BT Biznewz4u 02 Sept 2009

Sime Darby Bhd (SIME MK, Hold, TP: RM8.10), the world’s biggest publicly traded oil palm planter, will spend RM3bn (US$851m) over four to five years on refineries in China to meet rising demand for cooking oil. “China’s potential is huge,” chairman Musa Hitam said. Food such as instant noodles, cookies and ice-cream all use palm oil and “that’s the biggest potential in the long run.” Sime’s investment may boost its palm oil sales to the nation, which expects imports of the commodity to reach a record 5.3m tons in 2009. Profits at Sime, which also sells Caterpillar Inc earthmovers, may rise next year as output expands and prices stabilize at RM2,000 to RM2,200 a metric ton, Musa said. (Bloomberg)
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Malaysia Airlines (MAS) (MAS MK, Sell, TP: RM2.00) has appointed Tengku Datuk Azmil Zahruddin managing director/chief executive officer (CEO) succeeding Datuk Idris Jala, who resigned on Friday. Aznik, who was MAS executive director/chief financial officer (CFO), joined the national carrier in 2005 from Penerbangan Malaysia Bhd. Jala said in a statement he had worked with Azmil through thick and thin. “He is absolutely the right man for the job and I am confident that he will steer MAS to greater heights.” (StarBiz)
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Media Prima Bhd (MPB) (MPR MK, Buy, TP: RM1.69) will ensure it remains competitive through greater adoption of new media in its content delivery, said its new group managing director Datuk Amrin Awaluddin. He said his key focus would be on ensuring that MPB’s contents are disseminated through more channels and that he used both Facebook and Twitter to help him understand the market better. “The biggest challenge is keeping up with the times and ensuring that the company is still relevant five years down the line.” Amrin said his personal vision as managing director was to continue to grow the company and meeting stakeholders’ expectations. (Financial Daily)
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Malaysia will have its maiden nuclear power plant 15 years from the day it starts working on the project, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB MK, Buy, TP: RM9.90) president and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamed Noh said.
The national electric utility is pushing for the use of nuclear energy to head off a power crunch expected in the future, and has asked for a decision from the government around 2013. Che Khalib, however, stressed that TNB would not simply "jump into developing a nuclear power plant" as an easy way out to meet future energy demand. It would do so only when the country's main fuel energy sources are exhausted. Such requirement appears imminent as our gas reserve is depleting fast, while coal - an imported energy source - is getting scarce, making it more costly to buy. (BT)
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Celcom (M) Bhd, the domestic mobile unit of Axiata Group Bhd (AXIATA MK, Hold, TP: RM2.85), is set to embark on the second phase of its transformation programme following a successful turnaround in the last three years, says chief executive officer Datuk Seri Shazalli Ramly. He said that the second phase would entail strategies to sustain Celcom’s growth, “with specific aims for what we want to be in three years,” premised on three pillars – business strategic development, human capital and talent management and organisational development.
Having chalked up its 13th consecutive quarter of revenue growth, Celcom is confident of maintaining this momentum for the rest of its financial year ending Dec 31. Chief executive officer Datuk Seri Shazalli Ramly said the 2H was historically better than the 1H for the company, partly due to the festive season. ”We are wary of non-controllable factors in the market but I don’t think they are a threat as the economy was very uncertain in the 1H,” Shazalli said. He added that the Influenza
A(H1N1) pandemic could impact its inbound and outbound roaming services as subscribers cut their travelling. (StarBiz)
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IJM Land, a unit of IJM Corporation Bhd (IJM MK, Hold, TP: RM5.10), expects to rake in about RM230m of sales from My Space Plan 2 (MSP2) following the success of the first edition which managed to hit above target with more than RM250m in sales. Managing director Datuk Soam Heng Choon said MSP2 runs from July until the end of October and features incentives that were most popular during the first phase. “The first campaign generated more than RM250m in sales,
therefore we continued with the popular incentives and hope to match – if not top – the earnings of the first campaign,” he said. (The Malaysian Reserve)
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PLUS is an important company for the government and it provides a lot of cash for Khazanah Nasional, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. The government has no plans to sell its stake in the country’s biggest toll road operator, the Prime Minister said. Plus Expressway Bhd expects net profit and revenue to grow this year because of higher traffic volume on its highways, said their MD Noorizah Abd Hamid. She said that PLUS is registering an average daily traffic volume of 1.1m a day
as opposed to 1.05m a day last year. She added that PLUS initially targeted 2.5% growth in traffic volume but year to date, it has achieved 4% growth and believes this rate sustainable to the end of the year. (BT)
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PBB Group Bhd’s 55%-owned subsidiary Chemquest Sdn Bhd is buying a 99.37% stake in Malaysian Adhesive & Chemicals Sdn Bhd (MAC) from Chemquest’s own Asia Pacific Microspheres Sdn Bhd (APM) for RM38.26m. PBB told Bursa Malaysia last Friday that the proposed acquisition was part of Chemquest group’s internal streamlining exercise. (The Malaysian Reserve)
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Wong Engineering Corp Bhd has secured projects with an estimated RM20m to RM30m from customers in the United States and Europe. The projects were for the fabrication of enclosures for equipment used in the medical, oil and gas, semiconductor and industrial equipment sectors, said executive chairman Datuk Freddy Wong. To undertake the projects, he said the group recently invested about RM4.5m in a production line that used laser cutting and turret punch process to
manufacture enclosures and chassis. He added that the company expects the revenue contribution of air detoxifiers to grow to 10% from 5% presently for the fiscal year ending Oct 31. (StarBiz)
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The RON95 petrol which will replace RON97 will be retailed at RM1.80 per litre beginning today. RON97 had been upgraded as a premium petrol with a price of RM2.05 per litre. “Petrol RON92 will be phased out given that its use is rather low, that is around 5% of the total petrol sales in the country,” said Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob. Ismail Sabri clarified that the RON95 petrol price had to be raised by five sen from RM1.75 per litre as announced in May as the world fuel prices had changed. The government expects to be able to reduce the subsidy by RM420m per year with the introduction of RON95 as its subsidy price was lower at 38.81 sen per litre compared with the subsidy for RON97, which was 42.72 sen per litre. (Financial Daily)
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Bank Negara announced on Friday rules for a standard application of the murabahah financing structure, seeking a common reading of Islamic law to help the industry grow. Bank Negara’s murabahah guidelines follow other recent efforts at harmonisation by Islamic banks and Bahrain-based industry body AAOIFI, which would make it cheaper to conduct syariah transactions and encourage cross-border deals. (StarBiz)
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State-run Indian lender Bank of Baroda aims to acquire banks in Malaysia and Thailand to help it expand in the region, the Financial Express reported yesterday, citing an unnamed bank official. The bank is in the process of identifying targets in both countries and hopes to finalise plans by the first quarter of the fiscal year beginning in April next year. “Probably, the acquisition in Malaysia would happen first,” it quoted the official as saying. The decision to look for acquisitions was prompted
by difficulty to get licenses to convert existing representative offices into full-fledged branches, the official said. (Financial Daily)
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