Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) CEO Datuk Ahmad ZainiOthman said it is trimming its loan growth target to between 15.0% and 20.0%this year amidst 'domestic operating parameters'.  He said MBSB had set an earlier loan growthtarget in the range of 20.0% to 25.0%.

Zaini noted that MBSB would focus on personal finance, whichwill form a large bulk of its retail operation. As at Dec31, personal financingincome was 49.0% of MBSB's income portfolio. He added that with about 120,000customers in its personal finance segment, this provides MBSB a 10.0% share ofthe personal finance market.

Meanwhile, the company expects the proceeds from thedisposal of two plots of land in Johor and Sungai Buloh to be RM200.0mil.According to its latest annual report, the combined net value of the two plotsof land is RM93.0mil. ' The Edge

According to Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd's (BHIC)executive deputy chairman and managing director, Tan Sri Ahmad Ramli Mohd Nor,BHIC is confident of replenishing its orderbook and sustaining its businessoperation amid a challenging environment.

He said their current orderbook is RM860.0mil and will lastuntil 2015. Executive director David W. Berry said 80% of its current orderbookwere for jobs related to maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO).

The past few years had been very challenging for themaritime industry, Ahmad Ramli said, adding that BHIC was not dependent on onesector alone or any single client. Ahmad Ramli also explained that BHIC was notovercharging the Government for the six LCS as prices were competitive. 'StarBiz

According to UK-based LMC International Ltd chairman, DrJames Fry, Malaysia has three main policy options to counter the lowerIndonesian palm oil export tax structure introduced in September last year.

He said the first option would be for Malaysia to continuemaintaining its current policy while increasing its crude palm oil (CPO) exportquotas slowly. However, it was too late for diplomatic pressure to persuade theIndonesian government to dismantle its array of export incentives for thedownstream industry. He said this would lead to substantial overcapacity in thedownstream sector in South-East Asia.

Another option is to match in full the incentives providedby the Indonesian export tax system by adapting Malaysia current CPO export taxrules to offset the advantages enjoyed by Indonesia exporters via its exporttax system. The final option would be to focus on the biggest loser both intonnage and volume ' the local palm oil refiners ' from the new Indonesianexport tax. He said the Government can focus on the policy that will supportthe margins of local refineries whereby it could apply a graduated export taxon CPO, increasing it to 9% to match Indonesia's gap. - StarBiz

Source: AmeSecurities