IJM,DIGI,,MAS,MAHB,MAXIS

IJM Corp Bhd (IJM MK, Hold, TP: RM3.64) hopes to win more highway jobs in India under the recently announced newnational highway programme for roads, said Datuk Krishnan Tan. “(Under the new programme), the packages are going to besubstantially larger and we will be bidding for some of them”, he said. Indian road, transport and highways minister Kamal Naththis month set a target of 7,000km per year across all states, which translates into roughly 20km per day. Kamal Nath wasquoted as saying that in the next 10 months, there will be about 11,000km of roads and contracts costing Rs1 lakh crore(US$20bn) to be awarded. (BT)

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Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, unit of Digi.Com Bhd (DIGI MK, Hold, TP: RM20.10).has committed RM75m to rollout its Turbo 3G mobile and broadband service in Sabah over the next 3 years. Digi said that so far, coverage has beenexpanded to cover some 95% of the population in Kota Kinabalu. The company expects to progressively activate existingmobile subscribers on Turbo 3G, starting with Sabah and Penang yesterday, followed by Klang Valley at a later date.(Malaysian Reserve)

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Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM)(T MK, Buy, TP: RM 3.98) is on track to commercially launch its high-speed broadband(HSBB) retail service in the 4 initial areas of Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Bangsar, Subang Jaya and Shah Alam by the end 1Q10.TM said to date, physical work had been completed at four exchanges and in progress at 44 exchanges, out of 95 exchangesto be covered by the initial rollout. It said by the end of 2012, about 1.3m premises would have access to HSBB services, inaccordance with the completion of the first phase of the project agreed by the government. TM group CEO DatukZamzamzairani said as at end of 2Q09, the government had reimbursed it a total of RM665m work completed. He said theretail service trials were scheduled to begin with 150 households involving TM employees residing in the 4 areas by mid-November 2009. Following that, in January 2010, additional 300 selected households within the same area will be involved.(Financial Daily)

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Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS MK, Sell, TP: RM2.00) and Hainan Airlines Group (HNA) have signed a strategiccooperation framework in order to strengthen their business relationship. MAS managing director Tengku Datuk AzmilZahruddin said the collaboration would lead to better resource sharing, multi-hub network as well as expediting theirinternational development progress such as enabling MAS to reach those destinations that it doesn’t fly to (in China). He saidthe collaboration would also enable its cargo arm, Malaysia Airlines Cargo Sdn Bhd (MASkargo), to have access to HNAGroup’s global network and increase its market share. MASkargo managing director Shahari Sulaiman said MASkargo andHNA would start discussions to explore each other’s networks. (Financial Daily)

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Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) will give incentives in the form of cash to airlines that continue to bring inadditional passenger traffic to Malaysia. The quantum of the monetary incentive is still unclear but MAHB managingdirector/CEO Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad is looking to announce details before the year is out. The suggestion to reward airlines insearch of new growth by MAHB appears to be timely as it will not just make airports in Malaysia more competitive but alsoallows them to attract more airlines to operate in the country. It also helps airlines that are struggling due to the economicdownturn. This monetary incentive proposal is being considered despite the fact that Malaysian airport charges are already thelowest in the region. The new cash incentive is meant for all airlines that operate from the country and from all the 39 airports inMalaysia but it is for new business only. All the existing incentives will also remain intact, such as the waiver for landingcharges for new flights for 3 years. (Starbiz)

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Maxis Communications Bhd to double its wireless broadband user base by year-end, following the launch of its newbroadband campaign, Something for Everyone. “Our sales have improved more than 100% year-to-date compared with lastyear. Next year, we expect to outperform this year’s performance,” senior general manager and head of broadband said.According to the draft prospectus lodged by Maxis Bhd, the company added about 31,000 mobile broadband subscribers in thefirst six months of 2009. Its broadband subscription totalled 171,200 or about 21% marker share, as at June 30. The newbroadband packages ranged from as low as RM8 per day to RM48 per month. (StarBiz)