KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 23): Based on corporate announcements and news flow on Thursday, companies in focus on Friday may include AEON Credit Services Bhd, Marine & General Bhd, Mah Sing Group Bhd, Hong Seng Consolidated Bhd, Spritzer Bhd, AWC Bhd, Rohas Tecnic Bhd, Advancecon Holdings Bhd, Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd and Dataprep Holdings Bhd.

AEON Credit Services Bhd said its third quarter net profit jumped 145.5% to RM103.46 million from RM42.15 million a year earlier, on lower financing receivables after allowance for impairment losses. The sharply higher earnings came despite revenue falling to RM276.47 million from RM401.48 million a year prior. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, AEON Credit managed to improve its net profit by 37.1% from RM75.48 million in the immediate preceding quarter, while revenue was marginally better by 0.5% from RM374.48 million due to lower impairment losses.

Marine & General Bhd sank into the red for the second quarter ended Oct 31, 2021  with a net loss of RM10.03 million or 0.45 sen per share from a net profit of RM56.06 million or 4.38 sen per share for the corresponding quarter in the previous year. According to the group, its business operations were significantly affected by the outlook of the oil and gas industry due to the continuing Covid-19 pandemic. In contrast, its quarterly revenue rose 13.76% to RM54.11 million from RM47.56 million on higher charter activities by both upstream and downstream divisions.

Mah Sing Group Bhd’s healthcare business unit Mah Sing Healthcare Sdn Bhd has obtained the Certificate of European Union Medical Device Regulation notification from its authorised representative Obelis European Authorized Representative Centre that its nitrile examination gloves have fulfilled the relevant requirements of Regulation (EU) 2017/745. Mah Sing Healthcare said the products — nitrile examination powder-free gloves (non-sterile) — may bear the CE marking and can be marketed in the European Union  and European Economic Area territories.

Hong Seng Consolidated Bhd has proposed a bonus issue of 3.52 billion new shares on the basis of one bonus share for every existing one share held. The group said the bonus issue is proposed to reward its existing shareholders for their loyalty and continuous support. This comes after Hong Seng's diversification into the healthcare, glove and nitrile butadiene latex manufacturing over the past year which the company said has proven to be timely for it to capture the rise in demand for healthcare products and services.

Spritzer Bhd announced that a factory of one of its subsidiaries, Chuan Sin Sdn Bhd (CS), in Shah Alam was affected by flooding over the weekend. The bottled water manufacturer said the operations of the plant have been disrupted for a few days in order to carry out maintenance repairs on machinery and clear up some stocks which were damaged. The company said damages arising from the flood incident is not expected to have any material effect on the earnings and net assets per share of Spritzer for the financial year ending December 31, 2021.

AWC Bhd said its subsidiary had secured a letter of award from the Ministry of Health for a five-year contract to provide hospital support services valued at RM106.04 million. The award follows a tender by Ambang Wira Sdn Bhd (AWSB), a wholly-owned unit of AWC, that has been accepted by the MoH for AWSB to provide the services for the National Institute of Health.

Infrastructure engineering firm Rohas Tecnic Bhd has secured an RM85.15 million contract from the Selangor government. The job involves the construction of  pumping stations at two existing retention ponds and lay water pipelines, to convey the water to the Semenyih Water Treatment Plant intake.

Advancecon Holdings Bhd has secured another contract worth about RM33.2 million to provide quarry operations and ancillary works at a site in Kinta, Perak. The contract was awarded to its 51%-owned subsidiary Spring Energy Sdn Bhd by quarry owner Omya Malaysia Sdn Bhd to operate the site for four years until December 2025.

Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd has said it is launching an RM300 million sukuk murabahah programme with a perpetual tenure. The group said Danum Sinar Sdn Bhd (DSSB), owned 90% by Murni Estate Sdn Bhd which in turn is wholly owned by Puncak Niaga, made a lodgement for the programme with the Securities Commission Malaysia on Thursday (Dec 23). It added that the proceeds from the issuance will be allocated to pay all fees and expenses of the programme, as well as to finance DSSB's new plantation development expenditure, construction of plantation mill and working capital requirements.

Dataprep Holdings Bhd’s subsidiary has been appointed as the project delivery partner for the outsourcing of integrated solutions for Covid-19 rapid molecular testing. Dataprep said its subsidiary Dataprep Asia Sdn Bhd had received the letter of consent from the Ministry of Health to commence the trial run of Covid-19 screening RT-PCR testing under the MiCo BioMed brand.