Kukuman: Come, what's your real name? I'll look for you at the EGM. And we will discuss your postings WITH Vincent Leaw in person (I'm sure he'd love to hear your statement about him still having back door dealings with his brothers). Let's see you if you have the balls.

If you decline, that proves that you're nothing more and nothing less than a lying, spineless troll.

GoGoBenalec: What to do, the nick implies something but obviously he kecut-ed until nothing after refusing to explain his ridiculously outlandish statements.

1) Claims the Leaw brothers are still doing back door dealings with regards to Benalec.

2) Benalec should sue The Edge Malaysia for libel. Couldn't explain how one is supposed to sue for libel when they reported the truth. Asked him to elaborate he countered with something takin to "why are you so obsessed with legal matters" even though he brought it up in the first place.

3) States we should not rely on information from the boss alone but also from staff/ex-staff. Asked him if he knows any, refuses to answer (which means he probably doesn't know anyone lah).

Was hoping that he got a lawyer's love letter from Benalec (for libel lah) and that he'd promptly shut up because of it. Evidently not, so we have to tolerate his pure bullshit once again on this forum.

Oh and here's my price purchase chart just FYI.

25/02/2014 (Day 1): 0.885
<don't really need to state all the rubbish in between, which is just wasting time for the readers here>
16/06/2014 (Day 107): 1.12 (up 23.5 sen _AND_ ( this is the part lying troll tends to ignore, up 26.5%!)

I am delighted at this company's share price increase from my initial purchase and look forward to it delivering better results in the future.

And once again the lying (and spineless) troll Kukuman has refused to answer the question.

He claimed that there are back door dealings between the brothers in Benalec even after Vincent Leaw remained the sole executive director.

Till today he has not presented proof of that statement.

Selectively answering (as well as avoiding parts of) a question is a sign that you're simply put, a liar.

A liar without balls that is.

A certain lying troll (kukuman) will say only "20 cents in 88 days". Me, I say almost 25% in 3 months.

Personally I think that's a pretty decent investment return. Of course others may differ.

Ah, and since that lying troll is back, I will ask the question again. Kukuman you claim that there are still back door dealing with the brothers in Benalec. Till today, you still have not shown proof to back up your statement.

Kindly do so, or I will believe that you still haven't found your balls as yet.

wee889: You weren't here during the kukuman era (2-3 months ago), I take it? :p

And yeah some of the forums here are brutal, especially when prices are on a downtrend. Took a look at the sona forums earlier this week and it was pretty brutal.

xncziyi44: If you can, always attend company meetings (either EGM/AGM) and interact with the directors and management. This is especially true if you consider the amount you've invested to be a sizeable sum.

I've met so many different managers in the process. Some of whom are humble and self-deprecating, whilst others... you meet the person and after you're done, you're calling your broker to sell your shares.

The most memorable incident was years ago when I met the MD of a listed firm, which was involved in the automotive industry. Think this was some time before he got a Tan Sri-ship (long story there, heh), and the guy was seriously oozing snake oil. He literally was exuding sleaze.

If I recall correctly, I advised friends who were invested to cut their losses and they all sold by the very next day. (I was attending the meeting as their proxy)

Of course not long after that the company imploded in a blaze of glory and was subsequently delisted.

Till today I still run into banker friends who are dealing with him (debt restructuring issues) and every one of them still say he's the same sleazy chap.

splendid_ignorance: Queue support actually looks pretty decent. I'm actually guessing the early morning (9-10am) price drop was because a lot of traders (institutionals and retailers) woke up late because of world cup. :p

Am going to hazard a guess that closing will be 50-50 between 1.13 and 1.14.

Of course there's a good chance I'll be wrong since I suspect my sense of timing is as bad as (if not worse than) yours.

Whenever I buy something, my friends get ready to sell. When I sell, they get ready to buy. When I arbitrage shares that I have, I end up facepalming myself. :p

Only medium/long term trades seem to work out for me, heh.

Eh, if you're basing this on Affin's recommendation, don't go overboard yeah. They've had that recommendation for over a year now.

Cheers. =)


Also, an article in the Star's Business section today.

