News - AirAsia : Management to propose yearly dividend | Wah Seong Corp : To be big investor in Petra Energy

AirAsia Bhd (RM3.60/share)

Management to propose yearly dividend

Budget airline AirAsia Bhd may soon start handing out dividends to its shareholders on a regular basis. AirAsia chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said the management will recommend to its board to adopt a yearly dividend policy. He also clarified that the RM7.0mil airport tax it owed to Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is due to wrong invoices. He added that MAHB will resend the right invoices to AirAsia. The airline on Wednesday said that it will make the payment immediately after the charges have been rectified. – Business Times

Wah Seong Corp Bhd (RM1.85/share)

To be big investor in Petra Energy

Wah Seong Corp Bhd is poised to become a major shareholder of Petra Energy Bhd. Wah Seong yesterday won the bid to buy Perdana Petroleum Bhd’s entire 57.7 million shares, or 26.9% stake in Petra Energy. Perdana Petroleum said it had evaluated the offers received from various bidders following the close of submission for the final binding bids on June 15. A definitive share sale agreement is expected to be signed soon.  – Business Times

KNM Group Bhd (RM0.73/share)

To raise RM200m from rights issue

KNM Group Bhd plans to raise up to RM200.2mil from a rights issue to repay borrowings and as working capital.   The final repayment amount for bank borrowings and working capital requirements for KNM Group has yet to be finalised, RHB Investment Bank Bhd said on behalf of KNM.  KNM is proposing to undertake a renounceable two-call rights issue of up to 500.546 million new RM1 shares at an indicative issue price of RM1 each. – Business Times

Malaysian Airline System Bhd (RM1.13/share)

Aims to return to profitability in 2014

Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS) had yesterday revised its profitable target plan to 2014 from 2013 set earlier. Its Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said the national carrier’s main focus now was to ensure that revenue was higher than cost of operations. He said they aim to trim operational costs by 20%, and to increase revenue per available seat-kilometre by 10%, within three years. He also said that some of the initiatives would be executed in the next six months to a year via optimising all the assets, making some cost reduction and leverage their work efficiency. He added that the airline would also optimise its fleet capacity by increasing frequencies on some profitable routes. In the meantime, he said MAS would also look into other areas that they can deal with including maintenance, ownership, utilisation, system and procurement of aircraft. – Bernama

S P Setia Bhd (RM3.86/share)

Earnings up in Q2 on higher revenue

SP Setia Bhd’s net profit rose marginally to RM93.4mil, or 4.85 sen in earnings per share, for the second quarter ended April 30, against RM92.2mil, or 5.55 sen in earnings per share, a year ago. Revenue increased 24.2% to RM617.2mil from RM496.7mil. In notes accompanying  i ts  f inancial   resul ts,  SP Set ia said  that   for  property development, revenue increased by 29% while pre-tax profit rose 6%. The property developer said its pre-tax profit from a year ago had included gain from the disposal of an investment property, resulting in the lower increase in pre-tax profit during the current quarter as compared to the increase in revenue. – StarBiz

Construction Sector

MRT awards 31 My Rapid transit work packages worth RM13.8bil

Mass Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd has awarded 31 of the 85 My Rapid Transit (MRT) work packages valued at RM13.8bil. Its Strategic Communications and Public Relations Director, Amir Mahmood Razak said most of the companies have commenced some level of works. He also said 23 work packages are currently being evaluated with 31 yet to be called, adding that they expect the  remaining packages to be awarded before the year-end. - Bernama

Source: AmeSecurities