Sabah & Sarawak
Wide range of development projects planned for Labuan
Labuan is set to transform itself into a vibrant, duty-free island destination, with sustainable and people-oriented development projects planned for implementation within a five-year period. Labuan Member of Parliament Datuk Rozman Isli said the island is potentially capable of achieving its development agenda, supported by the economic oil and gas (O&G) and financial sectors.
Perdana Petroleum’s sturdy order book to sustain earnings
Perdana Petroleum Bhd’s (Perdana Petroleum) strong order book of approximately RM1.1 billion is poised to sustain the company’s earnings for the next few years.
The research arm of MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd (MIDF Research) yesterday said the company’s fundamentals remain intact supported by long-term charter contracts extending up to 2019. Perdana Petroleum’s charter contracts consist mainly production assets or brownfield oil and gas assets in Malaysia.
TAS Offshore’s near term prospects on upbeat mode
TAS Offshore Bhd’s (TAS Offshore) earnings prospect for the near term remains intact. RHB Research Sdn Bhd (RHB Research) on Wednesday remained upbeat on TAS’ recent sale of vessels to one of its new customers in the Middle East while contribution for the contract would sustain the earnings for the company over the next two years.TAS Offshore’s near term prospects on upbeat mode
MASwings aims for higher passenger load factor
MASwings Sdn Bhd (MASwings) expects to increase its passengers load factor to 70 per cent by carrying more passengers this year. MASwings chief commercial officer Shauqi Ahmad on Thursday revealed that the regional airline operating Sabah and Sarawak routes is targeting an increase of more than 10 per cent in passengers volume to achieve the goal.
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National
Malaysia’s sovereign fiscal consolidation trend intact after budget revision: Moody’s
The recent revision of Malaysia’s Budget 2015 leaves its sovereign fiscal consolidation trend intact, according to Moody’s. De Guzman said many of the adjustments focused on cuts to operating expenditure, which demonstrated the government’s commitment to meeting its fiscal rules and fiscal consolidation trend.
ARC assigns ‘A’ rating to Malaysia
ARC Ratings SA (ARC), a global rating agency, has assigned a long-term foreign currency issuer rating of ‘A’ to the Malaysian government. The agency also assigned a long-term local currency issuer rating of ‘A+’ to Malaysia. Malaysia’s ratings carry stable outlooks, and take into consideration our expectations that the external current account surplus will widen over the medium term and debt metrics will secularly improve.
Malaysia well positioned to grow in medical tourism, medical devices
Malaysia is well positioned to tap into growing healthcare expenditure which could exceed US$20 billion by the year 2025, says Frost & Sullivan, growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11 per cent within the nest five years. While Government spending will focus on development of public healthcare infrastructure and chronic and infectious diseases control and treatment, private healthcare spending will drive much of this growth, it said in a statement Monday.
Malaysia’s regulatory framework, corporate governance excellent — Study
Malaysia has an excellent regulatory framework and corporate governance, said a corporate governance report. BPA Australasia director, Chris Bennett, said Malaysia’s battle, however, would be the misperception of its practices.”The regulators must keep on doing what they are doing. People in general agree that Malaysia has already an excellent regulatory framework. “There is no need for Malaysia to feel that it is not meeting the standard, because it does,” Bennett told reporters on Tuesday.
OPR within analysts’ expectations, rate expected to stay put till end of the year
The Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) being kept at 3.25 per cent by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was well within analysts’ expectations who further believed Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) will maintain said rate until the end of the year. To note, BNM on Wednesday has kept the OPR at 3.25 per cent since September 2014. It previously raised the OPR by 25 basis points in July last year.
AMMB unchanged pending further updates
With changes at the helm imminent for AMMB Holdings Bhd (AMMB), analysts at AllianceDBS Research Sdn Bhd (AllianceDBS) see not much changes for the group at the moment pending possible updates from the boardroom. On Thursday, AMMB officially announced that its group managing director Ashok Ramamurthy will be stepping down citing family reasons as well as to resume his career in a senior executive role at ANZ. The Board is in the process of identifying a replacement.