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Showing posts from February, 2012

Selective Enforcement Once More

Prosecutors are now quietly leaking that they don't see any criminal activity in the demise of MFGlobal. Recall that MFGlobal fraudently looted $ 1.6 billion from customer accounts that were, by law, supposed to be segregated from the firm's own assets. Now, it turns out, prosecutors are leaking that this all seems to be an innocent mistake. Interesting, after Goldman Sachs has been blistered over and over again by the SEC and by state prosecutors for activities that no one had ever considered anything other than ordinary market-making. In the brave new Obama world, Attorney General Holder and his cronies in state law enforcement invented new criminal activities where there were none, in order to make political headlines at the expense of Goldman Sachs. But now, when former Democratic Senator and Governor John Corzine is the one whose hands appear to have dipped into the cookie jar, this all is being washed up as simply an innocent mistake. Never mind that innocent customer

If You Build, They Will Come

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Readers will know that I have been a loyal follower of EAH. Depending on your entry price, EAH's performance may have been less than desirable over the last 6 months. However, when you take in the 1 for 2 free warrants and 1 for 2 bonus issue, the real effect is pretty good. Now, why would a company keep doing these kind of issues. It is important if your desire is to grow and make the Main Board. Secondly, its also an effective way to reward shareholders. EAH just announced its 4Q2011 results and the full year's results have been tabulated below: I don't know about you but from RM4m to RM11m net profit is nothing to be sneezed at. We should also ignore the diluted EPS because the warrants are only convertible at 40 sen compared to current share price of 20 sen. Hence at 20 sen, the stock is trading at historical PER of less than 4x . It is after all an ACE counter but investors should be looking at the growth percentages over PER to get at a more realistic valuation. This

The Price of Energy

As gas prices careen toward $ 5 per gallon, we are reminded that fossil fuels are the only game in town. For all of the waste and corruption of the Obama energy policy, it is good old drill, drill, drill that provides any hope of slowing the increase in gas prices at the pump. Obama seems perplexed. He notes that energy consumption is down. So, why are prices up? Is he aware of China and India? They use energy too. Guess what? They are going to keep pushing the demand for energy higher and higher. Even with oil at $ 300 per barrel, one wonders if Solyndra would have made it. This is the most naive administration regarding fundamental economics in the past hundred years. Somehow, they think a few windmills will get it done. It won't. Sooner or later, even the Obama crowd will realize that the US must tap its fossil fuel reservoir, potentially the largest such reservoir in the world. Higher prices at the pump has a partial offset in profits and jobs in the US energy sector

Buffett as Buffoon

Becky Quick and Joe Kiernan took Warren Buffett to task this morning on CNBC for his hypocritical stance on income taxation. Joe suggested, as has Governor Christie recently, that if Warren is so intent on paying more in income taxes why doesn't he write a check. Buffett's response: his writing a check would not solve our deficit problem. Interesting answer. Neither would putting a surcharge on "millionaires and billionaires." Raising taxes on the rich would not put a dent in the deficit problem that the US faces. It doesn't matter whether just Buffett pays up or whether he is joined by his rich buddies. It won't move the needle. So, why won't he write a check and show the way if he believes that is the "right thing to do." Why? Because, Buffett is a hypocrite. He wants to appear to be the good guy, knowing full well that all he has to do to avoid income tax is shift his assets around and have no taxable income at all and pay no taxes wh

Remembering Bukit Merah

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Mitsubishi Quietly Cleans Up Its Former Refinery Rahman Roslan for The New York Times Lai Kwan prepares to bathe her son, Cheah Kok Leong, who was born with severe mental disabilities. She believes that his condition is related to the radioactive exposure she received while working at the Mitsubishi Chemical’s refinery in Bukit Merah. By  KEITH BRADSHER Published: March 8, 2011 RECOMMEND TWITTER LINKEDIN SIGN IN TO E-MAIL PRINT REPRINTS SHARE BUKIT MERAH, Malaysia — Hidden here in the jungles of north-central  Malaysia , in a broad valley fringed with cave-pocked limestone cliffs topped with acacia and durian trees, lies the site of the largest radiation cleanup yet in the rare earth industry. Residents blamed a rare earth refinery for   birth defects   and eight leukemia cases within five years in a community of 11,000 — after many years with no leukemia cases. Seven of the leukemia victims have since died. The Bukit Merah case is little known even elsewhere in Malaysia, and virtually

