Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 2): Based on corporate announcements and news flow today, companies that may be in focus tomorrow (Tuesday, Nov 3) could include the following: XOX, Lay Hong, PetDag, Destini, Top Glove, Sona Petroleum, Icon Offshore, KNM, FSBM and Wintoni.

Bursa Malaysia is advising investors to exercise caution in the trading of the shares of XOX Bhd after the recent spike in the mobile operator’s share price.

The regulator also drew investors’ attention to the company’s responses to the unusual market activity (UMA) queries issued by Bursa Malaysia on Oct 5, 2015 and Oct 26, 2015, which confirmed it was not aware of any corporate development or explanation that could give rise to the unusual trading activities in its securities.

Nevertheless, Bursa advised investors to exercise caution and to make informed decisions in the trading of XOX’s shares.

XOX’s shares hit a high of 34.5 sen after going up as much as 11.29% today, before paring gains.

After Bursa’s caution at 3.02pm, XOX pared gains to trade at 29 sen, down two sen or 6.45%, after some 118.01 million shares changed hands, making it the most actively-traded counter on the bourse today.

Meanwhile, a 20% rise in Lay Hong Bhd’s share price over the past three days has prompted Bursa Securities to issue an UMA query to the poultry egg producer.

Bursa, via a filing today, requested Lay Hong to furnish any known information over any unannounced corporate development or rumour that could have led to the recent sharp rises in its share price and trading volume.

Today alone, Lay Hong’s shares closed 70 sen or 12.07% higher at a new all-time high of RM6.50 with 342,400 shares traded. The company is now valued at RM303.6 million.

Petronas Dagangan Bhd (PetDag) saw a 36.46% increase in net profit to RM218.88 million for its third quarter ended Sept 30, 2015 (3QFY15) from RM160.34 million, mainly on higher gross profit, lower operating expenditure and higher other income.

PetDag has therefore declared a higher interim dividend of 14 sen per share for the quarter — payable on Dec 4 — compared to the 12 sen declared for the same period last year.

In its quarterly Bursa Malaysia disclosure today, PetDag said its revenue for the quarter dipped by 20.63% to RM6.53 billion from RM8.23 billion in the previous corresponding quarter, largely as a result of a decrease in average selling price and sales volume.

PetDag’s cumulative nine-month (9MFY15) profit rose 39.26% to RM697.86 million from RM501.13 million last year.

Its cumulative revenue fell 23.16% to RM19.12 billion from RM24.89 billion.

Destini Bhd posted a 66% rise in third quarter net profit from a year earlier as the aviation maintenance, repair and operations specialist’s revenue jumped 130%. Lower taxes and minority interest also supported earnings growth.

In a statement to Bursa today, Destini said net profit rose to RM7.11 million in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2015 (3QFY15) from RM4.28 million. Revenue increased to RM90.34 million from RM39.2 million in 3QFY14.

Cumulative 9MFY15 net profit climbed to RM11.55 million from RM8.66 million a year earlier. Revenue was higher at RM179.2 million versus RM105.08 million.

Top Glove Corp Bhd expects to conclude at least one acquisition in the fiscal year through August as the Malaysian company seeks to maintain record earnings momentum.

Bloomberg reported that the world’s biggest rubber-glove maker is targeting rivals as well as manufacturers of condoms and catheters and will raise as much as RM1 billion in bank loans to spend on acquisitions, Top Glove chairman Lim Wee Chai said in an interview on Thursday.

The company is working with banks including HSBC Holdings Plc and JPMorgan Chase & Co on potential deals, he said.

The company is making acquisitions a priority to sustain growth after profit more than doubled in the last quarter.

“In order to continue to grow, it is very important for us to do M&As (mergers and acquisitions),” said Lim in the interview. “Big or small, we will be interested as long as it is relevant and suitable,” he added.

Special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Sona Petroleum Bhd plans to buy Australia’s Stag Oilfield for US$50 million (RM215.2 million), and the transaction is also intended to be the SPAC’s qualifying acquisition.

