TA Enterprise : We are not selling our stockbroking arm

TA Enterprise Bhd has denied talks that it is selling off its stockbroking arm.

Its managing director and chief executive officer Datin Alicia Tiah had on Friday dismissed rumours that it is selling its stockbroking business.

"That is stale news... We have already clarified to Bursa Malaysia that the news reported by a news portal is not true," she said.

Commenting on the active trades in TA shares, she said it was because people finally realised that it was deeply undervalued.

TA Enterprise 2Q soars 382% yoy to RM32m

TA Enterprise Bhd posted a net profit of RM31.9 million for the second quarter to end-July 2013, up 382% year-on-year.

But its quarterly revenue rose marginally to RM188.5 million, from RM176.9 million a year ago.

For the six months to July 2013, accumulated profits totalled RM65.8 million, compared to RM27.1 million in the first half of the previous year. Revenue was up at RM369.4 million, compared to RM353.2 million.

“The increase in revenue was mainly attributable to higher contribution from the broking segment, hotel operations and property development segment,” said TA Enterprise in its filing with Bursa.

Despite higher foreign exchange translation loss, it enjoyed higher profit before tax due to the absence of impairment loss on financial receivables, and higher contribution from its investment portfolio, said the company.

Major shareholder Tiah continues to buy TA shares

TA Enterprise Bhd announced that its substantial shareholder Datuk Tiah Thee Kian had bought a total of three million shares in TA today and the past two trading days.

It said Tiah now holds a 29.73% stake in the company after purchasing 1.269 million shares at 76 sen per unit today, 731,000 shares at 73 sen last Friday and one million shares at 73 sen on Thursday.

TA, which was traded actively with transactions of some 23 million shares today, closed at 77 sen, up 3 sen or 4%, after hitting a high of 78 sen.

Since early this year, Tiah has been buying TA shares from around 50 sen per unit.

TA share price has started to pick up from 58 sen since early September following speculations that it was a takeover target of other major stockbroking firms.

The net asset per share of TA stood at RM1.75 as at end-July 2013, according to the company.