Malaysia's TA to delay property arm listing to Q3 this year

Malaysia's stockbroking-to-property group TA Enterprise (TAES.KL) plans to delay the listing of its property arm to the third quarter of this year due to weak market conditions, a company director said on Thursday.

TA, Malaysia's largest retail brokerage, said last September it would spin off its property operations for a separate listing on the local bourse.

The property business will be housed under TA Global, a company set up to facilitate the listing.

TA Properties Executive Director Kimmy Khoo said the company has applied to the Securities Commission (SC) for a revision to TA Global's listing plan.

"We expect to proceed with the listing by the third quarter of this year if SC approves our revised listing scheme," she told Reuters by email.

TA expects the securities watchdog to approve the revised listing plan by May 12.

The company had initially targeted to complete the listing by the first quarter of this year.

"The delay of the listing is unavoidable and accepted as a sequel to the global market sentiment," she said.

But the delay is not expected to have any impact on the company's financial performance, said Khoo.

The company said last year it expected a one-off capital gain of about 925 million ringgit ($255.1 million) from the listing of TA Global.

By 0805 GMT, TA shares were up 0.81 percent at 0.62 ringgit a share. The wider market .KLSE was up 0.72 percent.

TA shares have dropped nearly one-fourth the past six months.

-Reuters 26 March 2009