Media Highlights : Bursa, Thai bourse to start cross-trades by year-end, Khazanah portfolio value surges, Bids for Pos stake selloff, Proton to seal £480m Lotus funding soon, KPJ unit to acquire medical centres in Sibu, PBA to cooperate with Indonesian water body, ...

Bursa, Thai bourse to start cross-trades by year-end
Malaysia and Thailand will start cross-trading of shares by year-end as part of a plan to make Southeast Asian markets more accessible and spur trading, Bursa Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Yusli Mohamed Yusoff said. Singapore, followed by the Philippines, will be next to join the drive to link the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Yusli said yesterday. The bourses aim to promote investment in a region with "one of the highest savings rates in the world", Veerathai Santiprabhob, Stock Exchange of Thailand's chief strategy officer, said by phone. (Business Times)

Khazanah portfolio value surges
Khazanah Nasional's investment portfolio value rose to a record high of nearly RM113bn last year, helped by rising asset values and stable and careful debt-positioning. Khazanah Nasional saw the value of its investment portfolio rising by about RM21bn to an all-time high of nearly RM113bn last year, helped by rising asset values and stable and careful debt-positioning. The government's investment arm will remain cautious in its investments in 2011. Its realised asset value (RAV) grew by 23.5% year-on-year to RM112.6bn for 2010 while RAV less total liabilities stood at RM75bn. Khazanah invested almost as much as it earned in 2010, with a total of RM6.5bn investment in 12 transactions and RM6.2bn realised through the divestment of its holdings through seven transactions. It made gains of about RM3.5bn through its divestment activities last year. (Business Times)

Bids for Pos stake selloff
Khazanah Nasional will call for bids to buy its stake in Pos Malaysia this week, as part of what it calls the second stage of its divestment plan of the postal firm. Khazanah owns 32.2% of Pos Malaysia. Its managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar said the first stage of the divestment plan was about ironing out regulatory issues such as the postage stamp hike and salary of postmen that were necessary to start the bidding process. Khazanah is giving bidders about a month to get back to it with proposals. "The next milestone would be the Postal Bill. Hopefully it will go through in the next Dewan Rakyat sitting," Azman said. (Business Times)

Proton to seal £480m Lotus funding soon
Proton Holdings will finalise plans to raise as much as £480m (RM2.34bn) to fund the turnaround plan for its unit Group Lotus plc in as early as February. The funds will mainly come from loans and the rest will be from Proton's additional investments and revenue from Group Lotus, a sports carmaker based in Norwich, the UK. It is understood that CIMB Group Holdings Bhd's chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Seri Nazir Razak met with Proton's board of directors at Group Lotus headquarters in Hethel, Norwich, although it is unclear what was discussed. Under its five-year turnaround plan, Group Lotus plans to more than double its production to some 8,000 cars a year after 2014 by launching five new models. Proton also expects Group Lotus to be profitable and contributing a significant chunk to its net profit by the end of 2014. (Business Times)

KPJ unit to acquire medical centres in Sibu
KPJ Healthcare‘s wholly-owned Kumpulan Perubatan (Johor) SB (KPJSB) is buying a 100% stake in Sibu Medical Centre Corp SB (SMCC) and Sibu Geriatric Health & Nursing Centre SB (SGHNC). KPJSB will pay RM26.9m for SMCC and RM1.24m for SGHNC. (BT) Please see accompanying report

PBA to cooperate with Indonesian water body
PBA Holdings’ wholly-owned subsidiary, PBA Resources SB (PBAR), and Persatuan Perusahaan Air Minum Seluruh Indonesia PERPAMSI) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to cooperate in educational and training programmes related to water services industry. Under the proposed cooperation, which is for two years, PERPAMSI will organise, promote and market the Water Management Certified Programme on behalf of PBAR to the relevant parties within the industry in Indonesia. (Business Times)

Puncak seeks clarification from Selangor
Puncak Niaga Holdings (PNHB) is seeking clarification from the Selangor government on certain terms with regard to the latter’s offer for its water assets. Its wholly owned subsidiary, Puncak Niaga (M) SB (PNSB) and 70%-owned unit, Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor SB (Syabas) have yet to receive any confirmation and/or clarification from the Menteri Besar Selangor (Incorporated) (MBI) on certain terms of the offer documents received by both companies on 7 Jan. (FinancialDaily)

KNM gets 4-year loan extension
KNM Group has received another four years’ extension until 21 Feb 2015 for its term loan facility secured from Malayan Banking (Maybank). The loan’s principal balance outstanding as at 7 Jan 2011 was at RM351.33m. The term loan was for the purpose of refinancing the bridging loan that was secured for the high-profile acquisition of German-based Borsig BmbH, which was completed on 6 June, 2008. (FinancialDaily)

Dayang fixes rights issue at RM1.10
Dayang Enterprise Holdings (DEBH) has fixed the issue price for its rights shares at RM1.10 per rights share,, which is a 63% discount to its closing price of RM2.97 yesterday. The issue price represents about 49.21% discount to the theoretical ex-all price of RM2.1656 per Dayang share. (FinancialDaily)