SECOND WAVE FOR PDZ LIKELY

A second wave expected for PDZ Holdings Bhd? Limit-up?

The shipping and logistics company, which has about 800 million shares on issue traded 1.33 billion shares yesterday. The stock rose as high as 23 sen yesterday from a low of 8 sen a few days ago, to close the day at 20.5 sen.

PDZ this morning traded as high as 23 sen once again. By 12 noon, some 450 million shares were traded.

One would link the buying momentum and volume traded to a hostile takeover or to obtain positioning.

There are talks in the market that an e-commerce platform operator in the United States is buying up shares in PDZ, maybe to have a control in the local e-commerce business here.

On the other hand, a Chinese-based e-commerce platform operator may also be interested in PDZ after awarding the Malaysian shipping and logistics firm a contract worth RM600 million.

PDZ may have got the logistics contract from Alibaba Group or Tencent Holdings Ltd who currently dominate the China e-commerce market with platforms such as Taobao and JD.com Inc.

While we cannot confirm this, the news is like wildfire in the market.

PDZ's revenue is expected to surge with this contract and it would also likely record a higher profit moving forward.

The company posted higher revenue of RM1.22 million for the current quarter ended March 31, 2020, compared to the preceding year corresponding quarter of RM1.04 million,due to the higher volume transported by the firm between January and March.

It recorded a net profit for the three months under review, compared to the preceding year corresponding quarter mainly due to the higher revenue and lower administrative expenses.

Malaysia’s e-commerce market is estimated to be worth US$4 billion and is set to increase with the Covid-19 pandemic as more and more people are buying products online.