The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Asian markets open lower on Thursday
- Young blood for Kulim and DRealty boards
- Perwaja likely to get iron ore mining concession in Terengganu
| Asian markets open lower on Thursday Posted: 09 Nov 2011 05:52 PM PST PETALING JAYA: Asian markets were in the red in Thursday's early trade, as investors continued to remain cautious over Europe's never-ending credit woes. On the local front, the FBM KLCI slipped 1.52% or 22.71 points to 1,466.93 at 9.30am. As for regional bourses, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 2.31% to 8,553.25 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 4.30% to 19,153.04. Shanghai's A index was down 1.04% to 2,498.59 while Taiwan's Taiex Index slipped 2.09% to 7,403.62. Seoul's Kospi Index dipped 2.52% to 1,859.42 while Singapore's Straits Times Index fell 2.81% to 2,778.23. Nymex crude oil slipped 11 cents to US$95.63 per barrel. Spot gold fell 40 cents to US$1,769.55 per ounce. The ringgit was quoted at 3.147 to the US dollar. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Young blood for Kulim and DRealty boards Posted: 09 Nov 2011 04:39 PM PST PETALING JAYA: Two companies in Johor Corp's (JCorp) stable Kulim (M) Bhd and Damansara Realty Bhd (DRealty) saw the entry of fresh faces on their boards, with Kulim adding four new directors and DRealty, three. Three of Kulim's new directors have also been appointed to DRealty board. Plantation giant Kulim's new executive director is Datuk Ahmad Zaki Zahid, 44, the former executive director of Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd who left the property group in October. Zaki has had stints at Booz Allen Hamilton and the Securities Commission and was once the special assistant to then prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Zaki is now also DRealty managing director. Another new face to the board is non-independent and non-executive director Wan Mohd Firdaus Wan Mohd Fuaad, 28, who is currently the special officer to Mentri Besar of Johor. The other two appointed to Kulim board are independent and non-executive directors Edward Leung Kok Keong, 44, and Natasha Kamaluddin, 39. Natasha, a management consultant stalwart and current partner and director of Ethos & Co, is the only one of Kulim's four new directors not appointed to DRealty board. Leung holds two other directorships in Tebrau Teguh Bhd and ACE Market-listed Asia Bioenergy Technologies Bhd and is a chartered accountant. All four board members are relatively young. Insiders said part of the rationale for bringing in the new board members is for them to provide new perspectives and ideas on how to restructure the companies under JCorp. State-owned JCorp is an asset-rich and diversified group but is saddled with mounting debt problems. By mid-next year, it will have to settle up to RM3.6bil of its debt obligations. The group has been mulling a number of options on how to use its vast asset base to solve this problem, resulting in the recent sale of oil palm estates and mills to its 53% subsidiary, Kulim, for RM700mil. Listed companies under JCorp include New Britain Palm Oil Ltd, QSR Brands Bhd and KFC Holdings (M) Bhd. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Perwaja likely to get iron ore mining concession in Terengganu Posted: 09 Nov 2011 04:38 PM PST PETALING JAYA: Perwaja Holdings Bhd is expected to secure a sizeable iron ore mining concession from the Terengganu government "anytime soon", according to industry sources. To enable economies of scale, sources said, Perwaja's unit Perwaja Steel Sdn Bhd should ideally be given about 500ha in Bukit Besi to mine iron ore with a mining lease running for at least 10 years, which later will be subject to renewal. The 2,400ha Bukit Besi area is believed to hold 50 million tonnes of iron ore reserves, which has the highest quality in Malaysia at 70% Fe (iron), the sources added. (The higher Fe percentage means that the iron ores are carrying high quantities of hematite or magnetite also known as "natural ore" or "direct shipping ore", which can be fed directly into iron-making blast furnaces for steel manufacturing.) Industry sources told StarBiz that the state had agreed in principle to give Perwaja the concession to undertake the mining operation but this had yet to be made official. Both Kinsteel Bhd and Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd are Perwaja's majority shareholders, with management control held by Kinsteel. The sources added that apart from Perwaja, there were other companies being considered by the Terengganu government to undertake similar operations at Bukit Besi. Iron ore reserves can also be found in Bukit Ibam, Lipis, Maran and Lanchang in Pahang. Both Terengganu and Pahang are estimated to have in excess of 100 million tonnes of iron ore deposits. As for Perwaja, the Bukit Besi iron ore mining area is about 80km from its billets and direct reduced iron (DRI) plant in Kemaman. The company is in the midst of constructing a RM400mil concentration and pelletising plant in Kemaman. "The pelletising plant will enable the bare iron ore to be used as feed material for its DRI plant, making it a strong case for Perwaja to own an iron ore mine," said OSK Research in its latest steel sector update report. The fact that Perwaja was originally a national project also raised the possibility of the company securing any upcoming iron ore mining concession in Terengganu or Pahang, it added. Perwaja Steel's range of products include DRI, beam, blanks, blooms and billets, which in turn are used in the manufacturing, construction and infrastructure industries. Meanwhile, Malaysian Chamber of Mines executive director Muhamad Nor Muhamad said: "Over the past three years, there have been an increase in the issuance and renewals of mining leases by state governments in mineral-rich states." Currently, there are about 50 iron ore mines scattered throughout Pahang, Johor, Perak and Terengganu. Reflecting the increasing demand for the commodity, local iron ore production rose to 3.47 million tonnes last year from 1.47 million tonnes the previous year. "There are many small iron ore operators in Malaysia working on less than 100 acres each. However, the sector is set to become more competitive with the entry of big players like Perwaja," added Muhamad. He said Perak had been actively issuing and renewing mining leases. In 2008, the state had awarded HWG Tin Mining Sdn Bhd, a unit of Ho Wah Genting Bhd, a 10-year mining lease to mine tin and other minerals on 500 acres in Pengkalan Hulu with the potential for a further 500 acres as the work on the initial area progressed. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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