Financial Highlights : US stocks rally on optimism Greece will avoid debt default, Petronas Chemicals to go ahead with USD1.5bn Sabah urea project, EON Bank transfers operations to HLB, Bumi Armada tendering for 6 jobs worth USD300m to USD500m each, Hibiscus Petroleum to raise RM150m to RM300m....

US stocks rally on optimism Greece will avoid debt default
US stocks rallied, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its biggest four-day gain since September, amid increased optimism Greece will avoid default and after American business activity improved. Industrial, energy and technology companies led gains in the S&P 500, rising at least 1.4%, as investors bought stocks tied to economic growth. Caterpillar Inc., United Technologies Corp. and 3M Co. climbed at least 1.8% to help the Dow Jones Industrial Average erase its quarterly loss. Hewlett-Packard Co. added 2.4% after a report that private-equity firms want the computer maker to split up. The S&P 500 advanced 1% to 1,320.64 at 4pm in New York, rising 4.1% in four days. The Dow average gained 152.92 points, or 1.3%, to 12,414.34 yesterday. (Bloomberg)


Petronas Chemicals to go ahead with USD1.5bn Sabah urea project
Petronas Chemicals Bhd will go ahead with its USD1.5bn Sabah ammonia urea project which will have urea capacity of 1.2m tonnes per annum. It said on Thursday, 30 June the plant would be built on 166 acres in the Sipitang industrial park in Sabah. The RM1.5bn development cost would be financed from internal cash reserves and external borrowings. Petronas Chemicals said a special purpose vehicle would undertake the project and work is expected to start in the second quarter of 2012 and commissioning in 2015. It said the new plant supported its strategy to expand its production capacity and would provide it opportunities to further capitalise on its strengths and marketing position in Asia Pacific. (Financial Daily)


EON Bank transfers operations to HLB
The entire business of EON Bank Bhd, including all its assets and liabilities, has been successfully transferred to Hong Leong Bank Bhd (HLB) effective today. This is in accordance with an order granted by the High Court on 17 June, thus completing a major milestone in the banking merger. HLBB said in a statement that customers and business associates could expect business to continue as usual at the bank without any interruption in service. All contracts entered with EON Bank before the effective date of the Vesting Order of 1 July would be vested into HLB. They remain in effect and under the same terms and conditions as mutually agreed by the contracting parties when they entered into the contract originally. (StarBiz)


Bumi Armada tendering for 6 jobs worth USD300m to USD500m each
Main Board-bound Bumi Armada Bhd is tendering for six floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) jobs worth between USD300m and USD500m each. Its chief executive officer Hassan Basma said on Thursday, 30 June the company had an orderbook of RM5.8bn as at 1 June, with optional extension periods valued at RM2.5 bn. He said this excluded revenues from its LOA with Apache for the Armada Prima FPSO and its second letter of award with ONGC for the D-1 Field FPSO. Hassan was speaking to reporters at the launch of the prospectus. The company plans to raise between RM1.9bn and RM2bn from its initial public offering exercise. Hassan said of the IPO proceeds, about RM592m would be for capital expenditure. (Financial Daily)


Hibiscus Petroleum to raise RM150m to RM300m
Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd plans to raise between RM150m and RM300m from its proposed listing on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia. The special purpose acquisition company, which launched its prospectus yesterday, said that so far it had raised more than RM150m from selected investors under the private placement exercise. The initial public offering involves the public issue of new shares which are placed out to selected investors and for applications by the Malaysian public. This is on the basis of one free detachable warrant (Warrant-A) for every one share subscribed at an issue price of 75 sen per share. The listing exercise comprises of an issue of between 190m and up to 390m new shares together with between 190m and up to 390m Warrants-A by way of private placement to selected investors. There will also be an issue of 10.0m new ordinary shares together with 10m Warrants-A, to be allocated via balloting, to the public. (Financial Daily)


Eversendai posts Q1 net profit of RM22.6m
Construction outfit Eversendai Corp, en route for listing on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia today, posted a net profit of RM22.56m on revenue of RM207.85m for the first quarter ended 31 March, largely due to contribution from the company's projects in the Middle East. The company, through an initial public offering (IPO) exercise carried out recently, raised RM270m via a 30% stake sale. The share price for the retail portion of the IPO exercise was fixed at RM1.62 per share and institutional price at RM1.70 per share. (StarBiz)