KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 4): Here is a brief recap of some corporate announcements that made news on Monday (Aug 14) involving Iris Corp Bhd, Sime Darby Bhd, Maxis Bhd, Berjaya Food Bhd, KLCC Stapled Group Bhd, Sunway Bhd and Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd

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.

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.

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.

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.

KLCC Stapled Group Bhd’s net profit for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023 (2QFY2023) rose 9.46% to RM180.8 million, from RM165.18 million a year ago, on the back of higher revenue and interest income. The group — comprising KLCC Property Holdings Bhd (KLCCP) and KLCC Real Estate Investment Trust (KLCC REIT) — saw quarterly revenue grow 12.65% to RM394.63 million from RM350.31 million on the back of improved performance across all business segments, buoyed by the upswing in business and meetings, incentives, convention and exhibition (MICE) activities. It declared a dividend of 8.80 sen per stapled security, payable on Sept 27. These brought KLCC Stapled Group’s total income distribution to 17.30 sen for the first half of FY2023.

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 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.

Source: Iris Corp, Sime Darby, Maxis, Berjaya Food, KLCC Stapled Group, Sunway and Astro Malaysia (theedgemalaysia.com)