Business

Wednesday September 2, 2009

Petronas bullish about popularity of new Primax 95 fuel


PDagangan sees 90% sales coming from Primax 95

KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas Dagangan Bhd, the domestic retail arm of Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), expects 90% of its petrol sales to come from its new Primax 95 fuel, said retail business senior general manager Mohd Fazlan Abdul Samad.

“Currently, Primax 95 accounts for about 80% of petrol sales,” he said after the launch of Petronas CIMB Islamic MasterCard and Petronas Maybank Islamic Ikhwan Visa yesterday.

Primax 95, Petronas’ new petrol with a Research Octane Number (RON) of 95, replaced the RON 92 fuel effective yesterday.

Meanwhile, Petronas Dagangan expects a double-digit growth in its credit card sales next year.

Petronas Dagangan MD and CEO Mohd Sabarudin Mohd Amin, flanked by CIMB Islamic Banking CEO Badlisyah Abdul Ghani (left) and Maybank Islamic acting CEO Ibrahim Hassan, at the launch of Petronas CIMB Mastercard and Maybank Islamic Visa in Kuala Lumpur.

“Currently, credit card usage (for petrol purchases) contributes to 30% of the company’s sales,” Fazlan said.

Petronas currently has a retail network of more than 920 stations nationwide. Its retail convenience store Kedai Mesra is available at more than 570 stations and boasts the largest number of automated teller machines within the petro mart industry in the country.

Meanwhile, CIMB Bank and Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) expect to issue 100,000 cards each this year with the launch of the new Islamic credit cards. The conventional version of the co-branded cards was launched last January.

“We have issued 350,000 of the conventional cards in one year; 100,000 is a conservative target,” said Maybank head of cards and payment consumer banking Ashraf Ali Abdul Kadir, adding that there was huge potential in the Islamic credit card industry with only 700,000 of such cards issued so far.

Currently, there are 600,000 cardholders for the conventional version of the cards.

Ashraf said the Islamic credit cards, which had no annual fee, offered attractive rebates and reward programmes.

In addition, card holders of Petronas CIMB Islamic MasterCard will get 2% rebate on every RM1 spent at any Petronas station nationwide while Petronas Maybank Islamic Ikhwan Visa card holders will get five times Maybank TreatPoints on every RM1 spent at the station.

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