Good morning,
1) QSR: Kulim (M) Bhd has received an offer from the Malay Chamber of Commerce to buy it's strategic 58.7% stake in QSR Brands for RM6.90 per share, rivalling an earlier RM6.80 offer bt Massive Equity SB (the SPV of Johor Corp- the ultimate parent of Kulim with 57% interest). At RM6.90 a share, the Malay Chamber will be looking to fork out some RM1.12b for the stake. However,in Kulim's announcement on the offer, there is no mention of KFC Holdings in which QSR has a 50.6% equity interest. ; expected. To recap, the board of QSR & KFCH had previously stated that they were not seeking alternative bids for the sale of their assets & liabilities after both companies accepted a joint takeover offer by Massive Equity at the end of last year. Kulim said it would now convene a board meeting to deliberate on the offer.
2) Yinson: Yinson yesterday announced that it has fixed the 1st call price for it's 3 for 2 rights issue at 75s apiece, representing a discount of 40.9% from the theoretical ex-rights price of it's shares of RM1.27. The board is of the view that a discount of more than 30% will provide shareholders with an attractive opportunity to increase their participation in the company. It has decided that the second call of 25s per rights share shall be capitalized from it's share premium and retained earnings account ; +ve & partly expected. Yinson's rights issue involves a proposed renounceable two-call rights issue of up to 113.02m rights share at an issue price of RM1 a piece, on the basis of 3 rights share for every 2 existing Yinson share. In an earlier filing, Co said it expects to raise gross proceeds of up to RM84.8m, assuming an indicative first call of 75s per rights share. It plans to utilize the proceeds to fund it's investment obligations related to it's consortium agreement (with Petro Vietnam Technical Services Corp to execute a bare boat charter contract).
3) Topglove: is targeting to achieve 30% of total global market share by end-2012, said it's chairman. He said this target is achievable if latex prices falls to RM6 per kg and forex remains stable. Group MD meanwhile predicted latex prices would come down further (at RM6.37/kg as at Jan 6, 2012), and thus the migration of capacity from natural latex to nitrile gloves would slow down. Compared to it's peers, Topglove produces more latex gloves than nitrile. On it's upstream ventures, chairman said Co is looking to acquire land in Malaysia, Cambodia & Indonesia for rubber plantations. On capex, it is targeting RM100m for it's expansion plan this year, similar to capex of RM100-120m last year. Chairman stressed that demand would continue to be strong this year as countries increased their rubber gloves inventory; neutral as industry is very competitive & operating environment is volatile.
4) Mkt: continued positive sentiment to grind market higher.