KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): Here is a brief recap of some corporate announcements that made news on Friday involving UEM Sunrise Bhd, Pestech International Bhd, Glostrext Bhd, MyEG Services Bhd, Axis Real Estate Investment Trust (Axis REIT), KIP Real Estate Investment Trust (KIP REIT), Mestron Holdings Bhd, Unique Fire Holdings Bhd, Tenaga Nasional Bhd, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) and Industronics Bhd.

UEM Sunrise Bhd is disposing of a 6% stake in Nusajaya Lifestyle Sdn Bhd (NLSB), the developer and operator of the Mall of Medini, Iskandar Malaysia, to Iskandar Investment Bhd’s (IIB) unit Iskandar Harta Holdings Sdn Bhd (IHH), for RM8.92 million. The disposal will result in UEM Sunrise no longer being the main driver of the development of the commercial zone of Medini, as its shareholding in NLSB will decline to 49% from 55%, while that of IHH will increase to 51% from 45%.

Pestech International Bhd has been issued a notice of arbitration from Syarikat Pembinaan Yeoh Tiong Lai (SPYTL) under the Asian International Arbitration Centre. The group said Pestech acted as a guarantor to guarantee the due performance of the subcontracting agreement dated December 2018 entered between SPYTL and Pestech Technology Sdn Bhd (PTECH), a subsidiary of Pestech, for the maintenance of the Electrified Double Track project from Gemas to Johor Bahru.

ACE Market-listed Glostrext Bhd is buying a 1,735-sq-ft office space in Singapore for S$750,000 (RM2.61 million). Glostrext said its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Glostrext Technology (S) Pte Ltd has accepted the option to purchase a property known as 30 Kaki Bukit Road 3, #02-01 Empire Technocentre, Singapore, which was granted by Singapore-based Uninec Construction Pte Ltd on Oct 13 this year.The purchase consideration will be funded via internal funds.

MyEG Services Bhd said it expects to complete the system enhancement for its immigration-related services within one month. The enhancement is aimed at integrating the group's existing system with a new system from the Immigration Department, with the total cost expected to be less than RM5 million.

Axis Real Estate Investment Trust (Axis REIT) has obtained a judgement in default against its former tenant at Axis Steel Centre @ SiLC in Nusajaya, Johor, over a default on rental payments and unexpired future rental payments amounting to RM110 million. Axis REIT said the judgement was served to Yongnam Engineering Sdn Bhd (YESB) and its corporate guarantor which is listed on the Singapore Exchange, Yongnam Holdings Ltd, as both parties did not enter their appearance in the lawsuit.

KIP Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) reported a 15.2% surge in net property income (NPI) for the first quarter ended Sept 30, 2023 (1QFY24) despite its NPI margin declining marginally to 73.8% during the quarter compared with 74.1% in the corresponding quarter. The higher NPI of RM16.52 million during the quarter was attributable to the 15.6% jump in its gross revenue during the quarter to RM22.37 million from RM19.35 million in 1QFY23. The increase in gross revenue was due to the 9% increase in gross revenue from the retail properties as well as the absence of revenue from industrial properties during the same quarter last year. The industrial properties contributed 5.74% to the REIT’s gross revenue during the quarter under review.

Mestron Holdings Bhd has bagged a RM59.99 million contract from Sunview Group Bhd for a large-scale solar project, increasing its renewable energy order book value to RM71 million. Mestron said its wholly-owned subsidiary Mestron Engineering Sdn Bhd has accepted a Letter of Award from Sunview's wholly-owned unit Fabulous Sunview Sdn Bhd to undertake the procurement of equipment and materials for the project.

Unique Fire Holdings Bhd has proposed a bonus issue of 200 million free warrants on the basis of one warrant for every two existing shares held. Assuming that the exercise price of the warrants is 20 sen, this represents a discount of about 3.52 sen or 14.97% to Unique Fire's five-day volume-weighted average market price of 23.52 sen on Oct 19. Correspondingly, the exercise price represents a discount of 10.51% to the theoretical ex-bonus price of 22.35 sen.

Khazanah Nasional Bhd disposed of a 0.93% stake in Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) for RM530.28 million earlier this week. The sovereign wealth fund offloaded 54 million shares in TNB a day prior, equivalent to a 0.93% stake in the utility giant, paring its equity interest in the company to 22.56%. While the filing did not disclose the price at which Khazanah sold the shares, a check with Bloomberg’s off-market transaction data for on Wednesday showed that the 54 million shares were disposed at RM9.82 — a 2% discount to the day’s closing price of RM10.02.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) said the total local passenger movements in the third quarter of this year reached 21.7 million, a more than 80% recovery in total quarterly traffic for the first time since the same period in September 2019. MAHB attributed the increased traffic to the addition of three new airlines — Salam Air, Super Air Jet and Sichuan Airlines — at KL International Airport and addition of 12 new destinations and resumption of seven routes by existing partner airlines.

Industronics Bhd said it had entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on Friday to negotiate a proposed collaboration to construct an international duty-free city on Pulau Langkawi. The mature electronics company signed the MOA with Echo Asia (Hong Kong) Ltd, an affiliate of Hong Kong-listed Echo International Holdings Group Ltd, and CHEC Construction (M) Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd.