AXIATA,AIRASIA,PETRONAS, CARLBERG,CAROTEC

Celcom (Malaysia) Bhd, a unit of Axiata (AXIATA MK, Hold, TP: RM2.75) is launching a new mobile broadband discount event from October 30 to November 1. Dubbed “The Broadband Big Deal!”, the three-day event will be held at Boulevard Strip, Plaza Low Yat, Kuala Lumpur from 10am until 11pm. During the event, Celcom will offer its Celcom Broadband service for RM88 that comes with a Celcom-Vodafone USB stick, upon signing up the broadband basic package at RM89 per month or a customer can opt for the broadband advance package at RM119 per month. (BT)

* * * * *

AirAsia (AIRA MK, Buy, TP: RM1.80) carried 19% more passengers in the third quarter from a year earlier, the company said yesterday. Southeast Asia’s largest low-cost airline by fleet size said it carried a total of 3.6m passengers during the quarter. The airline’s passenger carrying capacity, measured in available seat kilometres, expanded by 13% after it took delivery of new aircraft. Third-quarter seat load factor, or the percentage of total seats fill, was unchanged at 75% from a year ago, it said. (BT)

* * * * *

Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) awarded two production sharing contracts (PSCs) for Block SB309 and Block SB310 offshore Sabah with an estimated minimum financial of US$75m and US$117m respectively. The PSCs were awarded to a partnership between Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd and Talisman Malaysia Ltd. Talisman Malaysia, with participating interest of 70% in each block, will operate both blocks. Meanwhile, Petronas Carigali will own the remaining 30% interest each in the two blocks. Talisman has agreed to spend a minimum of US$2m on secondment training initiatives for each block in addition to the seismic and drilling in addition to the seismic and drilling commitments which cover six years. Petronas said the two blocks, measuring 5,815 sq km and 7,271 sq km respectively, were located in water depths of up to 150m. (Starbiz)

* * * * *

Response to Maxis Bhd’s share sale, Malaysia’s largest initial public offering (IPO), is said to be tepid thus far, with asking prices said to be near the lower end of the RM4.80 and RM5.50 price range that book-runners are indicating. A local fund manager notes that pilgrims’ funds Lembaga Tabung Haji (LTH) chief investment officer Mohammed Noor Abdul Rahman had publicly declared his fund would not pay more than RM5.30 apiece for Maxis shares. The fund manager is picking up Maxis shares “for benchmarking purposes”. Maxis is set to launch its prospectus tomorrow. The final retail and institutional price for the Maxis shares are to be fixed by Nov 10, after the conclusion of the book-building exercise on Nov 9. Shares of the country’s leading mobile operator are set to debut again on the Main Market in a little over 3 weeks on Nov 19. (Financial Daily)

* * * * *

Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd has targeted the acquisition of Carlsberg Singapore Pte Ltd (CSPL) for RM370m, to boost the company’s financial performance in 2010. Its managing director said that the beer market in Singapore is attractive and Carlsberg Singapore is a successful, well run and a profitable company. He said the acquisition of Carlsberg Singapore is
also boosted by the upcoming youth Olympic games and the development of casinos in the country. (Malaysian Reserve)

* * * * *
Carotech Bhd has signed a RM170m agreement with Swiss firm Mercuria Energy Trading SA to supply its proprietary CaroDiesel biodiesel to the latter for a year, starting January 2010. Carotech said, under the terms of the supply agreement, it would supply Mercuria with a minimum of 60,000 tonnes in total, which worked out to about 5,000 tonnes per
month, at the premium over the price of crude palm oil (CPO) . (Malaysian Reserve)
* * * * *