million compared with tax paid of RM60.03 million a year ago. Its revenue fell 41.9% to RM923.29 million from RM1.59 billion a year ago. Earnings per share were 8.0 sen versus 8.6 sen.

Ranhill Bhd could issue another tranche of debt papers, amounting to about RM700 million, according to sources familiar with the company.