MY Morning Wrap | Ace Market-Bound Minox's IPO Oversubscribed by 143.76 Times

Stocks rallied to end the week on a high note after investors warmed to an unexpectedly robust U.S. jobs report. The $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ rose 1.2%, the $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ added 0.9%, and the $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ was 1.6% higher.

$TOPGLOV (7113.MY)$ : Top Glove Corp Bhd, which posted its first-ever annual loss of RM926.64 million in the financial year ended Aug 31, 2023 (FY2023), is expecting to turn around its business in the next six to 12 months. Meanwhile, the group is not expecting anymore impairments to be made in the near future as it expects the recovery for glove demand to pick up, while the group should have better cost efficiency after it streamlined its production facilities. The impairments and write-off of assets widened the group’s net loss to RM463.15 million for the fourth quarter ended Aug 31, 2023 (4QFY2023) — its largest ever quarterly net loss — from RM62.99 million in 4QFY2022.

$UMW (4588.MY)$ : UMW Holdings Bhd is disposing of a 26% stake in an industrial equipment (IE) arm to Toyota Industries Corp (TICO) for RM260 million, as part of an agreement to collaborate in the IE business in Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and China. UMW’s unit UMW Equipment Division Sdn Bhd is disposing of the stake in UMW Toyota Material Handling Sdn Bhd (UTMH) to TICO, leaving it with a 74% stake. UTMH is the special purpose vehicle for the collaboration, with six IE business units parked under the company as part of an internal sales arrangement. The disposal of the UTMH stake to TICO is expected to result in a gain on disposal of around RM85.5 million or 7.32 sen per share. UTMH's original cost of investments in the unit was RM643.08 million. It expects the transaction to be completed by end-2023.

$KOSSAN (7153.MY)$ : Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd’s founding Lim family appeared to have sold some of their direct shareholdings in the listed entity to one of the glove-making group’s executive director Tan Kong Chang. This development comes after Kossan Holdings (M) Sdn Bhd, the largest shareholder of Kossan, distributed its 14.35% stake in the publicly-listed glove manufacturing company to founding family members, including founder Tan Sri Lim Kuang Sia and three of his siblings, Lim Leng Bung, Lim Kuang Wang and Lim Kuang Yong.

$NOVAMSC (0026.MY)$ : Nova MSC Bhd plans to undertake a private placement exercise of 10% of its share base to raise up to RM23.81 million for its working capital as well as for its web-based platform Vesalius, which helps healthcare groups implement a centralised system across multiple hospitals, to develop a healthcare solution. The proceeds to be raised are based on an indicative issue price at 9.5 sen per share. The actual issue price will be fixed and announced later. It intends to issue up to 250.66 million shares to third-party investors to be identified at a later stage.

$WAJA (0102.MY)$ : Waja Konsortium Bhd has proposed to undertake a private placement of up to 30% of its issued shares to raise up to RM31.67 million, mainly to fund its construction business and working capital requirement. It said the private placement exercise entails the issuance of up to 395.9 million shares to independent third-party investors to be identified later, at an issue price to be fixed later. The expected proceeds of RM31.67 million is based on an illustrative issue price of eight sen per placement share.