Malaysia Daily Media Highlights

Golden Hope: To bid for KUB’s oil Palm Plantations
Golden Hope Plantations will bid for the oil palm plantation lands held under KUB Agrotech and KUB Sepadu, subsidiaries of KUB Malaysia. KUB Malaysia announced on June 9 that it proposed to dispose off its oil palm plantation lands. It owns 100% of KUB Ekuiti, which in turn has a 100% stake in KUB Agrotech and 60% of KUB Sepadu. KUB Sepadu owns a total of 8,203ha of oil palm plantations in Sarawak, while KUB Agrotech has 2,656.3ha in Johor. (theedgedaily.com)

TOP Glove: To turn around Medi-Flex by Aug’07
Top Glove will use its proven business model to turn around loss-making Medi-Flex Ltd within six months after the completion of its acquisition of 60.06% of the latter in February next year. Top Glove Chairman, Datuk Seri Lim Wee Chai said the group would transfer its technology, management skills and marketing strategies to the new subsidiary. Top Glove has proposed to subscribe for 300.3m Medi-Flex shares at seven Singapore cents each for a total of S$21m (RM48.93m). Medi-Flex will also issue 28m new shares to other investors. Top Glove executive director KM Lee said the group had seen several successful cases in turning around newly acquired, loss-making subsidiaries for the past few years. (theedgedaily.com)

CME Awarded Fire Department Deal
CME has won a RM211.2m 23-month contract to build 200 light fire-fighting vehicles from the fire Department. It received a letter of award to design, manufacture and supply 200 units of Light Fire/Rescue Tender complete with accessories, it said in a statement to Bursa Malaysia yesterday. (BT)

Nextnation Communications: Eyes India entry in six months
Nextnation Communications, which is aiming for a transfer to the Main Board within a year, expects to enter India in the next six months via a joint venture. Its chief executive officer and managing director Tey Por Yee said NEXTNAT would focus on its core business of providing application services in India similar to its operations in China, where it has nationwide connectively with the most major mobile operators. He said NEXTNAT’s business model to enter into JVs or seek acquisitions abroad was to facilitate it to overcome the language, cultural and political barriers. (theedgedaily.com)

Kannaltec: Lands RM400m ICT Concession
Kannaltec has secured a 20-year concession worth up to RM400m to build and manage the Selangor State government’s broadband infrastructure network for 345 government offices (Sel*Net) the state. Under the concession, the state government will subscribe to the broadband services and applications at agreed rates for a period expiring Sept 22, 2025. Sel*Net will be the state government private network infrastructure that links its departments, statutory bodies, local authorities and agencies with high-speed broadband that support data, voice and images. (theedgedaily.com)

Hektar: To raise RM176m from REIT Listing
Hektar Group expects to raise about RM176m from the listing of its real estate investment trust on the main board of Bursa Malaysia before the end of the year. Known as the Hektar REIT, it comprises Subang Parade and Mahkota Parade shopping malls in Selangor and Malacca respectively and is the country’s first focused retail specialist. The REIT will be managed by Hektar Asset Management Sdn Bhd (HAM), which is part of Hektar Group. (BT)

Malaysia Secures more aviation rights in China
Malaysia has secured more air rights in China and significantly, permission for cargo freighters to operate from several Chinese cities to third destinations in Europe, Central Asia and the US. The two countries inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) here yeaterday which comes into effect immediately, expanding the scope of services allowing airlines from both countries to enter into code-share arrangements to third countries. The agreement comes ahead of an “open skies” policy between the two countries which is expected to start by 2010 under the MOU, the frequency of Malaysian and Chinese passenger and cargo flights between the two countries would increase by 25% to 125 per week using any type of aircraft. Currently, Malaysian carriers operate 47 weekly flights to China which in turn flies 34 times a week into Malaysia. (BT)