KUALA LUMPUR: Sapuracrest Petroleum Bhd’s joint venture company, SapuraAcergy Sdn Bhd has secured a US$170mil (RM600mil) contract from Apache Energy Ltd for the transportation and installation of offshore facilities in Australia.
SapuraAcergy is a joint venture company equally owned by SapuraCrest and Acergy S.A.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, SapuraCrest said the contract, which was part of the Devil Creek development project involves transporting and installing about 91 km of 16-inch rigid pipeline including a shallow water beach approach, subsea tie-ins and stabilisation works together with a wellhead platform of 1,700 metric tonne four leg jacket and a 450 metric tonne topside processing module.
The works are expected to be performed in water depths of about 60 metres.
SapuraCrest said the engineering and project preparations would commence immediately.
“Offshore installation is scheduled to commence in late 2010 using the Sapura 3000, SapuraAcergy state of the art dynamic positioning heavy lift and pipelay vessel and project specific third party support vessels,” it said.
The works are expected to be completed by early 2011.
SapuraCrest said the contract would have no effect on its issued and paid-up capital of the company.
However, it was expected to contribute positively to the group’s earnings and net tangible assets for the financial year ending Jan 31, 2010 and the financial periods thereafter in the duration of the contract. (Read more inside ..)

 What happen?? So far only RM2.5b of the RM10b subscribed after much hyped about the fund at the beginning. LOL

KUALA LUMPUR: Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) has extended the Amanah Saham 1Malaysia (AS1M) subscription allocation to ethnic groups to Dec 31, 2009.

PNB president and group chief executive Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman said the decision to extend the allocation ratio was to provide extra time for people from all ethnic groups to invest in the fund.

The investors of AS1M came from various economic backgrounds including medium and low-income earners, he said in a statement on Oct 1.

“I hope everyone would take this opportunity to participate in this AS1M fund by opening a new investment or making an additional investment,” he added.

AS1M, a fixed price fund with a size of 10 billion units, was launched on July 31, 2009 by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

It is open to all Malaysians with an allocation of 50% for bumiputeras, 30% for Chinese, 15% for Indians and 5% for other ethnic groups.

As of Sept 27, more than 2.5 billion units had been subscribed by 165,661 investors.

Hamad Kama Piah also said Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (ASNB) would be conducting investment seminars, focusing on AS1M in selected locations nationwide beginning this month. — Bernama (Read more inside ..)

Written by Joseph Chin
Thursday, 24 September 2009 07:52

KUALA LUMPUR: The cautious close on Wall Street overnight, despite the Federal Reserve's upgrading of its assessment of the US economy, is expected to see key Asian markets putting up a lacklustre performance on Thursday, Sept 24.

The Fed said it would slow its purchases of mortgage debt to extend that program's life until the end of March, in a move toward withdrawing the central bank's extraordinary support for the economy and markets during the contraction. It also held its benchmark overnight lending rates at close to zero percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average shed 0.83%, to 9,748.55. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined 1.01% to 1,060.87. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.69% to 2,131.42.

At Bursa Malaysia, stocks to watch include MULTI-PURPOSE HOLDINGS BHD [] (MPHB), BERJAYA CORPORATION BHD [] (BCorp), AMDB BHD [] and DIALOG GROUP BHD [].

MPHB's unit Magnum Corporation yesterday launched its jackpot game called 4D Jackpot in a bid to regain market share from its legitimate rivals as well as black market players.

BCorp and a Brunei-based contractor have jointly submitted a joint bid to the Brunei Economic Development Board to undertake a waste management project in that country.

AMDB's unit Walleng Enterprises Sdn Bhd is targeting property in London for investments after subscribing for 60% of British Virgin Islands-incorporated Westlink Global Investments Ltd.

Walleng had on Sept 23 subscribed for 60 shares of 1 sterling pound each in Westlink, or 60% at par cash. After the subscription, Walleng had committed to provide shareholders advances of up to 13.5 million pound sterling (RM80 million) to Westlink.

In Dialog Group, the company has started operations of phase one of Langsat Terminal (One) Sdn Bhd, which is a joint venture between the company, MISC BHD [] and Puma Energy Asia Pacific BV.

HAP SENG CONSOLIDATED BHD [] is selling its wholly owned subsidiary Hap Seng Consolidated Financial Lease & Rental (China) Co Ltd for US$30.29 million (RM105.11 million) cash, booking in a gain of RM36 million, in a related party transaction. (Read more inside ..)

