StarBiz, Friday 29 July 2011

NEWS 

PDagangan to leverage on 10MP

its commercial business team actively pursuing opportunities

By SHARIDAN M. ALI
sharidan@thestar.com.my
KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas Dagangan
Bhd expects the development of
various economic corridors under
the 10th Malaysia Plan and economic transformation programmes
in the country to unlock opportunities for the company to supply some
of its products.
Chairman Datuk Wan Zulkiflee
Wan Ariffin said there would be a lot
of construction activities generated
by these developments and its commercial business team was actively
pursuing the opportunities.
There will be massive diesel and
bitumen requirements as spin offs
from construction and road development respectively, he told reporters
after the companys AGM yesterday.
Petronas Dagangan commercial
business is currently the market
leader in Malaysia with 70% share.
As for the capital expenditure
(capex) this financial year, Wan
Zulkiflee said it would be in the
range of between RM350mil and
RM400mil with the bulk of it going
to the expansion of its retail network. We are also embarking on an
asset life study in the effort to
upgrade our existing facilities.The
capex is also for our project at KLIA 2
that is expected to be completed by

Outlet expansion: Petronas dagangan plans to allocate an annual capex of

rM400mil to open between 30 and 50 stations annually.
the end of next year, he said.
Petronas Dagangan had earlier
planned to allocate an annual capex
of RM400mil to expand between 30

and 50 stations in a move to become

the market leader in the retail segment in three to five years. Its retail
business currently commands 32%

market share.
Petronas Dagangan also hoped
that by the end of this financial year,
it would introduce a breakthrough
innovation that will translate into an
even stronger performance in the
liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) market. The company is already the
countrys top-selling cooking gas
with market share of 50.7%.
Petronas Dagangan posted a stellar performance in last financial year
ended March 31 as net profit surged
to RM869.7mil from RM752.9mil
previously. Revenue also increased
to RM23.3bil from RM20.7bil.
According to Petronas Dagangan,
the performance was due to higher
sales volume of various types of
products amounting to 13.5 billion
litres and the increase in the selling
price on higher global oil prices as
well as the controlled price increases
of retail fuel as the Government
gradually cut back on subsidies.
Petronas Dagangan announced a
record dividend payout of RM1 per
share to its shareholders at the AGM
yesterday as a result of the financial
year 2010 performance.
Petronas Dagangan will change its
year-end date to Dec 31 starting
from this current financial year. This

means for financial year 2011, it

would only have three quarters or
nine months.
Nevertheless, going forward,
Petronas Dagangan managing director and chief executive officer, Amir
Hamzah Azizan said managing cost
would continue to be a challenge but
the company would continue to do
its best to address it.
To further improve cost efficiency,
Petronas Dagangan recently engaged
the 25m B-double LPG pallet trailer,
the first of its kind in the industry,
which allows 65% more storage capacity. The facility helps expand outreach
while reducing the number of trips.
On the prospects of Petroleum
Nasional Bhds RM60bil refinery and
petrochemicals integrated development (Rapid), Amir Hamzah said: I
expect it would facilitate the sustenance of the country sources of supply. This would make us more reliable
and hopefully it will remove exchange
rate cost (for its imported products).
Rapid will comprise a crude oil
refinery with a 300,000 barrels per
day capacity, a naphtha cracker that
will produce about three million
tonnes of ethylene, propylene, C4
and C5 olefins per year, and a petrochemicals and polymer complex.

azran (left) and Kyles at the Mou signing.

AirAsia X eyes new

Asia-Pacific routes
KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia X will
not fly to additional European
destinations anytime soon as it is
setting its sights on new AsiaPacific routes, said chief executive
officer Azran Osman Rani.
He said an announcement
would be made soon on which of
the five approved routes it would
be flying.
The airline, which is the longhaul affiliate of budget airlines
AirAsia, received approval the
Transport Ministrys approval in
June to fly to Istanbul, Beijing,
Shanghai, Osaka and Jeddah.
The two European destinations
it flies to are London and Paris.
We are looking at two routes
for now and will probably
announce one next month. It also
depends on the availability of
planes, said Azran.
He was speaking to reporters
yesterday after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU)
with the British High Commission

to sponsor flights for 10 of the 15

Malaysian Chevening scholarship
recipients who commence their
studies this year.
Among the 15 recipients are
The Stars youth portal R.AGE editor Niki Cheong, who is pursuing
his Masters in digital culture and
society at Kings College, and
former Perlis mufti Dr Mohd Asri
Zainul Abidin, who will be studying Islamic studies at the Oxford
Centre for Islamic studies.
Azran said plans to move the
airlinesBritishhubfromStanstead
to Gatwick from Oct 24 were on
schedule, and reiterated that
AirAsias headquarters would
remain in Malaysia despite its
plans to open a small Asean office
in Jakarta.
Acting
British
High
Commissioner Ray Kyles thanked
AirAsia for their support and
hoped their involvement could
help increase the number of scholarships awarded in the future.

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