Bursa Malaysia Stock Price Target: 02/16/14

Three research houses have maintained their 'buy' call on Bumi Armada Bhd due to its exciting start to the year, underlined by additional contributions from the Kraken floating production,
storage and offloading (FPSO) project, new offshore support vessels and progressive billings of its transportation and installation ventures.

Hwang DBS Vickers Research in its note said despite the company's disappointing fourth quarter financial year 2013 results, the earnings should normalise with the Kraken FPSO project, for a bigger impact starting from the first quarter of financial year 2014.

The international offshore oilfield services provider for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2013 posted a lower pre-tax profit of RM87.401 million.

This is against the RM135.754 million in the same period a year ago, while recording higher revenue of RM556.714 million compared to RM477.768 million previously.

Hwang DBS Vickers also highlighted Bumi Armada's RM1.3 billion contract for the continued deployment of its Armada Perdana FPSO at the Oyo field, offshore Nigeria, for seven years from January 14.

Meanwhile, Alliance Research said Bumi Armada's earnings would also come from the Madura contract or even a contract from Angola, both of which the group has been quite positive on securing.

AmResearch, meanwhile, said the group's order book, including
options, had surged by 74 per cent from RM12.7 billion to RM22.1 billion, of which 60 per cent, are firm commitments.

Hwang DBS Vickers Research, Alliance Research and AmResearch maintained their 'buy' call on Bumi Armada with target prices of RM4.50, RM4.43 and RM5.15 respectively.-- Bernama

February 19, 2014

AMMB - Cost initiatives to gradually improve its CI ratio

Stock Name: AMBANK
Company Name: AMMB HOLDINGS BHD

Research House: MIDF

Price Call: HOLD

Target Price: 8.00

CIMB - Challenging operating conditions likely to continue into FY14.

Stock Name: CIMB
Company Name: CIMB GROUP HOLDINGS BERHAD

Research House: MIDF

Price Call: HOLD

Target Price: 8.10

Hartalega - H1N1 effect this quarter

Stock Name: HARTA
Company Name: HARTALEGA HOLDINGS BHD

Research House: MIDF

Price Call: HOLD

Target Price: 7.69

MAS - Continued loss as yield compressed further

Stock Name: MAS
Company Name: MALAYSIAN AIRLINE SYSTEM BHD

Research House: MIDF

Price Call: SELL

Target Price: 0.27

February 18, 2014

AMMB shares up on favourable Q3 results

Stock Name: AMBANK
Company Name: AMMB HOLDINGS BHD

Research House: ALLIANCE

Price Call: HOLD

Target Price: 7.84

AMMB Holdings Bhd's shares rose five sen in the morning session today, following the company's favourable third quarter
performance.

As at 10.38am, the share price stood at RM7.36, after opening at RM7.29, with 400,000 shares transacted.

Research houses are in consensus that AMMB's results were within their expectation, with Alliance Research, RHB Research and HwangDBS Vickers saying the nine-month net earnings made up 74 per cent of their financial year 2014 estimation.

Alliance Research said AMMB's earnings growth has mainly been driven by strong non-interest income and low loan loss provision.

"Nevertheless, loans growth for the period remains sluggish," it said in a research note today.

RHB Research in a separate note said although AMMB's results were within expectation, they were a mixed bag.

It said non-interest income stayed healthy, up seven per cent
quarter-on-quarter and 21 per cent year-on-year, and the overhead drop of four to five per cent quarter-on-quarter was evident.

"However, a jump in impaired hire purchase loans (25 per cent
quarter-on-quarter and 36 per cent year-on-year) may raise concerns on its asset quality and dampen sentiment in the near term," it said.

Meanwhile, HwangDBS Vickers Research in another note said the asset quality blip in AMMB hire purchase portfolio is not alarming but would still be monitored.

It said AMMB's loan loss coverage ratio remained one of the highest in the industry at 119 per cent and its collective allowance of 2.2 per cent should be sufficient to buffer asset quality stress.

The research house said AMMB's 40 per cent dividend payout assumption is still on track and it expects the bank's financial year 2014 net profit to grow 10 per cent, the lower end of AMMB management's 10-12 per cent target.

Alliance Research and RHB Research have maintained a 'neutral' view on AMMB while HwangDBS Vickers has kept a 'hold' call on the financial institution.

Alliance Research and HwangDBS Vickers' target price remained at RM7.84 and RM7.50 respectively, while RHB Research's fair value was pegged at RM8.35.-- Bernama

AMMB - Uptick in impaired HP loans early signs of stress in asset quality

Stock Name: AMBANK
Company Name: AMMB HOLDINGS BHD

Research House: MIDF

Price Call: BUY

Target Price: 8.00

Takaful - Strong double-digit growth yet again

Stock Name: TAKAFUL
Company Name: SYARIKAT TAKAFUL MALAYSIA BHD

Research House: MIDF

Price Call: BUY

Target Price: 11.42

SKPRES - Reduction in Sales Orders

Stock Name: SKPRES
Company Name: SKP RESOURCES BHD

Research House: TA

Price Call: BUY

Target Price: 0.49

February 17, 2014

Puncak Niaga - Bunus Job

Stock Name: PUNCAK
Company Name: PUNCAK NIAGA HOLDINGS BHD

Research House: MIDF

Price Call: BUY

Target Price: 4.04

LBS - Thumbs Up on Landbank Acquisition in Johor

Stock Name: LBS
Company Name: LBS BINA GROUP BHD

Research House: JF APEX

Price Call: BUY

Target Price: 2.32

Perisai Petroleum Teknologi Bhd - 10% Private Placement to Fund Rigs/MOPU

Stock Name: PERISAI
Company Name: PERISAI PETROLEUM TEKNOLOGI

Research House: TA

Price Call: BUY

Target Price: 2.02