BANKING SECTOR

ings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation).

Edotco’s incremental

Deodar is US$174mil.

Post-deal, edotco’s tower count would increase significantly to about 31,000 from 18,000 presently, the research house added.

By its estimates, Axiata’s end-2017 net debtto-EBITDA will remain manageable at 1.9 times post-deal (from 1.5 times).

On Axiata’s core net profit for the second quarter of FY17, which came in at RM353mil, the research house said it brought core net profit for the first half of FY17 to RM644mil, accounting for 63% of its full-year forecasts.

It said core net profit was boosted by a tax credit at Sri Lanka’s Robi, amounting to RM70mil.

“Encouragingly, Celcom grew service revenue by 1.4% quarter-on-quarter, which meant it gained revenue market share,” it said. cash outlay for Zhuhai is currently under investigation for alleged irregularities while he was holding senior positions in a state-owned enterprise.

“While this has no direct bearing on LBS, it may however delay the implementation of its Zhuhai International Circuit (ZIC) transformation owing to the potential lack of a decision maker in the interim.

“ZIC is now working on a resubmission of a more detailed conceptual plan, which will encompass three components – motor sports, cultural and tourism – but may now have to wait,” it said. AmInvestment Bank Research Overweight

AMINVESTMENT Bank Research has maintained its “overweight” stance on the banking sector with “buy” calls on RHB Bank and Public Bank.

For RHB Bank, the research house said it continued to like the stock due to undemanding valuation. “Also, the group’s asset quality is improving gradually,” it said.

As for Public Bank, it said the “buy” call was premised on strong asset quality and high level of regulatory reserves, which it said would be beneficial to offset against the high- er provisions under MFRS9, if allowed by the regulatory authority.

In a report, the research house noted that industry loan growth slowed down to 5.6% year-on-year in July 2017 due to a slower momentum in non-household loans while growth in household loans remained stable.

“By loan purpose, the drop was contributed by a softer momentum for working capital loans, personal loans, credit cards and loans for purchase of non-residential property.

“Growth in mortgage loans was stable compared to the preceding month,” it said in a note.

By sector, the slower pace of loans was contributed by the slowdown of loans in the construction, wholesale, retail, restaurants and hotels and utilities sectors.

The research house said there was, however, a higher level of loan applications in July 2017.

Compared to June 2017, the level of loan applications of both household and non-household rose in July, picking up pace to 22.9% year-on-year due to higher demand for household and non-household loans.

Household and non-household loan applications grew at a higher rate of 28.6% and 16.6% year-on-year respectively in July 2017.