KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 9): Here is a brief recap of some corporate announcements that made the news on Friday (Dec 9) involving Batu Kawan Bhd, Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Keluarga Bhd, SKP Resources Bhd, Dagang NeXchange Bhd, Datasonic Group Bhd, Signature International Bhd, Citaglobal Bhd, Muhibbah Engineering (M) Bhd, Kronologi Asia Bhd, Petra Energy Bhd, LTKM Bhd, Seacera Group Bhd, CN Asia Corp Bhd and Zen Tech International Bhd.

Batu Kawan Bhd announced its final single tier dividend of 90 sen per share for its financial year ended Sept 30, 2022. The dividend’s payment date is due on March 2, 2023 while its entitlement date is Feb 20, 2023. In May, the group announced a single interim dividend of 20 sen per share. With the latest final dividend, its payout for the year amounts to RM1.10 per share.

Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Keluarga Bhd and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Am Bhd, have entered into a strategic bancatakaful partnership with Bank Pertanian Malaysia Bhd (Agrobank). The partnership aims to promote and market credit-related family and general takaful products, while developing the advisory family takaful business. Agrobank targets two takaful products per year or protection plans, as well as specific takaful products such as affordable retirement, education and medical plans for agropreneurs from the B40 group, asnaf, women and people with disabilities.

SKP Resources Bhd announced the redesignation of executive director Gan Poh San to managing director of the group. Gan, who assumed his current role in December 2002, is the son of the late Datuk Gan Kim Huat, a major shareholder and former executive chairman and MD of SKP Resources. The company’s 2020 annual report showed Gan having a direct stake of 5% and an indirect stake of 16.36% of the group as of end-June.

Dagang NeXchange Bhd has redesignated its managing director Tan Sri Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir as executive chairman of the group, after the resignation of Tan Sri Abdul Rahman Mamat as its chairman to pursue other corporate interests on Dec 6. Syed Zainal, 60, joined DNeX's board in July 2020 as an independent non-executive director. He was then appointed as managing director in October 2020.

Datasonic Group Bhd has entered into a Memorandum of Agreement as a prime contractor with the Republic of Guinea’s Ministry of Urban Planning, Housing and Territorial Development (MUHAT) as the project owner for 10-years. The profit sharing rate was 60% for MUHAT and 40% for the company. Apart from the implementation of a new computerised citizen data in land matters and the incorporation of biometric authentication of land data, the agreement involves the manufacture, supply and customisation of high security documents for land titles. It also involves the implementation of new secure procedures in the processing of land title applications and authorisations, besides the development and provision of relevant technical materials.

Signature International Bhd has acquired 19.9 million shares or 0.72% of the paid-up share capital of Hextar Industries Bhd for RM11.51 million. The company purchased the shares in six tranches between Nov 21 and Dec 7 at an average price of 57.8 sen apiece, in an effort to pursue investment goals and short-term investment in quoted securities with the prospect of generating short-term returns. Its substantial shareholders are Chin Hin Group with a 32.5% stake or 89.7 million shares and JPND Singapore Pte Ltd with an 8.45% stake (23.32 million shares).

Independent adviser DWA Advisory has told shareholders that the takeover offer of Citaglobal Bhd, formerly known as WZ Satu Bhd at 19 sen per share, is deemed not fair and not reasonable. DWA said the offer price represents a discount ranging from 4.2 sen to 11.5 sen over the five-day, one-month, three-month, six-month and 12-month volume weighted average market prices of Citaglobal shares up to and including LFTD1 (June 14), LFTD 2 (Nov 7) and latest practicable date (Dec 2). On the reasonableness of the offer, holders will still be able to participate in the trading of Citaglobal securities, as the company will remain listed on the Main Market. Hence, DWA Advisory advised the holders to reject the offer.

Muhibbah Engineering (M) Bhd was awarded a RM116.4 million contract by Petroliam Nasional Bhd’s subsidiary, Institute of Technology Petronas Sdn Bhd, and is slated to start from Dec 15. The contract includes a planned construction of student accommodation and a student centre at Universiti Teknologi Petronas in Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak.

Kronologi Asia Bhd's net profit for its third quarter ended Oct 31, 2022 (3QFY2023) dipped by 9.83% to RM7.25 million or 1.03 sen per share from RM8.04 million or 1.3 sen per share in 3QFY2022 due to higher unrealised foreign exchange (forex) losses. Its revenue increased by 16.6% to RM87.65 million during the quarter under review from RM75.15 million a year ago, and the data management solutions group reported an increase in net profit from the previous quarter of RM3.1 million, citing higher revenue contributions from global sources including Singapore and China.

Petra Energy Bhd had secured a one-year extension to the contract from Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd for the provision of offshore maintenance, construction and modification (MCM) services. Its wholly-owned subsidiary Petra Resources Sdn Bhd on Sept 30 accepted a letter of contract amendment and extension from Petronas Carigali. The contract value is based on work orders issued by Petronas Carigali throughout the duration of the extended contract from Sept 20, 2022 until Dec 31, 2023.

LTKM Bhd intends to review the terms of the RM336 million reverse takeover deal proposed earlier this year due to challenging market conditions. The group had submitted a withdrawal of the application in relation to the proposals, which were submitted to the Securities Commission Malaysia for approval on Friday. The board considered the current volatile market condition and the agreement of the counterparties to the disposal SPA (sales purchase agreement) and SSA (share sale agreement).

Seacera Group Bhd, a Practice Note 17 (PN17) company, has until April 24 next year to submit its regularisation plan to the regulatory authorities for approval. Bursa Securities had granted the group further extension of time via a letter on Thursday (Dec 8). Failure to submit the plan will see the group being delisted from Bursa. Seacera fell into PN17 status in April 2019, after it defaulted on a payment of principal and profits to AmBank Islamic Bhd. The group’s total facilities outstanding with AmBank were RM22.15 million at the time.

Zen Tech International Bhd, formerly INIX Technologies Bhd, reported that CN Asia Corp Bhd was no longer a shareholder. This came after CN Asia sold two million Zen Tech shares on Wednesday (Dec 7) and another 473,722 shares on Thursday (Dec 8). The disposals of the two blocks of shares were made at the market price of 3.5 sen per share and CN Asia will use the proceeds for its working capital.