DANAVEST

LOCAL
(Biz Star) Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is looking to acquire another airline with its surplus cash. As at Dec 31, 2008, MAS had a cashpile of RM3.57bil. Managing director Datuk Seri Idris Jala said tough economic times presented opportunities for consolidation. Companies with huge financial muscle will have the flexibility to act should opportunities come knocking. Meanwhile, MAS confirmed that there were no more discussions with Qantas with respect to the maintenance, repair and overhaul joint venture since the memorandum of understanding expired recently. MAS adopts a competitive hedge policy, where it hedges its fuel requirement based on what its competitors are also doing. About 64% of its fuel requirement has been hedged at US$100 per barrel.

(Business Times) THE Securities Commission today charged in court two company directors for knowingly authorising the provision of a misleading statement by MEMS Technology Bhd (MEMS) to Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd (Bursa). Ooi Boon Leong, a substantial shareholder and director of MEMS was charged together with Ronnie Tan Yeow Teck, both 48, who was at the material time an executive director and chief financial officer of the company. Ooi and Tan were released on RM200,000 bail, with two sureties each, on condition their passports are surrendered to the court.

(The Edge) Since October last year, a total of 31,161 workers, including 7,952 foreign workers, have been retrenched as of Wednesday, said Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Maznah Mazlan. Among them, 6,921 local workers and 788 foreign workers were let go under a voluntary separation scheme. Apart from retrenchment, 30,152 workers, including 8,518 foreign workers, saw their salaries reduced while 9,511 workers, including 1,766 foreigners, were given a temporary layoff.

(Business Times) SIME Darby Healthcare and Hoan MY Medical Corp of Vietnam (HMC) plan to cooperate on healthcare services, particularly joint professional training and development in various medical disciplines, development of new techniques and projects as well as academic exchange.

(StarBiz) Infineon Technologies (Kulim) Sdn Bhd plans to spend another RM1.7bil for its facility in Kulim Hi-Tech Park (KHTP) once the economic crisis is over. The investment would be for the expansion of high volume production and research and development (R&D) activities, vice-president and managing director Tan Soo Hee told StarBiz. Instead of downsizing or implementing pay cuts, Tan said 300 to 400 of Infineon Technologies Kulim’s senior management, executives and engineers were supporting the group’s unpaid leave programme by taking three to five days of unpaid leave a month for three months.

(Business Times) SELANGOR State Investment Centre SSIC Bhd has published an investors’ directory to provide industrial and investment-related information and reference for investors, entrepreneurs and government departments in the state. SSIC Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Mhd Jabar Ahmad Kembali said the 572-page directory titled “Selangor Business, Trade and Industrial” was the second edition. The directory is priced at RM100 a copy. Only 3,000 copies are available.

(The Edge) Sales value of the manufacturing sector in February 2009 declined 26.1% or RM11.6 billion year-on-year to RM32.9 billion. For January 2009, the sales value has been revised to negative 29.1%, the Statistics Department said in a statement today. The department said on a monthly basis, sales value for February 2009 was down by RM738.9 million or 2.2% from RM33.7 billion recorded in the previous month.

(Business Times) THE SME Credit Bureau, formed by the Corporate Guarantee Corporation (CGC), will undertake ratings of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to help accelerate the sector’s growth. Its chairman, Datuk Wan Azhar Wan Ahmad said the bureau in providing financial institutions and other lenders with easy access to timely, accurate and reliable credit information on SMEs, would facilitate faster credit evaluations while speeding up financing activities.

(StarBiz) AirAsia affiliate Tune Hotels.com has launched its fifth and biggest Tune Hotel in Penang. The new budget hotel consists of 258 rooms, bringing the total guest capacity of Tune Hotels in the country to 58,310 per month, according to Tune Hotels.com chairman Datuk Seri Kalimullah Hassan.

(StarBiz) TELEKOM Malaysia Bhd (TM) has unveiled its RM10 Voice package, an all-in-one call plan exclusively for Streamyx subscribers. The plan is a value-added feature to all Streamyx packages, and is available to all new and existing residential Streamyx customers nationwide, TM said in a statement today. Subscribers for the plan will be able to make free and unlimited local and national calls to other TM fixed lines while calls to any mobile numbers or other fixed lines will be charged at a flat rate of 30 sen per minute.

REGIONAL
(Yahoo! Finance) IBM is no longer interested in buying smaller rival Sun Microsystems Inc at any price, due to concerns that such a deal would draw intense regulatory scrutiny, CNBC reported on Thursday. Citing sources close to Sun, CNBC said the high-end computer maker had approached International Business Machines Corp earlier this week to ask it to return to the negotiating table, indicating that Sun would be flexible about price.

(Bloomberg) General Growth Properties Inc. filed the biggest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history after amassing $27 billion in debt during an acquisition spree that turned it into the second-largest shopping mall owner. The owner of Boston’s Faneuil Hall and the South Street Seaport in New York City ended a seven-month effort today to refinance its debt. The company listed $29.5 billion in assets and debts of about $27.3 billion in the Chapter 11 filing. General Growth will continue operating its more than 200 properties.

(Reuters) American International Group Inc (AIG.N) is expected to announce the sale of its U.S. auto insurance unit to Zurich Financial Services AG (ZURN.VX) later on Thursday, a source familiar with the deal said. The price of the AIG unit is expected to be between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, but closer to the higher end of the range, the source said. AIG declined to comment.

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