It has been a long time....
Omega Holdings Bhd has found new white knights to undertake a restructuring scheme after its previous proposal was revoked by the Securities Commission (SC) about three months ago. Omega will see the injection of construction- and property-based Melati group, whose principal shareholders are Datuk Yap Suan Chee and Alpine Equity (M) Sdn Bhd.
I remember the day of my graduation in early 1997 (wine, girls, party etc etc etc)...
That was also when Omega Holding went bust in Malaysia.
If I may remind the SC, that is 8 years ago and we the WORLD went through the Y2 k 4 years ago liao...
Yawn....... at least it is not 2046.
Junior
Made in Malaysia
Tenaga Nasional Bhd has announced a 23.4% drop in net profit to RM813.7 million for financial year (FY) ended Aug 31, 2004 from RM1.06 billion a year ago mainly due to the RM571.8 million in foreign exchange losses.The forex losses were a result of repayment of Tenaga’s debts in foreign currencies, especially yen and sterling which have strengthened in recent months. As at end-February, Tenaga had RM31.20 billion of borrowings comprising 10% in yen, 34% in US dollars, 49% in ringgit, and the rest in other currencies.....
Sadly to the Bursa Saham KL, Tenaga is one of the 3 most important blue chips. If I were Bursa Saham KL, I will cry because it is really ‘sui’ (in Cantonese, not Hokkien) to have this company to be my anchor.
If you want me to rank the best managed company in Malaysia, I will rank Tenaga 174,837,283th in Malaysia. It is just slightly better than the Kedai Mamak Puchong who hires 15 people a night for RM 45.10 business.
That is how bad the Tenaga management is.
If you look at the broker reports of foreign brokers, almost all of them have been calling ‘under-weight’ on Tenaga for a long time. I am not alone.
I really don’t understand why Tenaga takes on so many different currency loans? What do they think they are? George Soros? Are they currency traders or electricity company?
Why do they take on Yen debt and Pound debts? WHERE the HELL is the natural hedge??? You obviously have a mismatch because you do not have any income in these currencies!!! EVEN MY CAT knows this.
I am thinking of sending my cat’s CV (her name is mao-mi, btw) to work in the treasury department of Tenaga. I am sure Mao-mi can do a better job than the entire department …..combined….
I am serious….
Junior
REIT
Naim Cendera Holdings Bhd is considering setting up a real estate investment trust (REIT) for its commercial properties in Sarawak, its managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Hasmi Hasnan says. Although plans are still preliminary, the company is looking at possible yields of between 8% and 12%, and will start to identify which property to develop for REIT by next year. "We've got some plans. We are looking into property investment with recurring income. We may do REIT in the future for our commercial properties that are in prime locations such as major towns like Kuching or Bintulu," He added that a higher yield of 12% would only materialise if the company develops its commercial properties from scratch and has good tenants.
The 2005 budget did what it was supposed to do to the REIT market - getting every developer excited and wanting to launch their own REIT. YTL was the first one to respond and rightly so because they are one of the few developers who have got GENUINE properties that are REIT-ABLE material.
But I want to laugh at this NAIM- hahaahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahaahhaahah
I don't know what they are thinking. If the directors are interested in attracting instituitional investors, they can FORGET it. I cannot imagine FM especially the foreign ones would go all the way to BINTULU for property visits. In the first place, WHAT PROPERTY MARKET is there in SARAWAK? I am not discriminating the market in Sarawak. I am talking about reality. The property market in KL ie. THE BIGGEST city in Malaysia, is already shallow. What do you think about BINTULU?
Moreover, the yield, according to the dreamer will only be 12% if it is a development project. IF YOU DO A DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IN BINTULU AND GET ONLY 12%, you can DIE STANDING.
I am very concerned with the REIT market of Malaysia. Because if the developers screw it up this time, we will have no chance of developing a very very important market and new instrument. Singapore is benefiting GREATLY from the success of CMT and Acendas.
The problem I see in Malaysia is that, fundamentally, the 2 countries are very different. Singapore has very very low deposit rate (less than 1%) and those rich singaporean have NO WAY to invest.
Malaysia is very different - we have football betting la, magnum, toto, genting highland, Tai Yee Long etc. Ok, seriously, basically, Malaysian are more risk takers and they will do SOMETHING.
