Friday 28 October 2011

CIH eyes RM568m payout

KUALA LUMPUR: CI Holdings Bhd (CIH) will distribute a minimum of RM4 per share to its shareholders from the RM820 million in proceeds it will receive from the sale of its subsidiary Permanis Sdn Bhd (Permanis) to Asahi Group Holdings Ltd (Asahi), according to its managing director Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani.

At RM4 per share, this will work out to a total payout of RM568 million for the 142 million shares and a balance of about RM252 million, which the group could utilise for acquisitions. CIH closed 11 sen higher to RM5 yesterday.

“At this moment, we have the tap and sanitary ware business and cash. That’s all. So we have to look for new businesses,” said Johari after the company’s AGM and EGM yesterday.

Johari said that the group is currently looking at several possibilities but refused to comment further. The group’s tap and sanitary ware business is under its subsidiary Doe Holdings Sdn Bhd (Doe).

When asked if the group is looking at companies within a particular industry, Johari said: “We are turnaround specialists. We don’t have to look at one industry. I like to take over companies that I know I can do something [with] and give value added [to it].”

CIH will not be entering into the beverage industry for the next three years as part of the deal made when selling Permanis to Asahi.


Johari: If the group is unable to find an acquisition, it will distribute the rest of the proceeds.


However, if the group is unable to find a suitable acquisition, Johari said that it will distribute the remainder of the sale proceeds back to its shareholders.

CIH is hoping for its deal with Asahi to be finalised within the next two weeks, according to Johari. “PepsiCo already gave the approval. In fact all the conditions are already done, we’re just waiting on one or two third-party consents,” he said.

Without Permanis in its portfolio, CIH will concentrate on Doe. The tap and sanitary division contributed 7.25% of the group’s total revenue in FY11 ended June 30.

The division has seen an increase in its net profit and revenue over the past year. In FY11, Doe saw a 20.57% year-on-year (y-o-y) increase in revenue to RM43.49 million from RM36.07 million in FY10. Its net profit increased to RM6.28 million in FY11 from RM2.38 million in FY10.

CIH’s net profit for FY11 rose 5.26% y-o-y to RM40.04 million in FY11 from RM38.04 million in FY10. The FY10 net profit was 82.19% higher than the group’s recorded net profit of RM20.88 million in FY09.

The group’s revenue for FY11 rose to RM580.74 million from RM516.4 million in FY10, a 12.46% y-o-y increase, which was lower than the y-o-y increase for revenue between FY10 and FY09 when revenue was RM362.98 million.

Johari attributed to the slowdown in FY11 revenue and net profit to the increase of raw materials prices, particularly for Permanis.

“We were also subject to commodity pressure [on] sugar, resin and [there were] also some fluctuations in terms of aluminium,” said Johari.


This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, October 28, 2011.
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