Genting: ANALYSTS view Genting's latest move – raising its stake in Stanley Leisure plc, the largest casino operator in Britain, from 9.1% in November 2004 to 10.1% currently – as a step in the right direction to capture a bigger slice of Britain's casino market. The move also reduces Genting's dependency on its Malaysian operations as competition grows in the region, with casinos potentially opening in Singapore and Thailand. RHB Research maintained its “outperform” call with a 12-month target price of RM22.30. Currently, it is trading at undemanding valuation of 12.8 times FY2005 price earnings ratio (PER). GENTING:: [Stock Watch] [News]
Proton: THE national carmaker has plans to not only set up manufacturing bases overseas to penetrate the Asean market (starting with Indonesia) but also to tie up with Volkswagen AG to penetrate the European market. It may also partner with VW through the sharing of technology to reduce research and development costs. Earnings could be boosted by its move to raise its car prices by 1% to 7.3%, which is, however, not expected to have drastic impact on sales. MIDF Sisma maintained an “outperform” call on Proton with a fair value of RM9.70, based on a calendar year PER of 7 times for 2005, that represents an 8.9% upside. PROTON : [Stock Watch] [News]
Cocoaland: Cocoaland's recognition of the importance of R&D and continuous product development has boosted its food business overseas, especially to the Middle East. The company also pioneered a process for the fruit gummy market and has been contracted by a multinational pharmaceutical company to produce its blackcurrant pastilles. MIDF Sisma has a “buy” call on Cocoaland with an upside of 38% to its retail price of 65 sen. The stock has a forecast FY12/05 earnings per share (EPS) of 9 sen and fair value of 90 sen based on an average prospective PE multiple of 10 times of selected listed local companies in the same industry. COCOLND : [Stock Watch] [News]
CIMB: ANALYSTS are upbeat on CIMB's proposal to acquire G.K. Goh Holdings Ltd’s entire stock broking operations for SG$239mil (RM555mil). Post acquisition, CIMB is expected to secure access to the latter’s entire network; thus enlarging CIMB's significant market share in Malaysia and Singapore (12%) and Indonesia (3%). Coupled with its stock broking operations in Hong Kong and London, the acquisition provides a good platform for CIMB’s regionalisation efforts. RHB Research has a “market perform” call on CIMB with a revised RM5.65 per share fair value, based on 16 times December 2005 EPS. CIMB : [Stock Watch] [News]
REDtone: THE company has recently secured a card payphone licence in Pakistan via its 100%-owned subsidiary Redtone Telecommunications Pakistan Private Ltd (RTPPL) from telecommunications regulator Pakistan Telecommunications Authority. The licence will enable RTPPL to provide telephone and fax services through card payphones in Pakistan. The licence is valid till Jan 11 2020, and is renewable thereafter. While RHB Research has maintained an “outperform” call, the new licence is in line with its expectations and has been factored into its earnings forecast. Fair value remains unchanged at RM3.25. REDTONE : [Stock Watch] [News]
GENTING:: [Stock Watch] [News]
