Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!
圣诞节快乐！

Seven-time champion Schumacher eyes record eighth F1 title

Michael Schumacher targeted an unprecedented eighth Formula One title after Mercedes announced yesterday he was coming out of retirement to race for them at the age of 41.

“Our aim can only be to fight for the championship,” the German told reporters in a conference call after signing a contract on Tuesday.

Media reports have suggested the German, who won his titles with Benetton and Ferrari and retired at the end of 2006, will earn €7mil (US$10mil) in what would be an all-German line-up.

“We are talking about a three-year deal, it’s not just a one-off thing,” said the former Ferrari ace of a contract that had been expected to be for just one year. “We are looking for continuation.”

Mercedes, who have taken over champions Brawn GP, have signed Nico Rosberg as their other driver for 2010. World champion Jenson Button has left the British-based team for McLaren.

A move to Mercedes will give Schumacher, who turns 41 in January, a potentially winning car and reunite him with Britain’s Ross Brawn - the technical director who guided him to all his titles and who is now the team principal.

It will also take Schumacher’s career full circle, since the German drove for the Mercedes sportscar team before breaking into Formula One with Jordan in 1991.

“I am happy to be able to give something back that Mercedes gave in the early days,” Schumacher said.

Schumacher had planned a comeback with Ferrari earlier this year as a stand-in for injured Brazilian Felipe Massa but had to abandon that idea due to a neck injury caused by a motorcycle accident.

Since his retirement, the German has worked as a consultant for Ferrari but the Italian team has said that is not a binding agreement.

Schumacher will be returning to a very different, and more cost-conscious, Formula One from the series he left after a record 91 wins from 249 starts.

Mercedes and Ferrari will be the only fully manufacturer-owned teams, with BMW, Honda and Toyota having all left in the past year and Renault due to sell a significant stake in their British-based operation.

Schumacher will be hoping to emulate the likes of Austrian Niki Lauda and France’s Alain Prost, champions who both came back to win titles after time out of Formula One.

Former champions Damon Hill, Schumacher’s leading rival in the mid 1990s, and Nigel Mansell have both said that age will be no impediment and that the German could return as a winner.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if Michael challenged for another world championship,” Britain’s 1992 champion Mansell, who won his title aged 39 and competed in Formula One until the age of 41, said at the weekend.

Schumacher’s return will allow 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton, who entered the sport only after Schumacher retired, to measure himself against Formula One’s most successful driver while also setting up an intriguing Anglo-German battle.

Hamilton and 2009 champion and compatriot Button will form an all-English pairing at rivals McLaren, who will still be powered by Mercedes engines.

There will also be a battle of the generations, with Schumacher lining up on a starting grid likely to include at least one driver half his age.

The sport’s oldest champion remains the late Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio, who took his fifth title at the age of 46. The oldest driver to win a grand prix is Italian Luigi Fagioli in 1951 at the age of 53. — Reuters

The Schumacher fact file

Name: Michael Schumacher

Date of birth: Jan 3, 1969

Birthplace: Kerpen, Germany

Height: 1.74m

Weight: 74kg

Wife: Corinna (married August 1995); children - Gina Maria, Mick

n Career details

Starts: 250;

Victories: 91

Poles: 68

Fastest Laps: 72

Points: 1,369

Grand Prix debut: 1991, Belgian GP, Jordan

Teams: Jordan (1991), Benetton (1991-1995), Ferrari (1996-2006)

World champion: 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004

Property tax let-off for owners

PUTRAJAYA: The real property gains tax (RPGT) announced during the Budget 2010 will only apply to properties sold within five years of their purchase, announced Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

The Prime Minister said the 5% tax would now only be paid if the property was sold within five years of its purchase instead of the tax being imposed on the sale of property regardless how long its owners hold on to it as initially announced in the Budget.

He said the decision would see the Government forgoing revenue amounting to RM200mil, adding the move was made following requests by the Federation of Chinese Associations of Malaysia (Hua Zong) and the business sector.

