KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 28): Based on corporate announcements and news flow today, stocks in focus for Friday may include Sunway Construction Group Bhd, AT Systematization Bhd, Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Bhd, ATA IMS Bhd, Samchem Holdings Bhd, FGV Holdings Bhd, WCE Holdings Bhd, HeiTech Padu Bhd, British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd, and CapitaLand Malaysia Mall Trust.

Sunway Construction Group Bhd (SunCon) has secured a contract worth RM315 million from the National Highways Authority of India via a consortium.

The consortium, formed by its unit Sunway Construction Sdn Bhd and RNS Infrastructure Ltd, will see SunCon holding a 60% stake and RNS the remaining 40%.

SunCon said the contract comes along with a 15-year operating and maintenance contract at approximately RM850,000 per annum.

AT Systematization Bhd, which is building its glove manufacturing factory in Perak, expects to reach a production capacity of up to 2.6 billion pieces of medical-grade nitrile gloves per annum by June 2021.

The group said each single former production line can run at a speed of 15,000 pieces of gloves per hour, whereas each double former production line can run at a speed of 24,000 pieces of gloves per hour.

Assuming it sustains maximum production capacity throughout and the average selling price of nitrile gloves hits US$80 per 1,000 pieces, AT Systematization believes the new venture will earn the group RM860 million in annual turnover, which is over 40 times the RM20 million achieved in its financial year ended March 31, 2020.

Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Bhd saw its net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2020 fall 13.73% to RM78.77 million, from RM91.3 million a year ago, due to lower revenue, higher share of associate losses and higher operating cost resulting from Hurricane Laura.

Revenue dropped 10.45% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM1.94 billion, from RM2.17 billion.

For the cumulative nine months ended Sept 30, 2020, the group slipped into a net loss of RM2.57 million, compared with a net profit of RM251.98 million in the year-ago period. Its revenue for the period also declined by 22.98% to RM4.98 billion, from RM6.46 billion a year ago.

ATA IMS Bhd's net profit for the second quarter ended Sept 30, 2020 rose 68.4% y-o-y to RM52.29 million, from RM31.05 million, due mainly to higher sales orders.

ATA IMS said revenue for the quarter rose to RM1.34 billion from RM931.86 million previously. Earnings per share rose to 4.35 sen from 2.58 sen.

For the first half ended Sept 30, 2020, ATA IMS said its net profit rose 26% to RM70.05 million, from RM55.62 million previously, on the back of a revenue of RM2.09 billion from RM1.77 billion.

Samchem Holdings Bhd's net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2020 surged 79.51% to RM9.51 million, from RM5.3 million a year ago, thanks to higher sales volume and better margin.

Revenue also rose 9.09% to RM288.61 million, from RM264.56 million a year ago.

For the cumulative nine months ended Sept 30, 2020, the group's net profit jumped 33.63% y-o-y to RM22.6 million, from RM16.91 million. Its revenue, however, slipped 1.89% to RM748.13 million, from RM762.56 million in the year-ago period.

The Cabinet has agreed to the recommendation for the termination of the Federal Land Development Authority's (Felda) land lease agreement (LLA) with FGV Holdings Bhd.

However, a statement released did not mention the compensation that Felda needs to pay FGV, in which it holds a 33.66% stake, as a result of the termination of the LLA.

As a result of the LLA termination, it is understood that FGV's plantations will shrink substantially by up to 70% or 355,000ha.

WCE Holdings Bhd is close to securing a construction works contract worth RM126.8 million for a proposed access from the West Coast Expressway to a mixed development project in Kota Seri Langat.

WCE said its wholly-owned subsidiary KEB Builders Sdn Bhd has entered into a memorandum of agreement with Seriemas Development Sdn Bhd to undertake, on a design, build and manage basis, the construction works of the access between the aforementioned highway and the development project.

HeiTech Padu Bhd has been awarded a second contract by the National Registration Department this year, with the latest one worth higher at RM50.97 million.

HeiTech Padu said the contract is for a period of 36 months commencing from Nov 1, 2020 to Oct 31, 2023.

British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd (BAT) saw its net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2020 rise 16.72% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) following higher sales.

The net profit of RM63.74 million was up from the RM54.61 million posted in the immediate preceding quarter while revenue increased 14.81% in the same period to RM627.52 million.

When compared to the corresponding quarter in the previous financial year, BAT's net profit fell by 23.32% to RM63.74 million from RM83.13 million.

For the cumulative nine months ended Sept 30, 2020, net profit was down 31.8% to RM169.12 million, from RM248 million a year earlier. Revenue for the nine months fell 10.34% to RM1.66 billion, from RM1.85 billion.

CapitaLand Malaysia Mall Trust's (CMMT) net property income (NPI) fell 17.2% to RM40.75 million for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2020, from RM49.2 million a year earlier.

This was mainly due to higher vacancies and the rental relief granted to affected tenants, as they progressively resumed operations under the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO).

The mall operator reported a distributable income of RM23.2 million and a distribution per unit of 1.13 sen for the quarter.

Quarterly revenue declined 16.3% to RM70.05 million, from RM83.72 million a year earlier.

On a q-o-q basis, however, CMMT's NPI jumped by 110% from RM19.36 million, as most of the business activities were allowed to resume under the RMCO.

For the cumulative nine months ended Sept 30, 2020, the NPI was down 34.7% to RM99.47 million, from RM152.28 million in the same period last year, while revenue slipped 24.2% to RM194.46 million from RM256.47 million.