KNM proposes to buy company, with 55 acres of land in England, for RM120m

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 25): KNM GROUP BHD [] has proposed to acquire a company owning 55 acres of land at Storey's Bar Road, Peterborough, England for 25 million pound sterling or RM120 million.

It said on Wednesday it had signed an exclusivity agreement with Poplar Holdings Ltd for the grant of exclusivity to acquire the latter’s unit Poplar Investments Ltd which owns the 55 acres of vacant land.

KNM also said the exclusivity period started on Monday and until and including April 25, 2012.

“The rationale for this agreement is to secure exclusive rights during the exclusivity period, to purchase the sale shares and indirectly own the land for the development of the 80 MW waste to energy plant,” it said.

KNM said the land was vacant with no building or structures attached and the proposed transaction would be fully settled in cash through internally generated funds and/or bank borrowings.



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DBE Gurney director sells 12m shares at 8c each

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 25): Shares of DBE Gurney Resources Bhd, which were very actively traded last week, reported that its director had disposed of 12 million shares on Jan 18.

The poultry-based company said on Wednesday that Ding Seng Huat had disposed of the shares, representing a 1.78% stake, at an average price of 8.0 sen each.

To recap on Jan 19, DBE confirmed it was in talks with a shareholder of CI Holding Bhd which includes a private placement exercise.

DBE also said it had plans for a private placement to raise funds for its working capital requirement but it was “at preliminary stage”.



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Cybertowers gets SC nod to issue RM11m loan stocks

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 25): CYBERTOWERS BHD [] has received the Securities Commission’s approval to issue up to RM11 million in loan stocks under its proposed corporate exercise.

It said on Wednesday the SC had, in its Jan 20 letter, gave its nod for the proposed issuance of the RM11 million nominal value of two-year, 0%, irredeemable convertible unsecured loan stocks (ICULS) at 100% of its nominal value of 2.0 sen each.

Cybertowers had on Nov 17, 2011 proposed to reduce the share premium account by up to RM2.03 million. It also proposed to cancel 8.0 sen of the par value of each 10 sen share.

The company had also proposed to place out up to 10 million new of 2.0 sen each, or 10% of the paid-up share capital.

Under the exercise, it had also proposed the renounceable rights issue of up to RM11 million ICULS and to diversify into the provision of hosting services and cloud computing related business.



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Can-One completes purchase of 32.9% stake in KJCF

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 25): CAN-ONE BHD [] has completed the acquisition of the 32.9% stake in KIAN JOO CAN FACTORY BHD [] (KJCF) for RM241.11 million cash consideration.

Can-One said on Wednesday the acquisition of the 146.13 million KJCF shares from Kian Joo Holdings Sdn Bhd was deemed completed as all the conditions in the conditional shares sale agreement dated March 23, 2009 had been fulfilled.

Analysts are expecting Can-One to make a general offer after securing the 32.9% block of KJCF.

They added Can-One would be in a better position to increase the market share once its take control of KJCF.

To recap, Can-One announced on Jan 6 that it won the legal tussle to acquire the block of KJCF shares after a Federal Court ruled in its favour.



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Sime Darby expanding plantations biz in Indonesia

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 25): SIME DARBY BHD [] is expanding its PLANTATION []s via the acquisition of a 95% stake in PT Indo Sukses Lestari Makmur, whose core activities include the development of industrial plant forest and rubber tapping.

The conglomerate said on Wednesday its indirect unit PT Minamas Gemilang had signed a conditional share sale and purchase agreement to buy 3,800 shares of Indo Sukses or a 95% stake for US$4.35 million.

Under the agreement, Minamas would buy 3,500 shares of Indo Sukses from SLT Capital Pte Ltd and 300 shares from PT Entete Mining

“Indo Sukses is in the process of obtaining the timber forest product exploitation business licence from the Ministry of Forestry over approximately 10,000 hectares of concession area on the industrial plant area for rubber forest located in East Belitung Regency, Bangka Belitung Province, Indonesia,” it said.

Sime Darby also said Indo Sukses had obtained the second instruction letter from the Ministry of Forestry for the preparation of the working area map.

It added the issuance of the business llicense was pending review of the map by the Directorate General of Forestry Products Development.



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Hibiscus shares, warrants surge, face query from Bursa Securities

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 25): The securities of Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd surged in active trade in late afternoon on Wednesday, prompting a query from Bursa Malaysia Securities.

At 4.24pm, the shares were up 36 sen to Rm1.56 while the warrants jumped 17.5 sen to 88 sen with 149 million units transacted in the absence of strong positive newsflow.