“This policy was also decided upon as the Government wants to see stronger growth in the property sector next year. We are even willing to forgo a substantial revenue so that the sector can expand and grow.

“The property sector has shown signs of improvement but we feel that it requires further impetus so that it can continue to grow from strength to strength.

“We have met one of Hua Zong’s requests and we hope they will respond accordingly by working even closer with the Government in the future,” Najib said at the swearing-in ceremony of Hua Zong’s office bearers for the 2009-2011 term on Wednesday night.

Also present were Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong, Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Wee Jeck Seng and Hua Zong president Tan Sri Pheng Yin Huah.

Najib also announced that hotels undertaking additional investments to renovate, refurbish and expand their premises would enjoy a 60% re-investment allowance that has now been extended to 15 years from the previous 10 years.

He said this was an attempt to boost the country’s robust tourism industry, which has tremendous potential for further growth.

Najib also said that he wanted to see a more “active” private sector, which he said had been rather “lethargic” and had been more interested in investing abroad rather than domestically.

Gamuda 1Q earnings up 14.5% to RM63m

GAMUDA BHD posted stronger set of earnings in the first quarter ended Oct 31, with net profit at RM63 million, up 14.5% from RM55.04 million a year ago, due to higher contributions from all divisions.

The infrastructure-based company said on Tuesday, Dec 22 that revenue was marginally higher by 1.63% at RM623.96 million from RM613.96 million.

Earnings per share were 3.13 sen versus 2.74 sen. It also declared a dividend of 6.0 sen per share compared with 4.0 sen a year ago.

Gamuda said for 1Q under review, the pre-tax profit of RM83.5 million was higher than the preceding quarter's profit before tax of RM80.4 million, "primarily due to higher contribution from the property division arising from strong property sales with effect from the middle of the last financial year".

On the prospects, it said with existing CONSTRUCTION [] projects progressing on schedule and the recovery of the property market, the group's performance is expected to improve in the remaining quarters of the current financial year.

On the Electrified Double Track project, it said work progress was behind schedule due to delays in design approval and late handover of land by the authorities.

"Under the terms of the contract signed by the Government of Malaysia and the project company, all land should be handed over to the project company early this year, but to-date, only 90% has been handed over.

"As a result of the delays, on Nov 9, 2009, the government granted the project company an interim extension of time of 11 months to complete the project. The project completion date is now revised from January 2013 to December 2013. The work progress is expected to pick up in the remaining quarters of the financial year," it said.

As for the New Doha International Airport project in Qatar, Gamuda said progress claims submitted to the Qatari government are being settled within the contractual period. It added the project was progressing on
schedule.

On the Yenso Park and sewage treatment plant projects in Vietnam, it said they were progressing well. The recent devaluation of the Vietnamese dong has no significant near term impact on the group.

Palm oil set to rise 'sharply' in 2010

Palm oil prices are poised to rise “sharply” next year as demand remains robust amid potential supply disruptions from El Nino, according to Dorab Mistry, director of Godrej International Ltd.

“Production has peaked this year and we’re entering the seasonal low-production period,” Mistry said in an interview in Bali, Indonesia today. “The bigger concern is the coming El Nino, which will affect production in the second half of 2010.”

Consumption in China and India, the two biggest importers of edible oils, is increasing and “rising from an already high base,” Mistry said. Godrej is the biggest edible oils supplier to India. Indonesia and Malaysia produce about 90 per cent of the world’s supply.

Mistry, who correctly predicted last month that palm oil futures would reach RM2,400 a metric ton by the first quarter of 2010, said prices may even climb as high as RM3,000 by the end of next year if crude oil advances to US$100 a barrel. He will issue another price forecast on Dec. 4, he said.

The most-active contract closed at a 15-week high of RM2,495 yesterday and traded at RM2,490 at the 12:30 p.m. trading break on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange.

Palm oil, used in cooking and fuel, has climbed 47 per cent this year as crude oil gained 76 per cent and rains and freezing weather threatened harvesting of the soybean crop in the US, the biggest producer, potentially reducing output of rival soybean oil. -- Bloomberg

HwangDBS: Bursa set to see return of foreign funds

MALAYSIA'S stock market is likely to see the return of foreign funds, especially if global equities turn increasingly volatile ahead, says HwangDBS Vickers Research Sdn Bhd(HDBSVR).

