MY Morning Wrap | RHB Keeps "Overweight" on Construction Sector on Status Quo After State Polls

Reversing a recent trend of outperformance by the $Dow Jones Industrial Average(.DJI.US)$, the tech-heavy $Nasdaq Composite Index(.IXIC.US)$ led the way among the three major indexes, gaining 1.1%. The $S&P 500 Index(.SPX.US)$ rose 0.6%, while the Dow ticked up 0.1%.

$MAYBANK(1155)$ : Malaysia's biggest lender Malayan Banking Bhd is halfway toward meeting its target of putting RM80 billion toward sustainable finance by 2025. A big chunk of the green loans has been disbursed to support Singapore-based companies' shift to low-carbon sources, Maybank group chief executive officer Datuk Khairussaleh Ramli said in an interview at his office.“We can talk about moving into renewables straight away, but equally important is how we support our clients on transition financing, transition advisory,” he said.

$MAXIS(6012)$ : Maxis Bhd is launching a new range of plans with 5G services from Tuesday (Aug 15), following the execution of the access agreement it inked with Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) to subscribe for the latter's 5G network on a wholesale basis. The group, which is the last of the country's mobile network operators to execute the 5G access agreement with DNB, said in a statement that the upgraded plans come with more than double the data for both 4G and 5G, as well as additional bonus data for 5G.

$SIME(4197)$ : Sime Darby Bhd will acquire Cavpower Group, a distributor of Cat equipment in South Australia and Broken Hill in New South Wales, Australia, for A$500 million (RM1.49 billion) cash. The conglomerate said its indirect unit Sime Darby Industrial Machinery Australasia Pty Ltd had entered into a share sale agreement to buy Kuxton Pty Ltd and 98.9% of Kagera Pty Ltd’s share capital from vendors RRC Nominees Pty Ltd (ATF The Walkerville (1978) Trust), RRC Nominees Pty Ltd (ATF The Devonshire (1978) Trust), and Alistair Cavill. RRC Nominees Pty Ltd (ATF The Walkerville (1978) Trust) holds 98.8% of Kagera, while Cavill owns the remaining 0.1%. Kagera is the holding company of a group of companies that operate Cavpower Group, the South Australian dealer of Caterpillar (Cat) industrial machines and vehicles, with nine branches throughout the region and seven parts stores, while Kuxton holds a 1.1% stake in the company.

$SUNWAY(5211)$ : Sunway Bhd is taking over its partner Iskandar Assets Sdn Bhd's (IASB) 40% stake in their joint venture (JV) company being Sunway Iskandar Development Sdn Bhd (SIDSB) that was set up to develop a mixed project — Sunway City Iskandar Puteri — on a plot of land worth RM412.73 million. Sunway through its wholly-owned unit Sunway City Sdn Bhd (SunCity) is buying over the stake from IASB, which is a wholly owned unit of Iskandar Investment Bhd — which is in turn 60% held by Khazanah Nasional Bhd — for RM770,450. It will also subscribe for 84.23 million non-cumulative redeemable preference shares in the JVco for RM84.23 million, and redeem 76.27 million non-convertible non-cumulative redeemable preference shares (NCRPS) held by IASB in the share capital of SIDSB at a redemption price of RM84.23 million. Consequent to the completion of the acquisition and redemption of NCRPS, SIDSB will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of SunCity, it added.

$ASTRO(6399)$ : Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd's unit Measat Broadcast Network Systems Sdn Bhd (MBNS) secured a term loan facility of up to RM400 million from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp Malaysia Bhd (SMBC). The facility is to refinance the existing term loan facility of RM380 million obtained from SMBC on Aug 9, 2018, Astro said. Besides, the facility will be used to finance costs relating to the production, purchase and licensing of content, programme or channels, purchase of set-top boxes (including the settlement of vendor financing) as well as capital and operating expenditure.

$BJCORP(3395)$ : Berjaya Food Bhd's (BFood) net profit fell 57.5% to RM17.28 million for the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2023 (4QFY2023), from RM40.66 million a year ago, hit by margin compression arising from inflationary pressures. Earnings were also affected by the unfavourable foreign exchange rate against the US dollar as well as lower sales, said the group which owns the Starbucks chain in Malaysia. Quarterly revenue declined 6.7% to RM271.75 million from RM291.27 million BFood has declared a fourth interim dividend of half a sen per share, payable on Sept 26. This brings the full-year dividend payout to 3.5 sen per share, versus 1.1 sen for FY2022.

$SLVEST(0215)$ : Solarvest Holdings Bhd has established a wholly owned subsidiary, Solarvest (Taiwan) Corp Ltd (STCL), in Taipei, Taiwan, as part of its strategic move to strengthen its presence in the country’s clean energy market. In a statement last Friday, Solarvest said it has an active pipeline of projects in Taiwan, supported by 200 megawatt-peak (MWp) of clean energy project opportunities.

$IRIS(0010)$ : Iris Corp Bhd said the Ministry of Home Affairs had cancelled its contract for the National Integrated Immigration System (NIISe), with immediate effect. Its unit Iris Information Technology Systems Sdn Bhd (IITS), the appointed developer of the new immigration system which Iris is in the midst of selling an 80% stake in, on Monday (Aug 14) received a notice of termination dated Aug 10 from the ministry. "The termination of the NIISe contract is expected to have an impact on the group’s financial performance for the financial year ending March 31, 2024. However, the extent of the impact cannot be reliably ascertained at this juncture," said Iris. On May 24, Ministry of Home Affairs of Malaysia (KDN) extended the NIISe contract to IITS by 12 months from Sept 1, 2025, to Aug 31, 2026. The contract worth RM1.16 billion was first awarded to IITS in January 2021, for a period of 54 months commencing from March 1, 2021 until Aug 31, 2025.