Written by Joseph Chin
Thursday, 17 September 2009 11:20

KUALA LUMPUR: The major shareholders of both The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Bhd (NSTP) and MEDIA PRIMA BHD [] have agreed to the privatisation of the former, sources said.

The Employees Provident Fund Board (EPF), which is a common shareholder in both companies, is said to have given its go-ahead for the privatisation of NSTP. EPF is the single largest shareholder of Media Prima with a 25.55% stake and also owns 10.53% of NSTP, the publisher of the New Straits Times, Berita Harian and Harian Metro.

The privatisation is also said to have the blessings of Umno, which is also a major shareholder of Media Prima and whose interests are held through Gabungan Kesturi Sdn Bhd with a 14.41% stake and Altima Inc with 10.29%.

Umno is said to be in favour of NSTP’s privatisation as the share price had been trading very much below its net asset value of RM4.51 as at June 30 this year.

It is also learnt that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was positive about the corporate exercise when he was briefed about it recently. The next step would be to bring it up to Umno’s political bureau for its approval.

NSTP closed five sen higher at RM1.90 and Media Prima gained one sen to RM1.58 yesterday.

The privatisation does not involve any cash outlay from Media Prima. Shareholders of NSTP would instead get loan stocks and warrants of Media Prima. The issuance of such instruments is to ensure there is no immediate dilution of shareholdings in Media Prima.

Analysts had said it would make sense for Media Prima to privatise NSTP as it could fully consolidate NSTP’s expected strong earnings growth for next year (of almost six-fold) on the back of advertising expenditure recovery, lower newsprint and full-year impact of Harian Metro’s cover price hike.

AmResearch had recently alluded that the privatisation of NSTP — should it happen — would be through a share swap.

Its analyst Izz Al-Din Maslan said NSTP’s shares had not traded at its book value and as such, its shareholders could not expect Media Prima to make an offer at NSTP’s book value.

He said the privatisation would transform Media Pima into a media conglomerate with full control of operations in free-to-air TV, radio, outdoor media and newspapers.

Izz added that there was a lot of upside for NSTP shareholders as they would have exposure to Media Prima’s growing business whereas the print media continued to face stiff competition from online news portals.

“It (the privatisation) would also avoid earnings leakages as we estimate NSTP’s earnings to rebound in its financial year ending Dec 31, 2010, driven by Harian Metro,” he said.

NSTP reported a net profit of RM10.58 million on the back of RM146.67 million in revenue for its second quarter ended June 30. Its net asset per share was RM4.51.

Media Prima posted a net profit of RM8.45 million and revenue of RM178 million for its second quarter ended June 30. Net asset per share stood at 62.14 sen. (Read more inside ..)

Written by Joseph Chin
Thursday, 24 September 2009 15:58

KUALA LUMPUR: Shares of The New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd jumped in the afternoon trade on Sept 24 after Macquarie Research upgraded the stock to outperform and a target price of RM2.50.

At 3.48pm, the share price was up 17 sen to RM2.15. There were 3.05 million shares done. Media Prima rose five sen to RM1.54.

The stocks bucked the overall cautious market where the FBM KLCI fell 1.22 points to 1,217.85. Turnover was 571.37 million shares valued at RM767.12 million.

Macquarie Equities Research said it initiated coverage on NSTP with an Outperform recommendation and a target price of RM2.50, based on a 12 times price-to-earnings (PER) for 2010E.

NSTP's three newspapers in its fold account for 35% of total circulation and 22% of total newspaper advertising spending (adex).

"We expect NSTP to benefit from the shift in readership from English to Malay newspapers as advertisers increasingly take advantage of this trend. In particular, we believe NSTP's key newspaper, Harian Metro, is poised to benefit from this shift as the country's most widely circulated newspaper (33% of Malay newspaper circulation).

"The key catalyst for NSTP lies in monetising this success. Malay newspapers currently make up only 21% of newspaper adex, despite having a 49% share of circulation," it said.

Macquarie Research said it expects improving advertising revenue in 2010E to boost NSTP's operating margins in 2010E, given the high proportion of fixed costs. Every 1% increase in its advertising revenue would expand its margins by 3% in 2010E.

It also said NSTP's major shareholder Media Prima, had at a recent analyst briefing, announced that it is weighing up various options to maximise value from its 43% stake.

The possibilities include (1) acquiring the remaining 57% via a share swap, (2) a dividend-in-specie to Media Prima shareholders and (3) an outright sale.

"Given the political sensitivities, we believe the third option is the least likely. Thus, we are not attaching an M&A premium to NSTP," it said. (Read more inside ..)