Green Packet falls as no bumper dividend from P1 sale

KUALA LUMPUR: Shares of Green Packet and its warrants fell on Friday as shareholders were disappointed over the absence of a bumper dividend from the sale of Packet One (P1) to Telekom Malaysia (TM).

At 9.53am, Green Packet was down four sen to 48 sen. It was the most active with 52.85 million shares done at prices ranging from 47 sen to 52 sen.

Green Packet warrants, GPacket-WA, fell two sen to 13 sen with 18.14 million units done.

The FBM KLCI fell 3.04 points to 1,843.83. Turnover was 463.92 million shares valued at RM293.81mil. There were 184 gainers, 200 losers and 237 counters unchanged.

TM fell six sen to RM6.14. Turnover was 6.10 million shares done at prices ranging from RM6.05 to RM6.17.

Hwang DBS Vickers Research (HDBSVR) said the corporate exercise would only involve fresh capital injection into P1.

"Green Packet shareholders previously hoping for bumper dividend payments arising from a potential direct divestment of its P1 stake could be disappointed," it pointed out.

Meanwhile, Affin Investment Research was positive on TM's acquisition of a 57% stake in P1 as it expands TM's scope of providing broadband solutions.

It said P1 should complement TM's existing business while there is limited overlap in terms of TM and P1's existing network coverage.

"While the deal will have negative implications in the near term, we do not expect this to be persistent. Moreover, management has assured that TM's dividend capability will not be impacted," it said.

Affin Research said TM's RM1.55bil investment will be paced out over the next few years and over a couple of instruments although the initial outlay will be via a capital injection of RM350mil into P1.