Affin Research maintains Trading Buy on Benalec
http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Investing/2014/06/13/Affin-Research-maintains-Trading-Buy-on-benalec/

Long term keep.

Short term, I have no clue.

powerwk: An international tender means it's open to everyone, doesn't matter what country you're from.

A local tender would be say open only to Malaysians/Malaysian majority owned companires.

So yes, Benalec can (and will probably) submit a bid. But they'll also be competing against the big guns from other countries.

Ring: Nope. This is the third 6 month extension they've done.

The previous two 6 month extension announcements.

12 June 2013
http://www.bursamalaysia.com/market/listed-companies/company-announcements/1320201

12 December 2013
http://www.bursamalaysia.com/market/listed-companies/company-announcements/1490669


And they do not have the EIA approval as yet (this is confirmed). Hence the extensions are not because of pricing issues between Benalec's subsidiary and 1 MY SOT, but because there's no point coming to a price agreement if you still don't have the EIA approval to go ahead and start work.

Yep, I think it was to be expected. EIA still hasn't been approved after all.

http://www.bursamalaysia.com/market/listed-companies/company-announcements/1655213

sky4524: Don't think that distance is really that much of an issue. Shifting of vessels along the coastline isn't too hard a thing for them to do.

Especially when you consider the amount of money involved for a job of this scale, I'm sure Benalec would like a slice of (if not the whole) the pie.


Been reading up more on STP1 and am guessing that Benalec didn't participate in a major way since physical works at the site started in 1998.

Can't tell how big Benalec was back then (IPO financials go back only to 2008), but am guessing it was still a very small firm at that time.

Okay, just got off the phone with a friend who checked on this.

STP1 was done by Tidal Marine Engineering S/B. This firm is owned by Dr Nik Mohd Kamel, who's fairly well known as the principal of Dr Nik and Associates S/B.

We're a bit stunned at this in all honesty. Didn't think that Tidal Marine had the financial firepower to handle a job of that size (239 acres).

[Incidentally, good last minute memory recall and deleting that post, Zero. XD]

And it's confirmed that the tender to be called for STP2 will be an international tender.

speakup: Considering that they've only received the 10% deposit from the RM235m, hoping for a special dividend anytime soon is a bit optimistic. The progress payments will go on until 3Q2016.

I would strongly urge you to take the time to read the EGM circular on the land sale (http://www.bursamalaysia.com/market/listed-companies/company-announcements/1652405) to understand how and when the progress payments are expected.


zero: Term sheet expired yesterday. Following past precedents, they would renew it the next trading day after. Meaning we should see the announcement (for renewal) sometime today.


wongwee: Hard to say. There's also the 1MY Strategic Oil Terminal job (1000 acres), the rest of Tanjung Piai/Pengerang reclamations to consider. If none of them happen anytime soon, then I would say we're banging on them doing further land sales in Melaka/Pulau Indah (over 500 acres to go).

If you're looking for short term price movements, in all honesty I'd tell you that reading this forum probably won't help at all. Almost every prediction I've seen (sure hit RM1, sure hit RM1.10, sure hit RM1.20, sure hit RM1.50 etc) has been way off the mark, or they have that excellent qualifier added at the end of the statement, i.e. "soon").

If you're looking at the long term, prospects are still decent/good.

powerwk: Yep, good point.

wongwee: Benalec will probably be in the running. How good their chances are is something I have no idea of at this time.

powerwk: With a job of this size though, you find that foreign players would definitely be interested to come in.

Zero (before he deleted his comment, since he wasn't sure if he was mixing it up with Johor :p) said that STP1 could have been done by one of the Dutch/Belgian firms.

To give you an idea of how big these foreign firms can be:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_De_Nul
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Boskalis_Westminster
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Oord
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEME

Each of them has revenues in excess of EUR1.5 billion a year, and of course with an impressive fleet at their service. Whichever firm that did STP1 will probably have an edge against its competitors for STP2 (relationships etc, and assuming that they did their job well - after all, we always prefer to deal with people we know rather than those we don't).