So, lets get technical and show my knowledge in English, I am afraid that the REIT market in Malaysia will be Supply-Led rather than Demand-Led. That means to say, REIT is a good news to developers because it is a golden opportunity for them to FLOCK the assets to the market and thinking that some water fish investors will buy up the units. So every tom dick harry and NAIM would want to put their assets to REIT. BUT Those assets that they flock are not REIT material and retail investors are not interested in. Singapore had a Demand-Led market for REIT. Investors wanted a new type of investment instrument. They were sophisticated enough.
I am keeping my fingers crossed (
as if I have got somethign to do with this)
Junior
Making a Difference
We, Asian are really not a innovative bunch. The FEER magazines say that Asia don't invent, they duplicates. Anyway, there were still some cool ideas in this year Asian Innovation Awards.
Someone could generate eletricity with banana; A filipino designed a system which allow foregin workers to send money home using SMS, the Japanese help the blind to surf internet. Even the Singaporean came out with an idea to refill cartrige. What did Malaysian come out with?
This dude Parmjit Singh from Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology in Malaysia came out with a software that block PORNOGRAPHY from the internet net.
ohhh...pleaseeeeeeeeeee.. .. 30 years of education, IS THAT ALL YOU COULD COME OUT WITH?
Mr. Singh (
Singh is a surname ah?), if you block Pornography from the internet, WHAT's the USE OF THE INTERNET??? You think people will still instal streamyx ah? Read blog ah?
:D .... ........ .....
Junior
Cappuccino, anyone?
Have u heard of Howard Schultz? Does not sound familiar rite? Ok, how about Starbucks?
Howard Schultz is the CEO and Co-Founder or Starbucks. Yes, he is the arsehole who makes the world pays RM 9.80 for a cup of coffee.
Damn it. RM 9.80 is a hellova lots of money and we are PAYING this for a cup of coffee (
willingly). What is wrong with the dirty-with-milo-smell-nescafe-tarik sold by our mamak? I curse Schultz every time I pays for my coffee. I hope you will do the same after reading this blog.
Anyway, I would say Howard Schultz is one of the BEST entrepreneurs or strategists in the world. When you can make the world pays RM 9.80 for a cup of coffee, you have to be the best.
But, to me, Tony Fernandez is even better (
how can one better than BEST?). He makes everyone pays RM 19.90 to fly from Johor to KL when we HAD to pay RM 199. My IT guy can now fly back to Kuching 3 times a year (
last time, he used to swim). Even my doctor friend flew to Johor Bahru and then took a taxi to Singapore (
I told you, Dr are poor). I can also assure u that 9 out of 10 Malaysians who work in Singapore PRAY 10 times a day that AirAsia will get the lucrative KL-SIN route (
but I am so afraid that my company will start asking us to fly AirAsia).
This is the power of AirAsia BRANDING and I am sure AirAsia will do well in the future. It has changed the skyline of Malaysia and how we fly in Asia. Many have forgotten how powerful this AirAsia brand is. It has been associated with 'low costs'. I will not be surprised if our government will one day rename our 'low costs housing' to 'AirAsia Housing'.
I also think AirAsia will win the price war game with Tiger Airway (
whose CEO just chicken out), Value air etc etc. because AirAsia has a very lucrative DOMESTIC market. The others don’t.
Budget airlines industry is a dog eat dog world industry. In this game, big dogs usually win. But not all the time. I think AirAsia can win this war.
BTW, if I have a dog, I will name it ‘Schultz’. When I have a son, I will name it ‘Tony’.
What is the morale of the story? Ans:- If you are thinking of setting up a business, you better do one that reduce my spending.
Junior
(cap, dun say I have never mentioned you in my blog)
(liama, I cannot comment on the IPO of AirAsia. But I could tell you how much I believe in their management)
Gambling can make you rich....
Uncertainty surrounds Ascot Sports plans
PETALING JAYA: The status of the gaming bookie’s licence issued to tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan to offer betting on international sports events, including the hugely popular English Premier League (EPL), appears uncertain. The approval had been given to him through Ascot Sports Sdn Bhd, of which he is the majority shareholder, by the Finance Ministry, then headed by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in June 2003, but was never executed. When contacted by The Star yesterday, Tan confirmed the re-issuance of the licence, saying that he was the controlling shareholder in his private capacity but declined to elaborate.
