KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 11): Greece will hold the key for the direction of the markets on Monday, Feb 13 as investors await the outcome of the country’s long-awaited debt deal.
Reuters reported the EU and IMF are exasperated by a series of broken promises by Athens and weeks of disagreement over the terms of a 130 billion euro (US$172 billion) bailout, with time running out to avoid a default.
Before they release more aid, Greece's financial backers have demanded parliamentary ratification of the new austerity package this weekend, the identification of a further 325 million euros of spending reductions by next Wednesday and a strong commitment from all parties to implement the reforms, said the news wire.
The austerity package, which has been bitterly opposed by workers, will go to vote in Greece’s parliament votes on Sunday.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 posted its biggest daily percentage decline thus far in 2012 on Friday after an about-face on Greece's long-awaited debt deal.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 89.23 points, or 0.69%, at 12,801.23. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 9.31 points, or 0.69%, at 1,342.64. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 23.35 points, or 0.80%, at 2,903.88.
At Bursa Malaysia, among the stocks to watch are NAIM INDAH CORPORATION BHD [], TEBRAU TEGUH BHD [], GAMUDA BHD [], MMC CORPORATION BHD [], CSC Steel Holdings Bhd and LONDON BISCUITS BHD [].
Naim Indah has proposed to acquire 60% in Sagajuta (Sabah) Sdn Bhd for an indicative price of RM240 million from Generasi Cipta Sdn Bhd. It intends to acquire the remaining 40% equity interest in Sagajuta that is not owned by Generasi Cipta on similar terms as agreed between Nicorp and Generasi Cipta.
Naim Indah will undertake a proposed reduction in par value from 20 sen of each ordinary share to 10 each ordinary share in which the credit of RM70.2 million arising from the reduction of the par value shall be set-off against the unaudited accumulated losses of the company of RM64.6 million as at Sept 30, 2011.
It also proposed a renounceable rights issue on the basis of one right share of 10 sen per share on the basis of one rights share for every existing share with two free warrants after the proposed par value reduction.
Naim Indah proposed a private placement of 300 million new Naim Indah shares of 10 sen each to investors to be identified, with two free warrants for every placement share after the proposed par value reduction.
Tebrau Teguh rose 6.5 sen to 89 sen in very active trade, which is 13 sen above the offer price of 76 sen made by Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Bhd (IWH) when it acquired Johor government investment arm Kumpulan Prasarana Rakykat Johor’s 33.15% stake in Tebrau Teguh.
Investors are hoping that IWH will raise the offer price for the remaining Tebrau Teguh stake. However, that remains to be seen.
Analysts said that there would unlikely be a higher price unless there was another competitor wanting to launch a takeover for Tebrau Teguh, especially now that it had been picked to develop the Johor Baru waterfront which faces Singapore.
As for Gamuda and MMC, their JV -- MMC Gamuda KVMRT (PDP) Sdn Bhd – was officially appointed project delivery partner (PDP) for the Sungai Buloh-Kajang MRT line.
The PDP’s fee will be 6% of the total aggregate work package contracts award values. However, should the eventual total cost of the project be less than or equal to the target cost, the PDP shall be entitled to the full fee.
The appointment would both companies in strong stead for the underground works package as the PDP was not allowed to take part in any of the tender for the works comprised in the project.
Meanwhile, Gamuda’s 30% owned Sistem Penyuraian Trafik KL Barat Sdn Bhd's (SPRINT) saw Malaysian Rating Corporation Bhd lowering its rating on tolled road concessionaire’s RM510 million Al Bai Bithaman Ajil Islamic Debt Securities (BaIDS) to A+ID from AA-ID.
“The rating outlook is stable. Concurrently MARC has affirmed its AA-(bg) rating on SPRINT's RM365 million Bank Guaranteed Serial Fixed Rate Bonds (BG Bonds) with a stable outlook,” said MARC.
MARC said the rating and outlook of the BG Bonds reflect MARC's financial institution ratings on two of three banks participating in the consortium of bank guarantors for the BG Bonds, AmInvestment Bank Berhad and RHB Bank Berhad (public information basis), both of which are rated AA-/Stable.
The rating on the BG Bonds reflects MARC's continued approach of rating the bonds at the same level as the lowest rated financial institution(s) participating in the consortium of bank guarantors.
SPRINT, is the concession holder for the SPRINT highway, a 25.5 km open toll urban highway which serves the west of Kuala Lumpur. SPRINT is wholly-owned by SPRINT Holdings Sdn Bhd which, in turn, is owned by three listed entities, Gamuda Berhad (30%), Lingkaran Trans Kota Holdings Bhd (LITRAK) (50%) and KUMPULAN PERANGSANG SELANGOR [] Bhd (20%).
CSC Steel recorded losses of RM2.06 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2011, compared with net profit of RM8.56 million a year ago due to lower sales volume of its steel products. Its revenue rose 7.0% to RM276.9 million from RM258.7 million a year ago. Loss per share was 0.55 sen compared with earnings per share of 2.29 sen.
London Biscuits Bhd has proposed to place out 29.37 million new shares at an indicative issue price of RM1 per share to raise up to RM29.37 million, of which about 50% would be used to repay its borrowings.
LonBisc said the placement shares would represent up to 24.35% of its paid-up share capital and would be placed out to investors to be identified later.
HUBLINE BHD [] has fixed the issue price for its private placement of 20 million new shares together with 30 million additional warrants at 20 sen per share.
The issue price was a premium of 100% to the five-days volume weighted average market price of Hubline shares up to and including Feb 9, 2012 of 10 sen per Hubline share.
