Reporting by writer BacalahMalaysia.my
PDZ Holdings Bhd will become one of the largest logistics players in Malaysia after it sets up a regional logistics hub in Johor, in partnership with Sanichi Technology Bhd and a company linked to the Johor state government.
The three parties will invest roughly around RM1 billion to set up the regional hub, which is said to be located near Senai Airport.
They will use up around 300 acres to build the hub, and it will include warehousing and distribution centres.
It seems approval has been granted by the relevant authorities and the partners are waiting to finalise some details before starting construction.
PDZ may be building the hub to ride on the exponential growth in the e-commerce business across Asia, which has grown significantly since the outbreak of the Covid-19.
Because of Covid-19, more and more people are shopping online for household items to safeguard themselves from the virus and this makes the logistics business in Malaysia a lucrative venture.
Surely a tender will be called soon to kick start the development of the regional hub.
The stock has been rising steadily since June from a low of 7 sen to as high as 25.5 sen last Friday (July 10). Some 1 billion shares were traded on Friday.
The stock also rose to a high level on July 8, with some 1.33 billion shares traded.
It is quite likely that with all these developments taking place we can expect the stock to hit a new high this week, perhaps touching 30 sen before it goes up further.
The stock has been on an uptrend since Monday on news that PDZ has won a RM600 million contract from an e-commerce platform operator in China.
The Chinese operator could be Alibaba Group Holding Ltd or Tencent Holdings Ltd who currently dominate the China e-commerce market with platforms such as Taobao and JD.com Inc.
The logistics business in Malaysia is currently dominated by companies linked to Malaysian billionaire Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary and he is also believed to be eyeing a controlling stake in PDZ to expand his empire.
Many believe that Syed Mokthar could replace Pelaburan Mara Bhd as the single largest shareholder in PDZ.
Pelaburan Mara disposed of its entire shareholding of 50.62 million shares or a 5.71 per cent stake in PDZ in the open market on July 3, and interestingly their share disposal did not take the market by surprise.
The stock continued to trade actively on the day of the announcement. – BACALAHMALAYSIA.MY