Ah Wi (
let me remind you, this is our PM) is again caught on making a tough decision.
If you ask me, a good looking and clever professional who bet on football (
illegally) week in week out, I would say legalising the football betting seems like a good move. The 'pros' are obvious - kill the illegal bookies and increase the tax revenue.
This issue of being afraid of the PAS making a big issue out of this is IRRELEVANT. Because
(ok ok, never start a sentence with preposition) (TC, this extra note is for you),
I AM GOING TO BET ILLEGALLY ANYWAY.
But, this blog does not attempt to share my clever and witty view on this issue. I am more inclined to talk about way to improve our current 'country management' system.
We cannot day day leave our Ah Wi with tough decision to make. Our current system needs 2 things:-
- Air the Parlimen debate LIVE (get more advertising revenue from Tiger Beer somemore) - I know this is currently available to the media. But I believe 'opening' this up to public is a bold move. I am sure we Malaysian are 'sophisticated' (me shy when writting this) enough to make our own judgement
- Set up a system which allows us to set up different 'enquiry committees' in our parliment to look into certain issue. Those dudes who sit on these committees are given the task to look at all angles relating to a particular issue and provide their view and the PM should act based on that (we already have something similar but it is not tranparent enough). Show (the TV la) these committees questioning or cross examine (only in the case of Sammy Vellu) the respective ministry who approve or disapprove anything.
Our country will work better this way.
Who should sit on these committees? Simple. Non other than our SM-L. Imagine you watching this on Bloomberg where the committee question the Ministry of Finance:-
Sammy Vellu:- Ok, how much money are we going to make on this gaming thing?
Tun M:- Kita orang Malaysia mesti lah faham, judy (judi = gambling, but Tun M mistakenly spell wrongly) bukan satu habit yang bagus. Tapi.......(long pause), kalau kita tak legalise apa ni.....judy bola, kita kurang civilised. Lagi pun, sekarang kita sudah ada banyak 'buki' yang beroperasi di negara jiran macam Singaproe dan Hong Kong (yes, blame our neighbour), kita...... ..... ..(deleted another 50 sentences) ...patut ....fikir masak masak
Tun Ling:- What buki? What ball? What Judy?
(will I be arrested under ISA for this post???)
Junior
I am a bitch
I am thinking of changing my mind to support Bush instead of Kerry.
Yes, I am a bitch.
First of all, I also don't understand why I am 'involved' in the US presidential election. I am from the Mars.
Kerry pissed me off when he said that he would be supporting Israel and would not even talk to Arafat. I don't know if Arafat is the person to talk to, but Kerry did not say what he would do with the situation. That is a -12 points comment.
I also don't like him campaining in the catholic church last sunday. I think he went to 4 churches or something like that. I think that is not appropriate.
Where was Bush last sunday? He said he was in the bush. He said he was doing gardening. I firmly believe he was somewhere else.
I am sure.
Junior
A dog wanting to be a tiger
Talam raising high-end sales BY DANNY YAP
TALAM Corp Bhd, which is expanding its market share of the premium property sector, aims to increase the sales of high-end houses to 30% of total turnover from the current 10% by 2006. Executive chairman Tan Sri Chan Ah Chye said the company was not abandoning its commitment to the affordable home segment, but merely building more premium homes for better returns. “We also want to be recognised as a developer of quality premium homes,” he told reporters and analysts during a site visit to some of the company’s high-end properties in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
I nearly laughed my head off when reading this article. Dun get me wrong, I am not against Talam. I am glad that we have a developer who sell affordable houses and has a market niche.
Talam selling premium houses is like:-
- AirAsia want to have a first class seat for its budget airlines
- DirectAcesss launched its Platinium Card
- Tesco selling bird nest
- Sammy Vellu wants to implement corporate governance
- Berita Harian wants to win the nobel prize
- UMNO youth wants to win the noble peace prize
- Y1 wants to play for liverpool
- Peg wants to be pamela anderson
- Liama wants to be tom cruise
- KP wants to be Shakespear
- TC wants to be Bill Gate
- Ann wants to be Rafidah
- etc etc
You get the idea?