Is it Viable for EPF to support Subprime Loan? (Feb2012)

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In 2008, we have seen the catastrophic effect from the subprime mortgage loan in US. Even now, US is still struggling to fully recover from their worst financial crisis since Great Depression. The problems doesn't build in one day, in fact, it took years to snowball the problem. And, yet Malaysia seems like wanting to catch up with them by supporting the subprime loan. But, the unique part of our version is " using EPF monies "? When news first broke out last month that EPF would be channelling RM1.5bil for a special public housing scheme, alarm bells sounded off for many contributors. Maybe EPF already knew the result for last year performance, it announced later that contributors are getting a decade-high dividend rate of 6%. Salute to EPF. Since EPF are doing so good even without the said "loan", then, why EPF have to take the risk to loan out to this scheme? Afterthat, EPF published a statement claiming that the money is loaned to the Government, not to ind

Classic Value-Momentum Investing Candidate

I wrote about Ewein back in November which had a run then and then fizzled out. Over the last few days, volume and price activity have perked up significantly again. Will that fizzle out as well? No one knows. Sometimes, we have to note these momentum driven plays (with good fundamentals), sometimes it may take more than one run to "confirm" things. A stock may run on news of certain corporate developments, but as we all know the germination of an idea takes time to execute. Maybe this run is a better prelude to a proper move, I might be wrong again, but considering that the share has not had a significant run for more than a year, its a calculated good bet. Key levels, 99 sen, its 4 week high and 1.15 its 52 week high. Date Open Range Close Change Volume 24/02/2012 0.925 0.92 - 0.975 0.965 +0.04 (4.32%) 1,213,900 23/02/2012 0.89 0.88 - 0.93 0.925 +0.035 (3.93%) 1,011,300 22/02/2012 0.84 0.835 - 0.895 0.89 +0.05 (5.95%) 764,100 21/02/2012 0.805 0.825 - 0.85 0.84 +0.035 (4.35%

"The Rich are Bulletproof"

So spoke Meredith Whitney, bank analyst of some note this morning on CNBC. As Ms. Whitney described our current economic plight, she marched through one set of new regulations after another that are roadblocks set up to thwart the economic future of middle and lower income Americans, while noting that the rich are unaffected by all of the new Obama Regulatory regime. Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Protection Agency are open assaults on the American middle class. It has now become much, much harder to get any kind of credit -- be it a mortgage, a home equity loan, a credit card, a pay day loan, whatever. The nanny state has decided that middle and low income Americans should take their business to the loan shark community. We've seen all of this before. In the name of protecting middle and low income Americans, the Obama Administration has put middle America into an economic straight-jacket. Credit is the life blood of any economy, but by declaring war on those who issue credit to

TheEdge - Lipper Malaysia Fund Awards 2012

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The highly regarded The Edge-Lipper Malaysia Fund Awards 2012 was held at the Kuala Lumpur convention Centre on 20 February 2012. This award is given out to honor the unit trusts and asset managers that have excelled in delivering consistently strong risk-adjusted performance, relative to peers.   For those who missed out the show, below is the list of awards and its recipients. Wait... Where is Public Mutual? Please read the full article below.

Why Felda Global Ventures Is So Important To So Many

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The investing community seems to regard Felda Global Ventures as another mega sized listing, and just happily trading the stock when it lists. It is a cash cow for sure, but its also about the equitable treatment of the settlers/stakeholders/peasants/farmers. There are news, theories and conspiracies. Read and try to discern and ask more probing questions, we all should arrive at our own conclusions. At least for now the injunction is  approved, thus halting the steamrolling listing. ------------ From Business Times today: The highly anticipated drama at Koperasi Permodalan Felda Malaysia Bhd (KPF)’s headquarters here today fizzled out when it cancelled its extraordinary general meeting (EGM). In a statement yesterday, the 224,000-strong cooperative said the meeting was called off following the Kuantan High Court’s temporary injunction blocking the transfer of shares from the cash-rich cooperative to Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd. Felda Global is on its way to a listing on Bursa