EVENING 5: Iris says NIISe contract terminated

The Edge TV

In today’s edition of Evening 5 — Putrajaya cancels Iris Corp’s NIISe contract, Sime Darby seeks to acquire Australia's Cavpower Group for A$500 million cash, and  Berjaya Food sees its 4QFY2023 net profit more than halve.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:04 Iris Corp said the Ministry of Home Affairs has cancelled its contract for the National

00:09 Integrated Immigration System or NIISE. Its subsidiary, Iris Information Technology Systems,

00:16 was previously appointed as the developer of the new immigration system, which is aimed at

00:21 replacing the current one that has been utilised by the Immigration Department for over 20 years.

00:27 According to its boss filing, the unit received a notice of termination which was dated August 10

00:33 and effective immediately. It said it is seeking legal advice and looking at taking the necessary

00:39 actions to protect its interests in relation to the contract. According to Iris, the termination

00:45 of the job is expected to have an impact on the group's financial performance for FY 2024,

00:51 though the extent of the impact cannot be ascertained at this juncture.

00:55 In May, Home Minister Datuk Sri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said should Iris be found

01:01 to be unable to implement the project, the government would appoint another contractor.

01:06 Saim Darby will acquire Kevpow Group, a distributor of cat equipment in South

01:16 Australia and Broken Hill in New South Wales, Australia, for A$500 million or

01:22 A$1.49 billion cash. In a boss filing today, the conglomerate said its subsidiary,

01:28 Saim Darby Industrial Machinery Australasia, entered into a share sale agreement to acquire

01:34 the entire share capital of Cuxton and 98.9% share capital of Kagera. Kagera is the holding

01:42 company of a group of companies that operate Kevpow Group, while Cuxton holds a 1.1% stake

01:48 in Kagera. The A$500 million consideration is the agreed enterprise value. Saim Darby Group CEO

01:56 Datuk Jeffrey Salim Davidson said the acquisition complements its existing portfolio and provides

02:02 geographic expansion to position its industrial division in high-growth infrastructure and

02:08 commodity areas of the Australian market. The group plans to leverage the successful

02:13 management performance of Kevpow and the cat brand across the growing resources,

02:19 infrastructure and energy sectors. The deal is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks.

02:25 Berjaya Food had a challenging fourth quarter FY2023 due to lower sales and margin compression

02:37 arising from inflationary pressures and the unfavourable foreign exchange rate against

02:42 the US dollar. Earnings more than halved to RM17.3 million while revenue dropped some 7%

02:49 to RM271.75 million. Full-year net profit fell 17% to RM103.4 million despite a 12% increase in

02:59 revenue to RM1.12 billion. It declared a fourth interim dividend of 0.5 cent a share. Separately,

03:07 Berjaya Food via its subsidiary Berjaya Food International has signed a master franchise

03:14 agreement to open South Korean bakery Paris Baguette in the Philippines. The deal was inked

03:19 between Berjaya Food's unit, Middle Trade Inc and Singapore's Paris Baguette with the first

03:25 store slated to open in the fourth quarter of this year. Berjaya Food International and Middle

03:30 Trade will be the principal operators of the Paris Baguette stores under Paris Baguette Philippines.

03:36 The partnership targets to spread the brand's presence with more stores in key cities across

03:41 the Philippines. Berjaya Food Group CEO Dato' Sidney Keyes noted that this development came

03:48 more than six months after a successful expansion in Malaysia, a feat which the group hopes will be

03:53 replicated in the Philippines. Maxis is launching a new range of plans with 5G services starting

04:05 tomorrow following the execution of the access agreement it inked with DNB to subscribe for the

04:11 latter's 5G network on a wholesale basis. Maxis said the upgraded plans come with more than double

04:18 the data for both 4G and 5G and additional bonus data for 5G. Its chief executive officer,

04:25 Goh Siao-Ing said the plans are designed to meet the increasing digital needs of both consumers

04:31 and businesses, especially for video content consumption and productivity tools. It is

04:37 bringing the 5G plans to its customers after getting the approval of its shareholders at

04:42 the Extraordinary General Meeting today and the subsequent signing of the access agreement with

04:47 DNB. He said the plans offer attractive value for all segments with a focus on affordability

04:53 and adoption so that everyone can enjoy the benefits of 5G.

04:57 [Music]

05:02 Former Bank Negara Governor Tan Sri Dr Zatyakta Aziz said Datuk Srinajib Razak did not ask the

05:08 Central Bank about the source of funds that had entered into his account, which turned out to be

05:14 RM3.2 billion instead of RM2.6 billion following the M-Bank raid by a joint task force set up to

05:20 probe the 1MDB scandal. During examination in chief by Deputy Public Prosecutor Thamal Baharin

05:27 Omar, Zaty also denied that the Central Bank had known as early as 2013 that large amounts of money

05:33 had made its way into the then Prime Minister's accounts. Zaty testified that the money being

05:38 moved into Najib's accounts seemed to have been disguised or hidden by M-Bank, which failed to

05:44 report the suspicious transaction. On the funds received by her husband's asset management firm

05:49 in Singapore that allegedly came from 1MDB, Zaty said Datuk Taufik Ayman had himself alerted

05:56 Singaporean authorities about the US$15.4 million or RM71 million held by the firm.

06:03 She said her husband had written a letter to say that the money is concerned could be of

06:07 dubious nature and ought to be returned to the investors or the country of origin.

06:13 [Music]

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