Malaysia Daily Update

Four major telcos have agreed to maintain the old rate of prepaid reload pricing which is expected to take effect within a month, said Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan. The four major telecommunications companies in Malaysia are DiGi, Celcom, Maxis and UMobile. (BusinessTimes)

UEM Sunrise Bhd has proposed an issuance and allotment of 524.39mn shares, the equivalent of an 11.6% stake in the existing issued and paid up share capital of the company, to its major shareholder UEM Group Bhd, to raise RM770.9mn to maintain its stake in subsidiary Bandar Nusajaya Development Sdn Bhd. UEM Sunrise said the new shares will be issued at RM1.47 and that it has entered into a share subscription agreement today with UEM Group to affect the proposed issuance and allotment, which will see UEM Group's stake in UEM Sunrise rise to 69.6% from 66.1%. (TheEdge)

Astral Asia Bhd has proposed to undertake a capital reduction which will give rise to a credit of RM96mn to offset its accumulated losses, with the balance to be transferred to its capital reserve account. Astral Asia said the proposed par value reduction entails cancelling 80 sen off the par value of every existing share of the company from RM1 to 20 sen. (TheEdge)

Yokohama Industries Bhd, whose controlling shareholder HSG Investments Pte Ltd is disposing of its entire 62.3% stake in the automobile battery manufacturer to another Singapore-based counterpart, Fordington Pte Ltd, for RM90mn, has announced the

resignation of its chief executive officer Dr Patrick Yong Mian Thong, citing personal reason. Yong was appointed to his current post on Jan 1, 2010. Prior to that, he was the chief operating officer of the company since July 2008. (TheEdge)

Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMS) is buying a 50% stake in Sarawak-state controlled telecommunications infrastructure arm, Sacofa Sdn Bhd, for RM186.8mn in cash. Sacofa currently enjoys a monopoly in the state in providing telecommunication towers to telcos players, which include Celcom, DiGi and Maxis. CMS told Bursa Malaysia on Thursday that it had signed a conditional agreement to acquire 42.4mn RM1 shares at RM4.40 apiece from the State Financial Secretary (SFS), which currently owns a 70.51% interest in Sacofa.(StarBiz)

GD Express Carrier Bhd executive director and chief operating officer Wong Eng Su has resigned from his position in the company on April 1, 2015. In a press release on Thursday, the company said managing director and group chief executive officer Teong Teck Lean will take over into the executive role. Lean, who is also a major shareholder of GD Express Carrier would oversee the group’s operations together with his current senior management team. (StarBiz)

GW Plastics Holdings Bhd has completed its book-building process and it has fixed the offer price at RM1.28 a share under the reverse takeover by property-based MCT Consortium Bhd. GW Plastics acquired the entire 100% of property-based MCT Consortium Bhd from the vendors Tan Sri Goh Ming Choon and Datuk Seri Tong Seech Wi for RM1.2bn cash consideration. The issue/offer price for the offering securities under the regularization plan is priced at RM1.28 per new share, and the gross proceeds expected to be raised by the company and vendors are RM384mn and RM195mn respectively. (StarBiz)

Star Publications (M) Bhd is acquiring the entire stake in a dormant company which will soon own US exhibition assets to diversify its income source. In a Bursa Malaysia filing today, Star said its 64.1%-owned Singapore-listed unit Cityneon Holdings Ltd is acquiring Singapore-based Victory Hill Exhibitions Pte Ltd (VHE) from Philadelphia Investments Pte Ltd for S$21mn (RM56.77mn). Under the sale and purchase agreement between Cityneon and Philadelphia Investments, Cityneon has proposed to undertake a rights issue to partly fund the acquisition of VHE. VHE is a dormant company but by or upon the completion date of the acquisition, VHE will own and operate the assets of US-based Victory Hill Exhibitions LLC. (Financial Daily)