HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR

TELEKOM, MAS, SIME

Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) (T MK, Buy, TP: RM3.54) the country's dominant fixed-line operator, has finally revealed the pricing for its High Speed Broadband (HSBB) access to industry players, more than one year after the project was first announced. This means that service providers, including mobile operators, broadband service providers and pay-TV operators will now know how much it will cost them to ride on TM's fibre optics network to offer services like video-on-demand, Internet protocol television (IPTV), voice call and Internet surfing. It is believed that most of the industry players came away feeling that the pricing offered by TM was "good" and "reasonable", but remained concerned on how the prices will affect them in the long run. TM executive vice-president Rafaai Samsi gave an assurance that the company would not abuse its "power". The pricing comes in two forms: a one-time charge and a monthly recurring charge. It charges service providers one-time fees of between RM52 and RM55 for activation of each Internet port. On a monthly basis, it charges the service providers between RM100-200 per megabit per second (Mbps), in terms of bandwidth subscription. (BT)
* * * * *
Malaysian Airline System (MAS MK, Sell, TP: RM2.21) is seeking financing for 3 Boeing 737-800 aircraft according to its chief executive officer Tengku Datuk Azmil Zahruddin. MAS will receive three B737-800s this year with the first to arrive in October. Last week, MAS received the blessings of its shareholders to raise RM2.67bn from a rights issue mainly for a fleet expansion exercise. The company also got the approval of shareholders to spend about RM3.19bn on the acquisition of two B747s and two B777s from Penerbangan Malaysia Bhd and six new A380s. (Malaysian Reserve)
* * * * *
Sime Darby Bhd (SIME MK, Hold, TP: RM8.10) is in negotiations to acquire Sapura Resources Bhd’s BMW dealership held under wholly owned Sapura Auto Sdn Bhd, industry sources say. The price tag for the dealership is being bandied at some RM40m, adding that details of the acquisition are still being finalised. It is learnt that Munich based Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the parent company of BMW, has to give the nod for the acquisition to go through. According to Sapura Resources’ annual report, this dealership and its assets have a net book value of RM24.8m. The RM40m price tag is likely to include inventories such as cars, parts and machinery. The sale of the BMW dealership will have huge impact on Sapura Resources, as the business is the core activity of the company. Sime Darby has established BMWdealerships in various parts of the region held under Auto Bavaria Sdn Bhd and has a 49% stake in BMW Malaysia Sdn Bhd, which is the wholesaler of BMW cars, spare parts, and accessories. (The Edge)
* * * * *
AirAsia X will temporarily suspend its flights to Abu Dhabi beginning Feb 21 in a bid to realign its fleet to cover priority areas. “We are temporarily suspending the flights to prepare for other flights especially to India but we will revert back to Abu Dhabi at a later date,” AirAsia X CEO Azran Osman-Rani said. He added that it wasn’t because of competition with Etihad
Airways the flights have been suspended. “We cannot be flying five times weekly to Abu Dhabi, we need more frequencies, better airplanes and capacity before we get back there,” Azran said. AirAsia X began flying to Abu Dhabi in November with load factors of over 65% using its A340 aircraft. The low-cost carrier’s A330 seats are not as comfortable and to add more flights or
use the A330 does not bode well for AirAsia X on that route, where passengers demand quality and comfort. It has embarked on a seat refurbishment exercise and would be grounding planes to fit the new seats. AirAsia X will get back to Abu Dhabi when the new seats have been fitted into its aircraft, according to a source. (Starbiz)
* * * * *
Wilmar International Ltd has shelved plans to spin off the group’s operations in China on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after its original application lapsed. “The company has no current intention to submit a fresh listing application to the HKEX for the listing of Wilmar China,” Wilmar said in an announcement to the Singapore Stock Exchange. It noted that in
accordance with HKEX’s guidance letter, the exchange considers any new application submitted within three months of a lapsed application as a renewal/continuance of the original application. Wilmar did not elaborate. The PPB Group has an 18.35% stake in the Singapore listed company. (Starbiz)
* * * * *
DRB-Hicom Bhd plans to set up an automotive university college to produce skilled human capital for the industry. It told Bursa Malaysia yesterday it had formed a unit, HICOM University College Sdn Bhd (HUCSB), with an authorised capital of RM10m, or 10m ordinary shares of RM1 each, and paid-up capital of RM2 of two RM1 shares each. DRB-HICOM said the
university college would carry out the business of higher educational and vocational training institution, focusing on programmes to enhance the competency and skill of human capital for the automotive and automotive-related industries. DRBHICOM said the university college would complement its automotive business. DRB-HICOM said it foresaw itself contributing
towards making Malaysia as one of the leading education hubs for the region. (Starbiz)

Stocks Falter Despite Giddy GDP --another down day for BURSA tomorrow?

Stocks Falter Despite Giddy GDP
By Melinda Peer 01/29/10 - 05:27 PM EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stocks slumped on January's last trading day despite Friday's robust fourth-quarter GDP growth and a slew of strong earnings reports. The major averages put in their worst month since February 2009.
More on AMZN
DOWNStocks erased earlier gains made on a strong GDP report as U.S. indices finished the week -- and the month -- in the red.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed nearly 106 points this week, or 1% and finished the month 1% lower. The S&P 500 lost 18 points, or 1.6%, on the week and slumped 3.7% this month while the Nasdaq surrendered 58 points, or 2.6%, weekly and lost 5.5% in January.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 53 points, or 0.5%, to close at 10,067. The S&P 500 shed 11 points, or 1%, at 1074 and the Nasdaq finished down by 32 points, or 1.5%, at 2147.
"Despite earnings, markets have been taking their cues from overseas all week -- whether it's been concerns about China or Greece -- there's been a lot of questions about where growth is going to come from," said Mike Sokoll, director of Nasdaq OMX's market intelligence desk. "So even though we had a strong GDP number today, market gains didn't hold. I think perhaps people are wondering whether this is just stimulus juice and whether growth can hold up."

>>Microsoft Sees Lower IT Spending
The tech sector led the declines, with key tech stocks among the Dow's worst performers. Microsoft, Boeing(BA Quote) and Intel(INTC Quote) were the day's biggest duds, with Hewlett-Packard(HP Quote) and IBM(IBM Quote) not far behind.
"Tech has been one of the market's leading sectors, so they're a likely place to take profits," Sokoll added.
Shares of Microsoft(MSFT Quote), Sirius XM Radio(SIRI Quote), Qualcomm(QCOM Quote) and Intel were seeing heavy volume on the Nasdaq, with only Sirius trading in green territory.
An 8% decline in Microsoft's business sales appeared to spark fears that weak enterprise spending could flatten future technology growth.