News Highlights - SP Setia, Malayan Banking, Telecommunication Sector

S P Setia Bhd (RM3.86/share)

Battersea to cost over £600mil

The Battersea Power Station site in London is expected to cost S P Setia Bhd and Sime Darby Bhd over £600mil (RM3.0bil), taking into account the additional costs to extend the London tube line to the site and the restoration of a power generation system. On June 7, S P Setia and Sime announced they had entered into an exclusive agreement with the joint administrators and receivers of the property – Alan Bloom and Alan Hudson of Ernst & Young LLP – to acquire Battersea Power Station’s assets which include its 15.6ha tract. It is learnt that the Employees Provident Fund will participate as an investor of the project once the purchase of the land is finalised. S P Setia told analysts in a briefing last week that the agreement is expected to be signed on July 4, with another three months to complete the deal.  -The Edge

Malayan Banking Bhd (RM8.73/share)

Consumer banking business set to expand

Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) is seeing growth in its consumer banking business, the top revenue earner for the group, despite numerous measures to cool the sector. Deputy president and head of community financial services Lim Hong Tat said they will grow under controlled aggression. The growth is attributed to improvements under the new “house of Maybank”, where under a single regional director, there is more teamwork and synergy. Maybank’s market share in almost every line of consumer banking has improved over the last two years: auto 19% (previously 17%); credit cards 15.8% (14%); mortgage, which dropped at one stage to 12.9%, has now reversed and gone up to 13.2%. Half of the group’s earnings are derived from community financial services which comprises consumer banking, business banking and retail small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs). - StarBiz

Telecommunication Sector

Competitions heats up in IDD segment

After fighting a price war in the prepaid arena, players in the telecommunication sector seem to be in a mood for another battle in the international direct dialling (IDD) segment. Recently, Maxis Bhd has up the ante and become more aggressive with cheaper new prepaid and IDD packages among migrant workers with attractive headline rates. Maxis’ aggressiveness has proved to be fruitful for the telco and continues to gain traction. Following this, DiGi.Com Bhd, which controls some 50% of the migrant worker market, responded to its rival’s rate cut by slashing IDD rates for key migrant markets by up to 77% in April. On top of the IDD competition, the industry is also going through intensifying competition in the broadband segment. - StarBiz

Source: AmeSecurities