MARKETS-MALAYSIA-STOCKS KUALA LUMPUR
KLSE No Comments »FACTORS TO WATCH
================
- Malaysia will consider raising the price of gas supplied to local industry, a minister said on Tuesday, amid concerns that its state oil firm is subsidising some of the nation’s richest private firms.
- Malaysia will launch a programme next month to transform its ethnic Malay heartland into an economic powerhouse by pouring in funds of 112 billion ringgit ($32 billion) by 2020, local media said on Tuesday.
- Sate oil company Petronas aims to develop a plastics manufacturing hub in the northeast town of Kertih, where it already runs one ethylene cracker and co-owns another, the Star newspaper said on Tuesday.
- The Employees Provident Fund has hired Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs to help it find a strategic foreign partner for the RHB banking group, the country’s fourth-largest lender, the Business Times said on Wednesday, quoting the state pension fund’s deputy investment chief.
The fund owns 82.3 percent of RHB Capital Bhd (RHBC.KL: Quote, Profile, Research), the group’s main business unit, and is looking to sell up to 30 percent to a partner, the paper added.
- AirAsia X, a Malaysian budget long-haul carrier partly owned by British billionaire Richard Branson, is considering buying up to 25 Airbus A350 planes, the airline said on Tuesday.
- Malaysia will not raise the price of petrol this year despite a surge in global energy prices, state news agency reported on Tuesday quoting Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak.
- Developer Golden Plus Holdings Bhd (GPLU.KL: Quote, Profile, Research) is looking to venture into the financial sector with the possible purchase of the insurance arm of PanGlobal Bhd (PGLO.KL: Quote, Profile, Research), the Edge Financial Daily said on Wednesday, quoting sources.
Golden Plus may also make a rival bid for a controlling stake in Oriental Capital Assurance, the paper said, adding that Salcon Bhd (SLCN.KL: Quote, Profile, Research) had already offered 129.8 million ringgit for a 74.25 percent stake currently held by Maika Holdings Bhd.
- Pakistan has bought about 140,000 tonnes of palm oil for September shipment to meet strong demand during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but imports are likely to decline later, an industry official said on Tuesday.
- Malaysia’s manufacturing sales in July fell 2.2 percent to 45.21 billion ringgit ($12.97 billion) from a year ago, official data showed on Tuesday.
- Palm planter IOI Corp (IOIB.KL: Quote, Profile, Research) has agreed to invest $82.9 million in several Indonesian joint ventures to expand its palm estate, the firm said on Tuesday. IOI would invest $62.6 million for an indirect stake in Indonesia’s PT Bumitama Gunajaya Agro, which has 35,300 hectares of plantation and about 64,500 hectares of unplanted land, it said. The rest would be invested in local companies with a land bank of about 52,700 hectares.
—————-