The foreign research firm said as the risk-reward profile tilts to the opposite direction because of stretched valuations, strategists may be tempted to make a gradual tactical switch to more defensive low-beta markets like Malaysia to diversify their risks.

The prospect of an appreciating ringgit is an added appeal for investors in search of incremental investment returns.

HDBSVR said even though Malaysian stocks remain unexciting from a broad valuation perspective, there are "hidden gems" to be found using a bottom-up approach.
These are fundamentally under-valued stocks that were once favourites of foreign investors, but are now under-owned by them.

"Combing through our 'buy' list of big and mid-cap companies, under-owned stocks - with foreign shareholdings far below their recent peaks - that could increasingly come under the investment radar of foreign investors again are CIMB (with 33 per cent foreign shareholding as of end-June 2009 versus a peak of 54 per cent), IJM Corp (34 per cent vs 62 per cent), MRCB (19 per cent vs 44 per cent), SP Setia (28 per cent vs 56 per cent) and Tenaga (11 per cent vs 28 per cent)," it said in a market focus report titled "What foreigners want" yesterday.

Additional counters currently rated "buy" by the research firm that can increasingly gain traction among foreign investors again include Gamuda (45 per cent foreign shareholding in June 2009), Genting (44 per cent), Genting Malaysia (33 per cent), Hong Leong Bank (7 per cent), Proton (16 per cent), Public Bank (25 per cent) and RHB Capital (5 per cent).

HDBSVR noted that foreign investors were conspicuously absent from the scene when the Malaysian stock market jumped 51 per cent from a trough of 836 in mid-March 2009 to now.

"This was evident in the insignificant level of trading activity by foreign investors (just 25 per cent of trading value in January-September 2009) and the persistent net portfolio investment quarterly outflows (since third quarter of 2007) with foreign ownership standing at a five-year low."

Foreign ownership - standing at 21 per cent of overall market capitalisation as of September 2009 - is also at its lowest in five years.

Corporate earnings recovery gains momentum

The recovery in Malaysian corporate earnings is gaining momentum, analysts said, pointing to the better-than-expected slew of financial results that came in for the third quarter of this year.

The recently concluded financial reporting season, like the previous season, surprised analysts on the upside.

According to RHB Research Institute Sdn Bhd, the bulk (83.8 per cent) of the corporate results that it covered came in either within or above its expectations. A similar picture was reflected in the consensus numbers.

"This suggests that there is still room for earnings upside surprises in the quarters ahead as the economic recovery gains momentum, even though it may not be as significant relative to what we have seen during the past two quarters," it said in a note to clients yesterday.

The number of companies whose earnings it upgraded exceeded the downgrades, as was the case in the previous quarter. Only 16 of the 99 companies that it covered turned in worse-than-expected earnings.
OSK Research Sdn Bhd, meanwhile, said that its preliminary analysis of the third quarter results season indicated that it was "a very strong results season" as the upgrade to downgrade ratio reached multi-year highs.

The banking sector stood out as the top performer this season, while plantation disappointed the most.

"More companies are reporting better margins as a result of improving demand, better product mix and lower operating expenses on the back of the implementation of cost-cutting measures," RHB noted.

Despite the better report card, RHB kept its year-end target for the FBM KLCI unchanged at 1,260 points, citing near-term external uncertainties. The stock market benchmark index closed higher than that yesterday, at 1,266.71.

It, however, raised the index target for next year to 1,370 from 1,345 before.

OSK, in a report yesterday, said December would be a good time to invest in Malaysian stocks.

It pointed out that since 1996, the index has posted an average 3.96 per cent gain 85 per cent of the time in the last month of the year, reaffirming a long-held belief of window-dressing at the year-end.

A similar gain this month would take the index to the 1,308.97-level, in line with OSK's view of a 1,345 fair value next year.