Stock Name: TIMECOMCompany Name: TIME DOTCOM BHDResearch House: HLG | Price Call: BUY | Target Price: 4.66 |
KUALA LUMPUR: Time dotCom Bhd, a Malaysian Internet and payphone services operator, jumped the most in more than three years after proposing to distribute shares of DiGi.Com Bhd. valued at RM665.5 million (US$218 million) to shareholders as part of a dividend stock plan.
The stock surged 14 per cent to RM4 at 11:28 a.m. local time in Kuala Lumpur trading, poised for its steepest increase since April 10, 2009. It was the biggest gain on the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Top 100 Index, which added 0.6 per cent.
Time dotCom, which owns 275 million shares or a 3.5 per cent stake in DiGi, plans to distribute up to 137.5 million DiGi shares to shareholders as a dividend-in-specie, according to the statement. DiGi is Malaysia's third-largest mobile-phone operator by market value.
"It is just a matter of time before Time dotCom starts to reward its shareholders as we expect it to generate steady operating cash flow and become more self-sustaining," Low Yee Huap, an analyst at Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd, wrote in a report today. The proposal will "yield a massive 33.2 per cent return assuming one-time distribution." Low kept his buy call with a price estimate of RM4.66.
Shareholders will be awarded six DiGi shares for every 25 shares held, the company said. Time dotCom, based in Shah Alam in central Selangor state, operates a 9,000 kilometre fibre optics network traversing from Thailand to Singapore, according to its website. -- Bloomberg