Take a break until further notice!

Catcha ... Sep11

Catcha Media has proposed to acquire the entire equity interest of Singapore’s Haute Groupe Pte Ltd (HGPL) for a total consideration of S$5 million (RM12.4 million), to be satisfied in cash and via new shares.

HGPL runs a luxury fashion sales website, Hauteavenue.com, operating predominantly in Singapore with 25,000 active users.

The proposed acquisition comes with a profit guarantee of S$1.5 million (for a 12-month period commencing after conclusion of the exercise) from the previous shareholders, Long Siew Fong and Low Choong Lang.

This values the acquisition at a three times forward price-earnings ratio (PER), which we deem cheap. HGPL was initially set up to sell luxury goods at a discount for a limited time in warehouses or public halls.

Early 2011, it began operating a luxury flash sales website, www.hauteavenue.com, which sells luxury goods online at a discount for a limited time-frame. The website offers up to a 70% discount on luxury items ranging from branded accessories, handbags to watches and sunglasses.

The purchase consideration will be partly satisfied by the issuance of 1.6 million new shares in Catcha Media at 75 sen each, with the remainder to be paid in cash. This could indicate a potential earnings per share (EPS) dilution of 1%, which deem insignificant to have any impact on the share price given the new acquisition’s earnings accretion of more than 30%.

Cash funding should not be an issue given the company’s recent IPO which raised more than RM15 million.

While this marks Catcha Media’s first venture into e-commerce, the strategy is intended to complement its existing business by introducing the exact model in Malaysia leveraging on the strong 10 million active users recorded in MSN and Lowyat.net portals.

KUB ... Sep11

Three private equity firms, including foreign ones, are "very" keen to partner KUB

Malaysia Bhd and acquire stakes in the A&W fast-food chain. The company is evaluating proposals from the firms and expects to announce its strategic partner by the year-end (2011).

There is no specific whether KUB wants to dispose of 49 per cent or more of its stake in A&W.

KUB is seeking partner or partners with good money and management skills.

Earlier reports said that KUB was willing to sell as much as 45 per cent of A&W stake to a strategic partner to take the business to greater heights.

KUB is the licensee of A&W in Thailand and Malaysia since 2002. It currently has 45 outlets in Malaysia and 43 in Thailand. It plans to increase the number to 100 each in Thailand and Malaysia by 2015.

KUB’s official denied that QSR Brands Bhd, the parent company of KFC Holdings (M) Bhd, had expressed interest in taking over A&W.

On the RM1.23 billion intra-city commuter train service network in Johor, the company would give an update on the project once it presents the proposal to the Economic Council.

It was reported that the Johor state government had given the approval for the intra-city commuter train service network project to Metropolitan Commuter Network Sdn Bhd (MCN),a joint-venture company between KUB and Malaysia Steel Works (KL) Bhd.

MCN had proposed to the fe-deral government the construction and operation of a rail transit network in Iskandar Malaysia in Johor, with services extending from Johor Baru Sentral to Woodlands, Singapore. The intra-city train service entails the building of seven stations and 16 halts connecting all major suburbs in Iskandar Malaysia, which covers south Johor.

SCIB ... Sep11

Its precast concrete products and industrialised building systems (IBS) are in demand for the construction of manufacturing plants by energy-intensive industries and access roads to hydroelectric dam projects in Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score).

SCIB was now supplying precast concrete products, like foundation piles and U culverts, worth more than RM3mil to Tokuyama Corp and Press Metal Bhd's projects in Samalaju Industrial Park, Bintulu. Tokuyama is constructing a polycrystalline silicon plant while Press Metal is building a new aluminium smelter.

SCIB is expecting more jobs from Tokuyama in its phase II expansion project and Press Metal. SCIB was also looking into supply contracts to other potential clients when they started to build their factories in Samalaju Industrial Park. These clients include Asia Minerals Ltd and OM Materials, which are now both undertaking earth works to set up manganese smelting plants. Another 10 investors were reportedly planning manufacturing facilities in Samalaju to take advantage of the competitive power from the 2,400MW Bakun dam.

