Business

Wednesday June 24, 2009

EON Cap shares declines on fresh capital worries


Delay in raising fund may affect transformation process

PETALING JAYA: Shares in EON Capital Bhd fell 2.5% yesterday from a one-year high on worries that further delay over plans to raise fresh capital would push back expected positive results from its ongoing business transformation.

The stock dropped 12 sen to RM4.70 yesterday with 1.12 million shares changing hands.

EON Cap said on Monday that Bank Negara had rejected its plan to sell 58.7 million new warrants for RM29.5mil to shareholder Primus Pacific Partners 1 LP via a letter dated June 18.

“The latest development reinforces our earlier concern that EON Cap’s fragmented shareholding structure could be a hindrance to the banking group’s decision making process,’’ AmResearch said in an update yesterday.

“Until shareholders and management reach an agreement on EON Cap’s capital raising plans, we believe this issue would set back management’s transformation plans,’’ it said.

“We have no comment whatsoever,’’ said a Primus official yesterday.

No reason for the rejection was given, and Primus had said that it would make an appeal against the Bank Negara’s decision.

Assuming full conversion of the warrants, Primus’ stake in EON Cap will go from 20.2% to 26.4% – exceeding the 20% cap under the Bafia Act – unless exemption were given by Bank Negara.

At the same time, Primus’ entry cost into EON Cap would be reduced from RM9.55 per share to RM8.65.

“We believed that EON Cap’s ample scope and ability to raise capital via capital securities may have been one of the factors,’’ for Bank Negara’s decision, OSK Research said.

OSK said EON Cap’s current capital ratios are relatively strong by industry standard, and nearly 100% of the group’s core capital base was in the form of “permanent” equity.

This, OSK opined, would provide EON Cap with ample room to raise an additional RM1.5bil in Tier-1 capital securities if needed.

The firm said any potential rights issue was “unlikely” as not all parties might be comfortable with the potentially steep dilution, but also any equity raising exercise would further depress EON Cap’s current sub-par return-on-equity of less than 8%.

Meanwhile, HwangDBS Vickers Research said EON Cap had budgeted RM100mil over three years for capital expenditure, including on management information system, to drive accountability and profitability by divisions.

Other initiatives include widening its Internet banking reach, beefing up treasury activities and tie-ups in its insurance arm.

“We expect the transformation progress to bear fruit over the medium and longer term,’’ it said.

The firm expects EON Cap to post a 58% improvement in net profit in the year ending Dec 31, 2009, driven by stable operating income and significatly lower loan loss provisions due to the lack of “kitchen sinking’’ activity this year.


EONCAP : [Stock Watch] [News]


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