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Local market, view as one of the most defensive market in the world, suffering the same fate as regional market this round. The correction which started early of August had actually hit our shores too. Who say we are in a better position when market downturn? No one raised their hands now. Ha..aaa. Historically, our local market is very " Dull " if foreigners do not participate here. KLCI shoot up because there is an in-flow of foreign funds into Bursa Malaysia. During that time, we are very joyful and assumed that they're in for long-term (until recently). Don't be " syok-sendiri laa " bro. Investors are here because they want to make profit. After achieving their goals, what would they do? Of course, taking profit (and bring down KLCI) and left our country. Then, when is the best time to leave? Now or never. In other words, KLCI went up and go down mainly because of foreign funds. Retail investors definitely do not have the power to muscle the markets. Agr...

Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently announced the result of Asia 200 survey, which ranked the top 10 companies of selected countries according to financial reputation, corporate reputation, quality, vision, and innovation. Want to know the winners of Malaysia? Wall Street Journal: "For the second year in a row, Public Bank Bhd ranked 1st overall among Malaysian companies. The bank's profit rose 20% to RM 2.2 billion on a 12% rise in revenue during the first nine months of the year. Customer deposits grew at an annualized rate of 12.2%. Public Bank, Malaysia's 3rd largest lender by assets behind Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd (CIMB), also ramped up its Tier 1 capital ratio while touting a dramatically lower impaired-loans ratio at 1.2%, versus 3.4% for the industry overall." Source: Wall Street Journal Meanwhile, CIMB Group this year makes a new showing on the Asia 200 list, with a #7 spot. The group helm under Dato' Sri Nazir Razak,...

Recently, a mid-size brokerage firm in London states the possible corporate tussle in UK gaming company - Rank . What's interesting in UK in fact is the two Malaysian tycoons, Tan Sri Quek Leng Chan and Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay . Rumour is brewing on the possible corporate tussle between the two to gain bigger control of the company. As at June 30, 2010, Quek's Guoco Group Ltd and Lim's Genting Bhd owned 29.95% and 11.59% respectively. Speculation that Guoco may raise its stake in Rank to a more significant level has been around for some time. This seems more likely now because Rank has improved its operating performance, and it fits into Quek's style of owning at least a 60% stake in each of his core listed companies. Genting is said to be monitoring the situation very closely, as Genting has just perform its multi-billion related party transaction (Genting Singapore sold its UK gaming operations to Genting Malaysia). In my view, any actions taken would be coming from ...

The past two months have seen a slew of activities within the Genting group. Other than the spectacular result shown by Genting Singapore (GENS), Genting seems to be treating unfairly to another son – Genting Malaysia (GENM). 1 st , GENM to buy Genting UK from GENS for £426m or RM 2.1 bn. (See figure 1) 2 nd , GENM has won a bid to develop and operate Aqueduct racino in New York City . (See figure 2) Well, the Aqueduct deal appears promising, with its key appeal being its strategic location just two subway stops from the New York subway. However, the UK assets seem to be too expensive for GENM to swallow. According to CIMB research, the acquisition price seems slightly high at 1.2x price/book value. Recall GENS originally bought these assets back in 2006 for £ 699 m and three impairment charges taken since then have reduced the book value to the current £ 289 m. No wonder minority shareholders are against the deal. Surprisingly, the proposed acquisition gets the go-ahead signal ...