The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Hershey plans Malaysia plant
- Southeast Asia stocks: Most indexes weak
- Islamic Development Bank to expand sukuk programme to US$10bil
| Posted: KUALA LUMPUR: The Hershey Co, North America's biggest chocolate maker, will invest RM816mil in a new state-of-the-art confectionary plant in Johor to meet growing demand for its products in the region. It will be Hershey's single largest investment in Asia in 18 years of its presence in the region. Hershey senior vice-president and chief supply-chain officer Terence O'Day said that consumers across Asia were discovering a range of Hershey confectionary products, and that China, in particular, was growing faster than any other market. "Our new plant would feature the latest confectionary manufacturing technology and complement production at our existing joint-venture plant in China," he said after the joint announcement with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) yesterday. O'Day said the plant would be sited in the Iskandar-Senai free tade zone. It would measure 700,000 sq ft with expansion capacity to meet future needs. He anticipates the plant to employ more than 400 locals in various capacities, including management roles, when it is completed in 2015. The plant is expected to generate annual sales of between US$200mil (RM636mil) and US$300mil (RM954mil) within the first three years of operations. Mida chief executive officer Datuk Noharuddin Nordin said it was an honour that Hershey had selected Malaysia as the site for its manufacturing plant. Malaysia was chosen for its well-educated potential workforce, stable political environment, a strong supply-chain infrastructure and globally recognised halal food manufacturing certification. Noharuddin noted that this was testament to the continued attractiveness of Malaysia to multinationals that were planning substantial commitments in the region. "This project would bring years of economic benefits to Malaysia in the form of jobs and business for local suppliers," he said. This is because Hershey, as pointed out by O'Day, planned to source as much raw material as possible for its plant locally. The plant is a strategic geographical choice that provides Hershey with easy distribution access to more than 25 markets accross Asia. It will produce four of five global brands, namely, Hershey's Kisses, Ice Breakers, Reese's and Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars. |
| Southeast Asia stocks: Most indexes weak Posted: BANGKOK: Philippine stocks were nearly flat, while Indonesian shares snapped three days of gains on Friday as investors trimmed positions in emerging markets amid rising risk aversion associated with the U.S. government shutdown. After a choppy trade, Philippine index ended a tad higher at 6,390.48, up 0.04 percent on the day and a 0.2 percent rise for the week. Moody's sovereign rating upgrade and Asian Development Bank's growth forecast increase lifted market sentiment early in the week. Selling hit recent large cap gainers such as Ayala Corp , while shares in BDO Unibank rose 1.5 percent on the back of recent Moody's upgrade. Jakarta's Composite Index was among underperformers, down 0.7 percent on the day and sliding 0.8 percent on the week, the second worst after Singapore's 2.3 percent weekly loss. Jakarta exchange saw weak trading volume that was around two-thirds of a full-day average over the past 30 sessions as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the release of foreign exchange reserve data due later in the day. SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS |
| Islamic Development Bank to expand sukuk programme to US$10bil Posted: The Saudi Arabia-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) plans to increase its Islamic bond programme to $10 billion from $6.5 billion, to keep pace with demand for investment-grade paper from the international institution. An expanded programme would help the AAA-rated bank meet its goal of issuing one sukuk publicly every year and cater to a growing number of investor requests for private placements. The Jeddah-based lender plans to make the increase official in November subject to clearance from regulators in Britain, where its multi-currency programme is listed, said Hasan Demirhan, director at the IDB's treasury department. "So far, public issuances have been once in a year but private issuances have been frequently based on the resource requirements of the bank," said Demirhan. The programme has been expanded twice since it was set up in 2005; close to $7 billion has been issued via 15 sukuk, out of which $6.3 billion is currently outstanding, according to Reuters calculations based on IDB data. Last year was the busiest for the programme with $1.9 billion issued via five sukuk, four of which were private placements worth a combined $1.1 billion. This year, the IDB issued a $1 billion, five-year sukuk in June and a five-year, $700 million private placement in March. The bank, which operates to promote economic development in Muslim countries and communities, has 56 member countries and Saudi Arabia as its largest shareholder with 23.6 percent. It plans to issue another benchmark-sized sukuk next year, Demirhan said; benchmark-size transactions are at least $500 million. FLEXIBILITY In May, the IDB more than tripled its authorised capital to $150 billion; it provides financing, loans and technical assistance for development schemes which follow Islamic principles, such as bans on interest payments and pure monetary speculation. An expanded sukuk programme would help the IDB increase its profile among global investors and secure similar pricing levels to other development banks such as the World Bank and European Investment Bank, which can borrow at slightly lower rates because they are more frequent issuers. The IDB's June sukuk set price guidance at a spread of 30 basis points over midswaps; a year earlier it priced a sukuk at 40 bps over midswaps. The EIB priced a five-year, 500 million Canadian dollar bond last month at 20 bps over midswaps. The expanded programme would also help the IDB offer a wider range of maturities to investors in its private placements. Its public sukuk have used five-year tenors, but private placements have also carried other maturities, Demirhan said. "Private issuance of the sukuk is tailored to the need of the investors and ranged between three to 10 years." IDB sukuk are highly sought after by Islamic banks since the lender is designated a zero risk-weighted institution by the Basel Committee, the international banking supervisory body; this means its paper can be used to manage capital adequacy on bank balance sheets. The IDB also has a 1 billion ringgit ($313 million) sukuk programme in Malaysia, where it has issued an aggregate 700 million ringgit in three tranches since 2008- Reuters |
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