Some people probably won't like me highlighting this here, but I'd prefer to be realistic and get as much information as possible.

zero: Heh, all good. So far I can't find evidence that reclamation STP1 was done by a local company (at least not as the contractor/principal subcontractor). Chances are it's still a foreign party who did it.

Will look into it later on.

zero: Thanks. I was guessing it was something like that hence why I'm only 50-50 on Benalec getting STP2.

Eh, why'd you delete your comment?

Does anyone know who did the reclamation work for Seri Tanjung Pinang Phase 1? Been trying to figure that one out as I was ruminating on kurangmanis's question.

To my knowledge, it wasn't Benalec that did it. Wondering who did.

kurangmanis: E&O has the concession rights to reclaim the land (and do development) for the area that's known as Seri Tanjung Pinang Phase 2 (STP2).

E&O is of course a major property developer, they're not reclamation specialists. So the assumption here is that they'll contract out the reclamation works. When that's done, they'll build the properties on their own/contract it out.

As there are very few reclamation specialists in the country, Benalec's prospects of getting the contract/a portion of the contract (as a subcontractor) is pretty good. This is of course assuming that the field isn't opened to foreign reclamation specialists.

splendid_ignorance: Whoops, I missed that part about treasury shares. Knew I was forgetting something. :p


powerwk: I, or an associate will definitely attend the EGM (excluding force majeure :p). Already drafted/drafting a list of questions to be asked either on the open floor or if we can corner the boss/senior management before/after the EGM.

Will of course reproduce any of the answers that we feel are relevant here.


crawler: Heh, and you're the one saying I'm naive for waiting for details in black and white? Now it's wait for the news to unfold first?


Also, just to clarify, if you have questions for Benalec, you could always contact them to find some answers. Don't think they're really answering their investor relations emails at the moment, but you could always give them a call and speak to the IR manager. His name is Victor.

The phone number/IR e-mail address is available on Benalec's website.

thinkkfully: There are four options that a company has with regard to treasury shares.

a) Keep it. By doing this, any cash dividends issued, part of the payout is reduced since it goes back to the company via treasury shares.
b) Cancel the shares. This reduces the amount of shares in issue and increases the EPS for existing shareholders.
c) Sell the shares. This assumes that the company will make a profit when they do so, increasing their cash flow. However when this is done it usually means that the company believes the share price is fully valued (or in case of a company not doing so well, that they need the money for operations)
d) Dividend in specie. A share dividend to existing shareholders. This seems to be the most common route to reward existing shareholders. However as the treasury shares currently come to just a little over 1% of the company's paid up capital at the moment, this is unlikely for now. I.e. a dividend in specie if announced now will be 1 for every 100 shares held which is very small.

Considering that the majority of buybacks are quite recent, I believe the company will just hang onto the shares for now.


And for the record, treasury shares are not used for bonus issues.

Heh, okay. We'll see.

Heh, okay. To put it again, let's agree to disagree.

You like to pin things on your hopes and dreams that things will work out.

Me, I'd rather be realistic.

Bonescythe, what people cannot see is simply assumptions. The only time you get ahead is if you have kangtao/insider news.

And crawler, I'm not interested in what's printed in black and white on newspapers. They can be wrong, they can also be rumour mongering and assuming things.

I'd rather see the announcement from the horse's mouth itself, i.e. the company. If they announce it on Bursa, I'll believe it, till then carry on.


I do have one question for bonescythe though. If Benalec doesn't win STP2, then what? Don't get me wrong, I am hoping that they'll win the job. But what if they don't? What happens to your analysis and playbook? Anchor and adjust?

Then you'll be looking to the RM235m sale and thanking your stars.

I also note with amusement that you view the "HoA for wadever thing is not impactful". Makes me wonder if you even read the circulars, heh.


So far I've seen four types of traders. There's the insider/syndicate type who gets news before hand (sadly, not me), then there's those who believe in FA (I'm one of them), others who believe in TA (not me), and then there's the type who main tembak (or listen to rumours), close your eyes and pray that things work out. :p

powerwk: Most logical, rational shareholders will vote for the HoA. Of course there's always a fear that those who are illogical might show up (i.e. kukuman won 6/58, with his winnings bought into Benalec, and shows up at the EGM and votes against it :p).

