News on Zelan from Bloomberg
http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIM...icle/index_htmlZELAN Bhd, a Malaysian builder, fell to the lowest in more than five years after the company reported a loss in the fiscal third quarter as costs exceeded its budget for contracts in the Middle East.
Shares of the company dropped 3.8 per cent to 76.5 sen at 12:30 pm, set for the lowest since September 23, 2003. It’s also the worst performer on the benchmark Composite Index.
The losses “came in as a massive surprise against both consensus and our” earnings estimates, AmResearch Sdn Bhd said in a report today. “The operating environment remains challenging amid intensifying competition.”
Zelan joins Malaysian contractors such as LCL Corp and WCT Bhd, which suffered losses after their jobs in the Middle East were hurt by rising costs of building materials and delays. They were among a slew of companies which ventured there to tap a building boom before the global recession set in.
Zelan, part of Malaysia’s MMC Corp, reported a loss of RM127.9 million (US$35 million) in the fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31. Zelan didn’t provide comparative figures as its financial year-end was changed to March 31 from Jan. 31, it said in a statement yesterday.
The Kuala Lumpur-based company, with an order book of RM3.5 billion, is “highly exposed to the Middle East market,” with 62 per cent of its contracts coming from the region, AmResearch said.
The company said it will post a loss in the current financial year because of “the current financial turmoil worldwide and the increased cost of construction materials and other project expenses.” - Bloomberg
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Previoulsy Zelan share price already drop to its lowest support price due to earlier earlier fear of Middle East project cancellation. Now financial report making losses but no project cancel the fear and panic sell is back.
This post has been edited by viper88: Feb 27 2009, 05:56 PM