The Government has agreed to provide a 25-month interim period for procurement of drugs to Pharmaniaga Bhd after its concession ends on Nov 30, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.

He said the interim period from Dec 1, 2019 to Dec 31, 2021 was to ensure that there was no supply chain disruption in the supply and distribution of medicines to the Health Ministry's facilities nationwide.

Net profit for 2QFY19 rose to RM37.29 million from RM12.74 million in the corresponding period last year, bumping up earnings per share to 6.35 sen from 2.44 sen, its stock exchange filing today showed.

Quarterly revenue rose by 86% year-on-year to RM315.43 million, against RM169.99 million previously.

O&G rally continues, Sapura Energy and Wah Seong leading the pack today

Mesiniaga Bhd has bagged a contract worth RM16.05 million from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for the supply of computer hardware, software, maintenance and IT related services.

Prolexus' 4QFY19 net profit rose to RM7.22 million from RM794, 000 last year due to higher capacity utilisation from the apparels division, which led to an improvement of the group's profit margin.

Revenue also increased 26.6% to RM111.93 million from RM82.21 million in 4QFY18 due to higher sales orders from the apparels division.

British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd (BAT Malaysia), the country’s largest tobacco company, is undergoing another round of internal reorganisation, with 20% of its workforce in Malaysia to be laid off. The company employs about 500 people in Malaysia.

This comes on the heels of its smaller rival JT International Bhd’s (JTI Malaysia) announcement recently that it was laying off more than one-third of its 450-strong workforce here.

Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd:

* QTRLY REVENUE 975.1 MILLION RGT

* QTRLY NET PROFIT 68 MILLION RGT

* YEAR AGO QTRLY REVENUE 947.6 MILLION RGT; YEAR AGO QTRLY NET PROFIT 82.7 MILLION RGT

* BOARD RECOMMENDS A HIGHER FINAL DIVIDEND OF 33.0 SEN PER SHARE FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR 2019

A wholly-owned unit of Uzma Bhd is taking legal action against South Korea’s Khan Co Ltd (Khan) and Kong Offshore Malaysia Sdn Bhd (Kong) for overpayment of works worth RM63.14 million.

Uzma Engineering Sdn Bhd (UESB) has filed a Writ and Statement of Claim in the Kuala Lumpur High Court to commence legal action against the two companies.

Genting Malaysia's UK unit buys Sweden-listed LeoVegas subsidiary

Refined sugar manufacturer MSM Malaysia Holdings Bhd is disposing of 4,453.92 hectares of agricultural land in Chuping, Perlis, to Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd for RM156 million.

The proposed disposal, effected via an open tender process which began in January 2019, was part of MSM’s asset rationalisation exercise to unlock and realise the value of its non-core assets, it said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today.

Sapura Energy expects to be profitable in 12 months

For the first quarter of its FY19 (1QFY19), Toyo Ink’s net profit jumped more than 74 times to RM2.89 million, from RM39,000 last year mainly due to the RM2.3 million gain on disposal for its Shah Alam factory.

“Our profit [excluding the one-off disposal gain] was around RM900,000. For our ink division, we will now concentrate more on inks for the packaging division [to make up for the loss in revenue from the printing division] and we expect positive contributions from our EDM business,” said Song.

As for its power project in Vietnam, Song said the group is looking to finalise the build-operate-transfer contract with the Vietnamese authorities and government agencies.

The Song Hau 2 project, which is a 2x1060mw coal-fired power plant project in Hau Giang, has an estimated project cost of US$3.5 billion (RM14.53 billion), and is expected to generate an annual revenue of about US$800 to US$900 million from the time it is commissioned, which is expected to be in 2025. The concession period for the power plant is 25 years.

Hong Leong Industries Bhd’s net profit for the 2019 financial year ended June 30, 2019 fell to RM327.08 million from RM334.6 million in the same period last year.

Revenue, however, rose to RM2.75 billion from RM2.5 billion previously.

Athleisure is the summation of athletics and leisure where clothing designed for athletic activities are worn during everyday life. Active sportswear is gaining traction with athleisure leading the way as a fashion industry movement as seen in Nike’s latest quarterly results announcement, where the sportswear giant’s earnings beat expectations, showing strong double-digit growth in its sales.

The Tokyo Olympics next year is one of the largest sporting event in the world which will be held between July 24 and Aug 9. It is expected to serve as a strong impetus to boost sales for all major sport brands. Therefore, we are optimistic that Magni-Tech will be able to ride on the global sportswear apparel wave.

The group is controlled by the Toh family through several private vehicles, namely Teo Guan Lee Holdings Sdn Bhd (37.07%), Toh Peng Hoe Holdings Sdn Bhd (14.04%) and Ideal Structure Sdn Bhd (12.49%), among others.

Managing director Toh Kian Beng currently holds the largest stake of 69.03% in the retailer via these investment vehicles, according to Teo Guan Lee’s 2018 annual report.

Teo Guan Lee last reported a net profit of RM719,000 for its first quarter ended Sept 30, 2018 versus a net loss of RM504,000 in the previous year’s corresponding quarter on the back of lower operating expenses and higher income from the distribution of its investment management funds.

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