Sona Petroleum said in a filing today that its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Sona E&P (Perth) Pty Ltd (Sona Australia) will serve as the buyer, and Sona Petroleum as guarantor for the sale and purchase agreement with Quadrant Northwest Pty Ltd and Santos Offshore Pty Ltd, whom are the sellers.

The agreement entails Sona Australia acquiring 100% interest in the production license WA-15-L and pipeline license WA-6-PL and the associated assets, collectively known as the Stag Oilfield, along with the operatorship of the oilfield.

The Stag Oilfield is a producing oilfield located in the Dampier sub-basin of the Carnarvon Basin, offshore Western Australia and in a water depth of approximately 50 metres and approximately 60 kilometres offshore.

It was discovered in 1993 and commenced production in 1998. As at June 30, 2015, the Stag Oilfield was producing oil at the rate of 4,600 barrels per day from 10 active wells.

The agreement is expected to be completed by March 31, 2016, subject to approval from the Securities Commission Malaysia and the shareholders of Sona Petroleum for the acquisition, as well as notice of no objection from the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board.

The acquisition will be funded entirely in cash via funds raised from the initial public offering (IPO) held under a trust account amounting to approximately RM525.6 million as at Oct 30, 2015.

The group is also proposing to utilise part of the IPO funds for the infill development of the Stag Oilfield.

Icon Offshore Bhd has appointed Amir Hamzah Azizan as its new managing director effective March 1, 2016. He will also be appointed to the board of the oil and gas service provider.

Amir will replace Dr Jamal Yusof, whose appointment as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Icon Offshore will expire on Nov 15.

Amir is currently the CEO of Petronas Lubricants International and vice president of lubricants business at Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas). He also sits on the board of South Africa’s Engen Petroleum.

From 2011 to 2013, Amir served as the CEO of PetDag.

KNM Group Bhd has fixed the issue price for its proposed private placement of up to 193.89 million shares at 50 sen per share.

In a filing with Bursa today, KNM said the issue price represents a discount of 6% to the five-day volume weighted average price of the shares up to and including Oct 30, being the last full trading day immediately prior to the price fixing date, of 53 sen per share.

On Oct 21, the company had proposed to undertake a placement of up to 10% of its issued share capital to be placed to third party investor(s).

Based on the issue price of 50 sen, the exercise would raise RM96.95 million.

The group intends to use the proceeds raised from the proposed placement to repay borrowings and for working capital.

FSBM Holdings Bhd’s auditor has issued a qualified opinion on its audited financial statements for the financial year ended June 30, 2015 (FY15).

This was due to the external auditor not being able to ascertain whether RM8.66 million in trade and other receivables of the group due from Technitium Sdn Bhd is recoverable.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, FSBM noted that its external auditor Messrs Ernst & Young said that included in trade and other receivables to its FY15 financial statements is an amount due from Technitium of RM7.61 million (RM33.74 million less impairment amount of RM26.13 million) and RM1.05 million (RM8.77 million less impairment amount of RM7.73 million) respectively.

“The directors have commenced certain debt recovery legal proceedings and are of the view that the carrying amount is recoverable. Accordingly, the balance of the carrying amount was not impaired as at reporting date.

“However, as the outcome of the various debt recovery legal proceedings cannot be ascertained at this point of time, we are unable to satisfy ourselves as to whether the above carrying amount is recoverable,” said Ernst & Young in its audit report.

Kamal Abdul Aziz, one of the newly appointed executive directors of Wintoni Group Bhd who joined its board on Sept 10, has resigned from his post with the industrial automation systems provider.

In a filing with the exchange today, the 45-year-old director, who is also a full-time stock trader according to Wintoni’s filing in October, cited needing more time for his own business and to pursue other personal commitments as the reasons behind his resignation.

Kama was appointed to the board following the en masse resignation of the former board of directors after 10 minority shareholders requisitioned for an extraordinary general meeting to remove the whole board in August.

Following that, former chairman Datuk Khairuddin Mat Yusof, together with two executive directors, including Datuk Tey Por Yee, and four independent directors and CEO Choong Siew Meng, had all resigned.

The company had then appointed former Agriculture and Agro-based Industry deputy minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shariff Omar, six directors and two executive directors, including Kamal, to the board.

(Note: The Edge Research’s fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)

 

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