I feel the commentary is rather opaque - just repeating what we ourselves could determine form the data provided.

What I find somewhat disturbing is the steep rise in receivables. Why? - it drains the cash flow, we incur a financial cost, there may concomitantly be higher bad debts and the remote possibility of phantom sales (hopefully not).

Fabien - I think Petron's fortunes will be affected insofar as to a lower market value of their inventory levels which if marked-to-market will show a loss in the income statement.

However it's a downstream entity. Some products are fixed in their prices and some, there could be a time lag before Petron is compelled to reduce the price - which by then the old high-priced inventory may have run down hence not severely denting profit margins. As for the fixed price ones (like engine oil), it translates into fatter profit margins.

Please someone - correct me if I'm wrong.

It's a question of price vs valuation. The price may be low but I valued it higher. The truth will be revealed (and I will hopefully be proven right) when the quarterly results are announced.

This is what i extracted from an overview about Petronas Dagangan - can anyone spot the difference with Petron?

"Committed to an aggressive growth journey, PDB continuously delivers innovative products and differentiated services in its four core businesses of Retail, Commercial, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Lubricants. The Company invests extensively in research and development (R&D) to ensure that PDB continues to offer a wide range of internationally-recognised high quality petroleum products including motor gasoline, aviation fuel, diesel, fuel oil, LPG, kerosene and asphalt"

Basically the key difference i believe is that Petron has a refinery

petdag PE is about 17+; petron PE is about 4+.Something's seriously wrong. Maybe we're missing out something.

Kawkaw - logically a profitable company that pays out dividends at a rate lower than EPS, the chances of falling below 6 (barring unforseen circumstances) becomes lower & lower as time goes by

TQ TQ TQ silom - At least now we shareholders know the full tax impact. Noted that the total taxes (Gaming, Pool-betting & Service) for profitable NFO draws amount to approximately 17.9% to 18.3% of gross sales.

I love it when the govt is transparent. There's greater accountability and less room for corruption.

below 7 - just tutup mata & buy

The market seem to shun this co.

The only thing that can save this counter is a solid Sep 2018 earnings

any speculation on the next quarterly EPS?

good arbitrage 4m!

with poor dividends, who wants to buy this co's shares?

Good to see a lot of share buybacks

We should expect dividends of 30 sen. Is that too much to ask? Am I asking too much?
Coz if i am then we're nothing but sheep being herded to the final slaughterhouse!

how low can you go?

Even if the current govt was run by monkeys which ate bananas all day long, they would be better than the previous who were busy filling their pockets at every opportunity.

I asked the board's opinion as to whether there'll be any additional taxes this coming budget. They said unlikely as the business is already struggling and existing taxes are heavy. Lamented about the usual illegals. Members shared some views on this including lobbying together with other NFOs.

The new CEO is not that articulate & some members don't seem to have a good opinion about him. However he comes across to me as someone who understands the business well.

One sharp member pointed out in the notes to the accounts where it was revealed that the directors paid about RM6m+ (0 previous year) on special bonus. They forgot to explain as they were inundated with questions.

Levying taxes is a skilled art.

The key to a good tax system is to "pluck the goose's feathers with minimum hissing".

Petrol and gas is still a necessity despite rumours on taxes

& now, the end is near, & so I face the final curtain ... haha

Considering the route across the market, Petron is holding up pretty well

If it's any relief, the share price can never go into negative territory haha

It's 10.35am and no trades yet for the day?!!

looks like i've stirred up some comments.

I was looking at the top 30 shareholders. Strangely missing are KWSP & KWAP. They normally have their fingers in almost every pie..

looks like everyone's keeping quiet. It must be bad luck to talk about a stock haha

A strong finish - good!

Sometimes when parties want to acquire a stock for cheap, they may make sure that the price lingers at a low level for a long time so that players would reckon that that is indeed the actual value of the stock. They then nibble or swallow large gobs and before you know it, it becomes pretty expensive to buy.

What a rotten deal! We the shareholders have no clue as to how the initial large figure was derived and how the final settlement was arrived. Was it just arm-twisting by LHDN? Did somebody make money here?

The payments will certainly be a bloody big strain on the future cash flows.

Next time the govt is short of money, just pick on Magnum again & say that you owe the govt say RM100m back taxes. Then a few months later negotiate down to RM60m - That's easy 60m in the pocket for doing nothing but bullying!

If everyone who can hold actually hold & not sell then the share price (all things equal) will rise to its fundamental value

I believe that 30 sen dividends is a definite possibility

Another day at the casino - maybe today is the day of great fortunes!

Caught it!

if it goes any lower, I'm there to catch it. This Co so far is making good profit so its value should rise in tandem.

Don't fret fellow investors - if the same earnings momentum keeps up, the share price will eventually rise and we can expect a handsome dividend. You can't keep a good guy down for too long.

Nice to see a party going on with a lot of conversations - always happens when petron is on a bull run!

kevinobc https:Putrajaya appoints Petron as a fuel provider for gov't vehicles

I'm sure that it's in addition to Petronas

Like a long distance runner, Petron is coming from behind for a strong finish. Yahoo!!

Just hold firm to your fundamental beliefs on this counter and eventually no matter how they play up or down, the truth will ultimately prevail.

oops just accessed historical data - it's the norm

as i write, the volume traded = 618k. ive not monitored other days - is this normal?

Booster rockets not working

The Co Sect pretend not to know the announcement procedure. Should it be the quarter in respect of which the dividend is paid or is it the quarter the div is actually paid or the quarter in which it goes ex.

I've personally become a victim of such announcement as I quickly react before the market does only to realise that I've been fooled. I'm going to call bursa on this.

I agree that prices should go beyond 10 - that's why I'm stubbornly holding on to my portfolio.

I've been in the market long enough to infer that sometimes big players use financial behavior & psychology to buy a good stock cheap or sell a worthless one expensive.

BTW - our earnings beat Petdag. To add insult to injury, they pay dividends - yet their share price is more than 3 times compared to Petron. Their PE is 16 times while ours hover around 5.5 times.

I can't figure out why!

john0909 Apparently it seems like petronm cashflow / receivable got affected (perhaps due to the petrol subsidize) hence the revolving loan of 240mil in...

I think you're right. The subsidy mechanism I understand is that if price of crude goes up then the govt will pay the petrol station operators & if crude goes south, then the operators will pay the govt. The govt as it is today is hard pressed for funds so that could be the receivables.

Looks like the booster rockets are not working as expected haha

Hello TakeProfits - this 3 sen dividend is misleading. It refers to the dividend paid on 25 Jun 2018. So it's no dividend. The Co has only 18m cash & 3 sen will amount to 22m.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

I hope the EPS will serve like booster rockets to drive the share price to the stratosphere.

I hope the share price tomorrow will do justice

john0909 what is that revolving credit - unsecured 240,000mil?

Just think of rev credit as a much bigger form of bank OD. Petron needs it as it's working capital has increased reducing "Cash flow from operations" by a whopping RM368m