Am reading the HoA circular now, the one thing that does cover things is item 14 (Approval Required) on Page 30. That basically does cover the situation as best as they can if shareholders vote against the resolution.

To quote from the second paragraph, "As set out in Section 13.1 above, with regards to the HoA settlement arrangements as set out in Sections 2 to 10 of this Circular, notwithstanding the outcome of the EGM for the Proposed HoA Ratification, those items that had been completed shall remain effective"

Translation, whatever has already been completed as part of the agreement shouldn't be undone (cat's out of the bag, horse has fled the barn, bucket has spilt its milk) even if shareholders don't like it.

The only two items that aren't completed as yet as part of the global settlement is the "Citypoint Suit" (should be less than RM1m that Benalec has to pay them by beginning of July next month to complete the matter) and The Access Road (not sure how to calculate any liabilities on Benalec's part - if based on the cost of road, less than RM13m).

Besides that everything is basically thumbs up. Still reading the circular slowly, will chime in if I spot anything else.

And yes, the share price can sometimes be illogical. :p So don't know if it'll go up or down after this (and the EGM). There may be some disappointment tomorrow as the 1 Malaysia Strategic Oil Terminal term sheet expires tomorrow (and will likely be extended for another 6 months).

1.17 to 1.18 atm.

Circulars for the EGM on the 25th of June have been issued.

Regarding the RM235m land sale to Ultra Harmony:
http://www.bursamalaysia.com/market/listed-companies/company-announcements/1652405

Regarding the Heads of Agreement ratification:
http://www.bursamalaysia.com/market/listed-companies/company-announcements/1652537

Disagree. This is not a sale or a purchase. This (the EIA) is the approval for you to start doing work, whether you're able to sell your work is another question altogether.

Sona's case was partly due to the fact they made the announcement with very limited details (and the fact that they have to gear up to almost 1) to make the purchase.

On the balance of things, doubt that any such news (EIA approval) would cause a sell down.

Share buyback announcement by Benalec today. 300,000 @ RM1.13.

http://www.bursamalaysia.com/market/listed-companies/company-announcements/1652121


crawler: To each his own. I'm in this for the long term, not for a quick exit. You might think it naive to wait for the black and white, whilst I think the same for someone who's "hoping" that it will happen soon.

This is a bit like people believing that Benalec has already won the Sri Tanjung Pinang 2 job... even though the tender hasn't even been called for yet.

The EGM for the HoA ratification and the RM235m land sale has been announced.

10am, 25 June 2014 (Wednesday) at Holiday Inn, Shah Alam.

EGM notice for Land Sale (10am)
http://www.bursamalaysia.com/market/listed-companies/company-announcements/1651945

EGM notice for the Heads of Agreement ratification (10.30am)
http://www.bursamalaysia.com/market/listed-companies/company-announcements/1651953

crawler: I don't believe that to be true until I see the approval announced in black and white.

"will be approved" just doesn't cut it. It could be approved say in a year or two's time (personally I don't believe there'll be an outright rejection, but a delay is quite probable).

Anytime someone says, approval by "xxx days/weeks/months" or "real soon", I take it with a pinch of salt.

It's the same as saying, a new strategic investor has bought into the company, and no announcements declaring that ever appear (unless said strategic investor is happy with a less than 5% stake... which doesn't make sense in calling him/her a strategic investor in the first place)

Facts first, assumptions second, rumours third (usually a very distant third). That's how I've always looked at investments.

Article regarding Johor, the palace and land reclamation in the state

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/mobile/malaysia/article/putrajaya-politicians-gird-to-check-royals-influence

Muarmali: Not looking for short term trades lah, am already committed. If got supernatural kangtao for the company to get EIA approval... :p

Zero: Hopefully not that particular supernatural kangtao. XD

Muarmali: Any recommendations for a good bomoh or pawang? XD

zero: Oh yeah, forgot to add a reply to your comments on Benalec. Agreed regarding market reaction to a further extension to Tanjung Piai.

And concur, I don't think an outright cancellation will occur as the term sheet expires, it'll likely just be extended again.

The current price rally doesn't seem to have anything to do with this AFAIK. