Astro dituntut beri penjelasan berurusan dengan syarikat Israel

Rabu lalu Amdocs telah mengumumkan bahawa mereka dipilih oleh Astro All Asia Network plc Measat Broadcast Network Systems (Astro) bagi membolehkan Astro menambah baik penyampaian perkhidmatan

PETALING JAYA: Yang DiPertua Yayasan Dakwah Islamiah Malaysia (YADIM), Datuk Dr. Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki meminta pihak Astro beri penjelasan kerana telah berhubung dengan Amdocs sebuah syarikat milik Israel.

Katanya di dalam status Facebooknya, Amdocs adalah syarikat milik Israel yang baru dianugerahkan kontrak ‘Subscriber Management System’ oleh Astro.

“Astro harus beri penjelasan atau diboikot kerana berurusan dengan syarikat Israel.

“Jika tidak, rakyat Malaysia hendaklah beramai-ramai memboikot Astro sebagai bantahan terhadap pembunuhan rakyat Palestin,” jelasnya di laman web ismaweb.net.

Lapor web Haaretz, Amdocs merupakan salah satu syarikat Israel yang paling berjaya dan konsisten yang telah ditubuhkan sejak 30 tahun lalu sebagai pemaju perisian untuk direktori telefon.

Amdocs dikatakan terus kekal mempertahankan ciri-ciri Israel dalam organisasi tersebut.

Bagaimanapun, Rabu lalu Amdocs telah mengumumkan bahawa mereka dipilih oleh Astro All Asia Network plc Measat Broadcast Network Systems (Astro) bagi membolehkan Astro menambah baik penyampaian perkhidmatan kepada lebih daripada 1.5 juta pelanggan disamping mengurangkan kos.

Kontrak tersebut dianggarkan bernilai jutaan dolar bagi penyediaan perisian dan perkhidmatan yang ditawarkan.

Astro offered IPO shares to Bumi investors, says source

The pay-TV firm expects to raise US$1.5 billion.

KUALA LUMPUR: Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd, a pay-TV firm controlled by tycoon Ananda Krishnan, has offered IPO shares to indigenous bumiputera investors with an indicative value of nearly US$700 million, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said, in an IPO the market expects to raise around US$1.5 billion.

The IPO, which is seen listing by end-September, would be Malaysia’s third-largest this year after share sales by Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd in June and IHH Healthcare Bhd in July.

The offer at RM3.60 a share opened late last week and will close at 4pm tomorrow, said the source, who declined to be identified as details of the deal were not yet public.

Based on the indicative price, the 597.69 million shares reserved for bumiputera investors would be worth about RM2.15 billion (US$688.88 million).

A draft prospectus that the company filed last week to regulators did not give any details on the size of the listing or the time frame of the IPO process.

Bumiputera, or “sons of the soil”, are majority ethnic Malays and other indigenous people in Malaysia favoured by a decades-old government policy in housing, education and business.

Cornerstone investors will be offered more or less a similar price, a second source with knowledge of the deal said.

“They have been approaching cornerstones,” said the source, who declined to be identified as the deal has not been made public.

Astro officials were not immediately available to comment.

Dividend appeal

Astro, with a residential pay-TV subscriber base of 3 million in Malaysia, stated in its draft prospectus that it targeted a dividend payout ratio of not less than 75% of its consolidated profit each fiscal year beginning Feb 1, 2013.

“We intend to adopt a policy of active capital management,” Astro said in the prospectus filed to Malaysia’s Securities Commission last Wednesday.

The plan is seen as a move to stoke investor interest amid increasing competition from other Internet protocol television providers in Malaysia, even though Astro has launched its own version of on-demand video via broadband, an analyst said.

“Pay-TV companies are always at the mercy of content providers. So costs are rising faster than revenue,” said the analyst, with an investment bank in Kuala Lumpur.

Astro made a pro forma net profit of RM629.62 million (US$201.74 million) for the fiscal year ended on Jan 31, 2012, a 23.9% drop from a year earlier despite revenue rising 6.1% on a better pay-TV business, the prospectus read.

The lower profit margin was due mainly to higher costs of marketing and financing.

Astro said it intended to use 58% of the proceeds raised in its forthcoming listing for capital expenditure – ranging from investments in new corporate and technical buildings to additional transponders, the prospectus showed.

Beyond the 58% allocated to capital expenditure it said 29.3% would be used to repay bank borrowings, 8.6% for working capital and the rest for listing expenses.

The company had hired CIMB as the transaction manager for the listing. Joint principal advisers are CIMB, Maybank and RHB.

CIMB led Astro’s delisting in 2010 in a deal that valued it around US$2.8 billion. The investment bank also handled its original IPO in 2003, along with Goldman Sachs, DBS and UBS.

Reuters