KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 6): Here is a brief recap of some corporate announcements that made the news on Friday, involving: Top Glove Corp Bhd, Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd, UMW Holdings Bhd, Nova MSC Bhd, Waja Konsortium Bhd and Kumpulan Jetson Bhd.

Top Glove Corp Bhd, which posted its first-ever annual loss of RM926.64 million in the financial year ended Aug 31, 2023 (FY2023), is expecting to turn around its business in the next six to 12 months. Its executive chairman Tan Sri Lim Wee Chai is optimistic that the group’s fortunes will change on the back of the gradual pick up in glove demand and the expectation of glove's average selling price bottoming out.

Meanwhile, the group is not expecting anymore impairments to be made in the near future as it expects the recovery for glove demand to pick up, while the group should have better cost efficiency after it streamlined its production facilities. The impairments and write-off of assets widened the group’s net loss to RM463.15 million for the fourth quarter ended Aug 31, 2023 (4QFY2023) — its largest ever quarterly net loss — from RM62.99 million in 4QFY2022. The RM389 million impairment comprises a goodwill impairment of RM138 million, and RM251 million worth of impairment and write-off of property, plant and equipment. Revenue for 4QFY2023 dropped 51.93% to RM475.87 million from RM989.94 million in the previous year’s corresponding quarter. As a result of the higher quarterly loss in 4QFY2023, the group recorded a net loss of RM926.64 million for FY2023, marking the glove maker's first annual loss, on an annual revenue of RM2.26 billion.  

Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd’s founding Lim family appeared to have sold some of their direct shareholdings in the listed entity to one of the glove-making group’s executive director Tan Kong Chang. This development comes after Kossan Holdings (M) Sdn Bhd, the largest shareholder of Kossan, distributed its 14.35% stake in the publicly-listed glove manufacturing company to founding family members, including founder Tan Sri Lim Kuang Sia and three of his siblings, Lim Leng Bung, Lim Kuang Wang and Lim Kuang Yong. Each of them received 73.22 million shares in the share distribution. Tan acquired 50 million shares through a direct business transaction from Kuang Sia, Leng Bung, Kuang Wang, and Kuang Yong, with each of them disposing of 10 million shares. However, the bourse filing did not disclose the seller of the fifth tranche of 10 million shares in Kossan Rubber.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) announced that its managing director (MD) and group chief executive officer (group CEO) Datuk Seri Iskandar Mizal Mahmood will be stepping down from his role upon expiration of his two-year contract on Oct 24. This confirms The Edge’s report in June this year.  Iskandar, 57, first took up the position of MD and group CEO in October 2021. Earlier, The Edge reported speculation on the changing of guard in MAHB, as Iskandar’s contract was about to expire in October this year. Notably, MAHB has had five MDs over the past two decades.

UMW Holdings Bhd is disposing of a 26% stake in an industrial equipment (IE) arm to Toyota Industries Corp (TICO) for RM260 million, as part of an agreement to collaborate in the IE business in Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and China. UMW’s unit UMW Equipment Division Sdn Bhd is disposing of the stake in UMW Toyota Material Handling Sdn Bhd (UTMH) to TICO, leaving it with a 74% stake. UTMH is the special purpose vehicle for the collaboration, with six IE business units parked under the company as part of an internal sales arrangement. The disposal of the UTMH stake to TICO is expected to result in a gain on disposal of around RM85.5 million or 7.32 sen per share. UTMH's original cost of investments in the unit was RM643.08 million. It expects the transaction to be completed by end-2023.

Nova MSC Bhd plans to undertake a private placement exercise of 10% of its share base to raise up to RM23.81 million for its working capital as well as for its web-based platform Vesalius, which helps healthcare groups implement a centralised system across multiple hospitals, to develop a healthcare solution. The proceeds to be raised are based on an indicative issue price at 9.5 sen per share. The actual issue price will be fixed and announced later. It intends to issue up to 250.66 million shares to third-party investors to be identified at a later stage.

Waja Konsortium Bhd has proposed to undertake a private placement of up to 30% of its issued shares to raise up to RM31.67 million, mainly to fund its construction business and working capital requirement. It said the private placement exercise entails the issuance of up to 395.9 million shares to independent third-party investors to be identified later, at an issue price to be fixed later. The expected proceeds of RM31.67 million is based on an illustrative issue price of eight sen per placement share.

Kumpulan Jetson Bhd announced a slew of boardroom changes, including the appointment of Datuk Tengku Ibrahim Farihaddin Datuk Tengku Feissal, the treasurer of Koperasi Kerabat D'Raja Kelantan Al-Muhammadi Bhd, as its independent and non-executive chairman with immediate effect, on the resignation of the group's executive chairman Datuk Teh Kian An, 75, due to health issues. Also appointed to its board was Tunku Datuk Nooruddin Tunku Datuk Seri Shahabuddin, who joins as its independent and non-executive deputy chairman. Tunku Nooruddin has an extensive background in the oil, gas and energy industries, and currently sits on the board of Reneuco Bhd as an independent non-executive director. Besides Teh’s resignation, it also announced the resignation of Datuk Dr Ong Ah Soon, 81, as its non-independent and non-executive director due to "retirement". It also appointed Datuk Mohd Efendi Omar, 40, as an independent non-executive director to replace Edward Ng Kah Jiun, 28, who has been redesignated as executive director.