The spike in price and volume prompted Bursa Securities to issue an unusual market activity (UMA) query on the trading of the company’s securities.

The most recent positive newsflow was in October 2011 when Hibiscus said it would make its first acquisition since listing on July 25 as a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) by proposing to acquire 35% of Lime Petroleum Ltd, which owns three exploration concessions in the Middle East for US$55 million (RM172.2 million) in cash.



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KLCI starts year of the Dragon in the red as banks, blue chips weigh

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 25): The FBM KLCI reversed its earlier gains and closed lower on its first trading day of the Lunar year of the Dragon, weighed by losses at key blue chips including banking and Petronas-linked stocks.

The FBM KLCI shed 2.90 points to 1,519.76, as some investors are still on extended post-Chinese New Year holidays.

Gainers led losers by 389 to 315, while 296 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 1.34 billion shares valued at RM1.54 billion.

At the regional markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 1.12% to 8,883.69, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 1% to 4,329.10, South Korea’s Kospi added 0.12% to 1,952.23 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 1.48% to 2,891.64.

The China, Hong Kong and Taiwan markets remained closed for the Chinese New Year holidays.

Meanwhile, European shares were lower in early trade on Wednesday, weighed by the tech sector after a sharp post-results decline for Ericsson, according to Reuters.

The mobile telecoms network gear maker sank 14% after its fourth quarter earnings came in well below forecast. That compared with more bullish results from U.S. peer Apple overnight, it said.

On Bursa Malaysia, CIMB led the losses at banking stocks and fell 12 sen to RM6.99; Maybank and Affin lost six sen each to RM8.20 and RM3.16, AMMB five sen to RM5.79, while AFG and RHB Capital shed two sen each to RM3.87 and RM7.27.

Petronas Dagangan fell 10 sen to RM17.50, Petronas Chemicals down eight sen to RM6.60 and Petronas Gas shed four sen to RM15.20.

Other decliners included Tahps, Dutch Lady, Harvest Court, LPI Capital, Toyo Ink and KESM.

Among the gainers, BAT rose 50 sen to RM50, KLK 42 sen to RM25.90, MPI 39 sen to RM3.67, Tradewinds PLANTATION []s and Malayan Flour Mills 27 sen each to RM4.53 and RM8.07, BHIC 23 sen to RM3.80, Fima Corp 21 sen to RM6.25, Hong Leong Bank 20 sen to RM11.30 and DKSH 18 sen to RM2.16.

Hibiscus, which was the most actively trade counter, was issued with an unusual market activity query.

Hibiscus rose 32 sen to RM1.52 with 53.5 million shares done while its warrants added 14.5 sen to 85 sen with 176.11 million units traded.

Other actives included DBE Gurney, JCY, Hubline, Maybulk, Compugates and CIMB.



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Genting slips on profit taking, sells Indonesian O&G biz for US$39m

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 25): GENTING BHD []’s share price slipped on Wednesday as investors decided to take some profit and also on news that it sold its oil and gas business in Indonesia.

At 3.24pm, Genting was down eight sen to RM10.90. There were 1.46 million shares done at prices ranging from RM10.78 to RM11.02.

Genting announced to Bursa Malaysia on Wednesday it was exiting its Natuna oil and gas (O&G) business in Indonesia after its 95% subsidiary Swallow Creek Ltd sold all its interests to Australia’s AWE Ltd for US$39 million cash.

Swallow Creek was disposing of its 100% stake each in Genting Oil Natuna Pte Ltd (GONPL) and Sanyen Oil & Gas Pte Ltd (SOGPL) for US$39 million.

Under the deal, Swallow Creek would also assign loans and receivables owed to the company by GONPL and SOGPL of US$100 million to AWE – which is an Australian oil and gas exploration and production company.

RHB Research Institute said the sale was positive for Genting. It added that Genting had been looking to sell its O&G production sharing contracts for a while, as developing the oil fields would require a lot of capex. AWE said that to develop the projects would require an investment of A$600 million (RM1.9 billion).

“As we had not projected any earnings from the O&G division, given that all the projects are still in exploration stage, there is no impact on earnings. However, Genting is likely to register an EI gain from the sale.

“Our SOP-based fair value is maintained at RM12.05, which has taken into account the recently-raised fair value for Genting PLANTATION []s. We continue to rate Genting an Outperform, being one of cheapest gaming stocks in the region which gives investors exposure to both the stable Malaysian and flourishing Singaporean markets,” said RHB Research.



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