SCIB was supplying infrastructure products for the construction of access roads to the 944mw Murum dam under construction and pre-stressed beams for the construction of new bridges.

Due to labour shortage and product quality concerns, more developers had opted for precast concrete products and IBS prefabricated concrete components for their projects.

In the earlier years, SCIB's IBS components were used mainly in the construction of rural public libraries.

SCIB now owns and operates three factories in Kuching under wholly-owned subsidiaries SCIB Concrete Manufacturing Sdn Bhd, SCIB Industrialised Building System Sdn Bhd and SCIB Infrasworks Sdn Bhd.

SCIB's group revenue had been growing by about 15% yearly in the past four years.

Besides catering to the Sarawak market, SCIB which has some RM15mil contracts in hand exports its products to Sabah and Brunei.

For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2010, the SCIB group registered revenue of RM43.9mil and a net profit of RM825,000. It returned to the black last year after several periods of consecutive losses.

For the first half of 2011, the group posted a pre-tax profit of RM1.04mil while revenue stood at RM22.1mil against a pre-tax loss of RM439,000 and revenue of RM20.8mil in the previous corresponding period.

MMHE ... Sep11

The heavy engineering arm of national state oil firm Petronas is in talks for a proposed fabrication yard in Brunei were at a preliminary stage.

The yard announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, is one of two projects to be undertaken by Petronas in the Southeast Asian sultanate with the other being a $1.6 billion petrochemical complex.

Malaysia Marine has embarked on an expansion plan, which includes the proposed acquisition of Sime Darby’s fabrication yard in Pasir Gudang for 394 million.

It is bidding for projects valued at as much as RM6 billion in the country and overseas. The company’s order-book currently stands at RM3.1 billion. The group had submitted bids for engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning and, construction projects in the oil and gas industry, mostly in Malaysia.

MHB’s projection for capital expenditure depended on its yard optimisation programme and some RM2.7 billion had been allocated for the purpose. A total of RM700 million has been utilised and the remaining RM2 billion is for over a period until 2014.

Upon completion of MHB’s acquisition of Sime Darby Engineering’s Pasir Gudang yard in Johor, the company’s yard space would increase from 148.8ha to 195.2ha while capacity would rise to about 130 tonnes per year from about 70 tonnes currently.

MHB offers a wide spectrum of engineering and construction, marine conversion and marine repair services from its yard in Pasir Gudang and operates a yard in Kiyanly, Turkmenistan, on behalf of Petronas Carigali (Turkmenistan) Sdn Bhd.

With the acquisition, MHB will be able to pitch for more projects and can increase its margin and profitability.

MHB’s net profit was lower at RM79 million for 1QFY11 ended June, compared with RM110.2 million a year ago. Its revenue came lower at RM957.8 million against RM1.17 billion. Earnings per share dropped to 4.9 sen from 8.2 sen.

MHB has retreated from its peak of RM8.67 recorded on July 6 amid the weak market sentiment. The stock has fallen 29% to RM6.15 from its historical high.

Bolton ... Sep11

It will be launching projects with a gross development value (GDV) of RM3 billion over the next 12 months.

The group has three projects to be launched with a total GDV of RM1 billion. It has also received preliminary approval for our proposed revision to the development plan of the 1.74 hectare Jalan Mayang land in the KLCC area, which we plan to launch in 2012.

For the financial year ended March 31, 2010, the group posted a lower pre-tax profit of RM20.3 million as compared to RM50.7 million previously, while revenue was down to RM243.8 million from RM257.5 million.

The decline in pre-tax profit was due to one-off charges, namely, the mark-to-market losses on quoted securities of RM6.5 million and higher marketing expenses of RM17.6 million incurred due to the record sales performance achieved during the year.