It is very dangerous for a company to walk into a totally new teritory. I am not saying it is wrong. But I am saying 'dangerous'. I hope the economy will be booming damn well in the next few years that even Talam can sell premium property well. But you have a brand that sell something affordable, why do you want to confuse consumer?? JV with someone else lah say Ascott? (Junior, Ascott selling high end terrace ah?) (Junior shows middle finger and ask, 'why not?'). What is the strategy?
Do you remember Metro? They tried to operate a cruise a few years ago? U know what happened to them? They lost their pant off. The pant is in my house.
It is a dog eats dog world out there. I don't know how many times I have tell these developers.
Aikksssssssss
Junior
Bush vs Kerry
I came to work late today (
er...er...although it is not an official working day. But because I am a low rank tea lady, I have to come back to office) because I was watching Kerry hantaming Bush on TV.
Yes, that was the second presidential debate.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that Kerry can actually talk better than Bush. I mean, I know Bush can't speak (
like William Hung). But I used to think that Kerry is just someone who lived in the past. Vietnam la, show off his medal la, ALL GRANDMOTHER stories.
But this guy is a very sharp man.
The debate — the second of three — opened with a question to Kerry about whether he was too wishy-washy. Kerry turned that question into an attack against Bush, saying the president "didn't find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, so he's really turned his campaign into a weapon of mass deception" by claiming that the four-term Massachusetts senator had changed his mind when he had not.
He ticked off Bush. And Bush fell into the trap and did exactly what he should not be doing.
Bush drew criticism in his first debate with Kerry last week for scowling at his opponent's criticism. The president's frustration showed again Friday night when he jumped from his seat for forceful answers. At one point, he interrupted moderator Charles Gibson after Kerry had said he was "not going to go alone like this president did" in Iraq. "I've got to answer this," Bush said, cutting off Gibson, then indignantly responded to Kerry. "You tell Tony Blair we're going alone."
To me, it is obvious that Kerry won the second debate again. He was calm. He was prepared. He came with a game plan and did exactly what his advisors wanted him to do. THIS MAN can be a politician.
Here are some of the things he said:-
"Mr. President, countries are leaving the coalition, not joining," Kerry said, asserting that eight countries are pulling out their troops from post-war Iraq.
Criticizing the president's decision to invade the Persian Gulf nation, Kerry said, "If we'd use smart diplomacy, we could have saved $200 billion and an invasion of Iraq and right now Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) might be in jail or dead. That's the war on terror."
"We did something that you don't know how to do," Kerry told Bush. "We balanced the budget. And we paid down the debt of our nation for two years in a row and we created 23 million new jobs at the same time." He accused Bush of driving up the biggest deficits in history.
The only thing I like about George Bush is his sense of humour. I like him as a person. Not as an arogant president of a hubris country. This is what he said:-
One questioner asked Bush whom he would pick if there were a Supreme Court vacancy. "I'm not telling you," the president said. "I really haven't picked anybody yet." He added lightheartedly, "Plus I want them all voting for me."
He should be a stand up comedian instead.
Junior
Thinking Allowed, Thinking Aloud .....
That is the tag line of a very famous Malaysian blogger - Jeff Ooi.
Unfortunately, he still need cash to survive......and has to raise some cash to upgrade the equipment.
I hope my fellow stock punting kaki can support him - nei.... those who make money on PETRA ler....(
U think i dun know ha)....
ok, ok, if you want to know more please go
here. Please go and 'donate' at least RM20, 30 everyday...:D
I think he did all he can to ensure the public that he does not get anything out of this. Yes, transparency is what he practice.s Using Maybank2u to 'donate' (
actually, donate is really a wrong word, we are afterall using his 'service') is also an easy mean.
If I were Jeff Ooi, I will rent out some advertisement space, sell merchandise, syndication, tie up with Liverpool, raise funds from VC then IPO, or link with South China Morning Post, have alliance with the Communist Party of China, defect to DPP of Taiwan, support Kerry and Bush - then get some cash from them, discuss with Karim Raslan and start selling art in the website, have a charity concert and get Andy Lau to sing and most importantly buy 4D magnum.
Then, he need not worry about money....
Deoh boh?
Junior
