I originally viewed TDM as a plantation Group with a healthcare arm. About 17 years ago, the healthcare segment only accounted for about 16% of the Group revenue. The Group plantation operations then was mainly in Malaysia and this accounted for a large part of the Group’s revenue.
The Group decided to expand it plantations segment by venturing to Indonesia. It took several years to get this going such that the maiden revenue from the Indonesian plantation was only i...

We have read stories about how some of the Malaysian media groups “suddenly” have to close down their newspaper operations due digital disruption. Digital disruption does not happen overnight and you would have thought that companies would have years to prepare for this.
One good example of a company that took step to anticipate digital disruption is Asia File. This is a global filing company. We all know that digital technology is changing the way we store...

Universal Stainless and Alloy Products (USAP) is a US specialty alloy manufacturer. In Sept last year, my analysis showed that there was no margin of safety. As such I opined that it was not an investment opportunity.
However since then the market price had gone up by 80%. Do I regret not buying it?
I just updated my analysis of USAP and reached the same conclusion ie that it is still overpriced. My conclusion was based on US...

Some times companies look for new ventures because the existing ones are not able to scale up. But new venture use up funds.
Take the case of Protasco.  The company has reported 11 business segments even though the revenue for 2023 was only about 1 RM billion.
You may be forgiven for wondering whether management is just trying many things to see what works. When you look at the chart, you can see that only one segment is driving revenue an...

I differentiate between a good company and a good investment. A good company is one that is fundamentally sound. A good investment is one that can enable you to make money.
A sound company may not be a good investment if it is overpriced. A good example of this is NYSE Avery Dennison.
I rated it as fundamentally strond based on a number of criteria - eg 5% organic growth, improving net margin, ROE trending up, and good capital all...

Bursa Malaysia Eksons used to have 2 business segments – timber (mfg of veneer and plywood) and property development. But in early 2023, it closed down the timber business. At the same time, there is no new property development projects. The company is merely selling off its stocks of plywood and unsold properties.
But the company is cash rich due to the closing down of the timber business. It has RM274 million in cash or cash equivalent (investment securities) as...

NYSE Silgan is a leading manufacturer of sustainable rigid packaging solutions for the world. growth over the past 13 years was driven more by acquisitions than organic growth. It was also due more to price growth rather than volume growth.
Acquisitions were carried out at an unsustainable Reinvestment rate. There were also no uptrends in the ROE and operating parameters. All these do not point to strong fundamentals.
There is only some margin of safety if you believ...

Before becoming an Islamic banking group in 2017, MBSB was mainly a property financier. This changed with the acquisition of Asian Finance Bank in 2017 as this propelled MBSB into Malaysia’s second-largest standalone Islamic Bank.
But as can be seen from the return charts, this also resulted in reducing its returns from both the ROE and ROA perspective.
Of course this was the combination of lower bottom line with more assets and equity. The point is that i...

Bursa Malaysia Crescendo’s performance over the past 12 years has been impacted by the soft property market. Despite this environment, the Group managed to be profitable every year. But the property sector is cyclical and with the post-Covid-19 opening of the economy, the bottom of the cycle has been reached.
Crescendo's outlook is optimistic. Positioned near vital projects like Iskandar Malaysia and Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex, it is poised for growth i...

You may think that being a privatized port operator for the whole of Sabah would make Suria Capital a company with good returns. Unfortunately over the past 12 years, the company only achieved an average ROE of 6%.
In fact quite a substantial part of its profits came from non-port operations such as property and investments.
I think this is because the economic activities in Sabah is not as developed as those in Peninsular Malaysia. While it is a growi...