KUALA LUMPUR (July 25): Based on corporate announcements and news flow today, companies that may be in focus on Friday (July 26) may include Genting Malaysia Bhd, Genting Bhd, Caring Pharmacy Group Bhd, British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd, Pavilion Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), Vitrox Corp Bhd, Hartalega Holdings Bhd, AirAsia Group Bhd and CapitaLand Malaysia Mall Trust (CMMT).

Genting Malaysia Bhd has settled its dispute with Fox Entertainment Group Llc, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp, FoxNext Llc, Twenty First Century Fox Inc (21st Century Fox) and Walt Disney Co (Disney) over the construction of an outdoor theme park.

It said all parties in the dispute have agreed to fully resolve their disputes and dismiss all claims between one another, pending legal action in the US District Court for the California Central District.

The parties signed a restated Memorandum of Agreement today which grants Genting Malaysia a license to use certain Fox intellectual properties.

Recall that in November 2018, Genting Malaysia had sued 21st Century Fox and its owner Walt Disney Co for pulling out of the outdoor theme park in Resorts World Genting.

Genting Bhd has a 47.08% stake in Genting Malaysia.

Caring Pharmacy Group Bhd posted an 11% drop in net profit to RM5.23 million in the fourth quarter ended May 31 from RM5.87 million a year ago, despite an 18.4% rise in revenue to RM153 million.

It announced a final single tier tax-exempt dividend of 6 sen per share which is subject to shareholders' approval at its annual general meeting.

In the fourth quarter, the group opened four complex outlets and three high street outlets, while at the same time closing down two complex outlets and one high street outlet. As at end May the group had a total of 125 community pharmacies.

For the full year, its cumulative net profit increased by some 12% y-o-y to RM20.73 million on the back of an 18% rise in revenue to RM599.23 million.

British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd (BAT Malaysia)’s net profit fell 32% to RM77.23 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2019, from RM113.72 million a year earlier, reflecting an overall decline in legal volumes as well as higher company expenses.

Revenue was also lower by 6% at RM640.81 million from RM679.15 million previously.

The group has declared a second interim dividend of 26 sen per share, compared with 35 sen a year ago.

For the first half of the year, net profit fell 21% to RM165.15 million from RM209.61 million while revenue fell 4% to RM1.26 billion versus RM1.32 billion previously.

Pavilion Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) registered a 0.8% increase in net property income (NPI) to RM91.35 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2019 (2QFY19), from RM90.62 million a year earlier, on the back of higher revenue.

It declared an interim income distribution of 4.4 sen per unit, payable on Aug 30.

For the cumulative six months ended June 30, 2019 (1HFY19), the REIT saw a 7.37% increase in NPI to RM192.86 million from RM179.63 million a year prior.

Lower demand in the semiconductor sector weighed on the performance of Vitrox Corp Bhd which posted a 12.41% year-on-year decline in net profit to RM24.4 million in the second quarter ended June.

It attributed its softer performance to a 33% decline in customer demand for its Machine Vision System.

Revenue declined 15% to RM89 million from RM105 million last year.

Its cumulative net profit for the six months was flat at RM48.03 million on the back of a nearly 3% dip in revenue to RM177.99 million.

Hartalega Holdings Bhd will set aside RM745 million for capital expenditure (capex) for the next three years, mainly for capacity expansion and technological advancement.

Of the total capex, RM630 million will be for plant expansions and RM115 million for investment into industrial 4.0 technologies.

The plant expansion plan will see Hartalega's annual gloves production capacity increase to 42 billion pieces in the next three years, from 34 billion pieces currently.

AirAsia Group Bhd has proposed a joint venture in Thailand for its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Teleport Everywhere Pte Ltd to provide logistics services to its associate companies Thai AirAsia Co Ltd and Thai AirAsia X Co Ltd.

AirAsia said Teleport plans to establish the joint venture with Triple i to integrate cargo capacity in Thailand for AirAsia Thailand and AirAsia X Thailand by Jan 1, 2020.

CapitaLand Malaysia Mall Trust (CMMT)’s net property income (NPI) fell 5.7% to RM50.33 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2019 (2QFY19) versus RM53.36 million a year earlier, on lower occupancy at The Mines and Sungei Wang properties.

Gross rental income also fell 3.5% during the quarter to RM66.05 million from RM68.41 million a year ago.

CMMT said NPI for Sungei Wang turned negative in 2Q mainly due to lower revenue and increase in operating expenses arising from branding and social media marketing costs for Jumpa (annexe block next to the mall).

For the first half, NPI also fell 6.6% to RM103.08 million compared with RM110.4 million in the previous year.

Nevertheless, the group proposed distribution per unit (DPU) of 3.22 sen, payable on Sept 3.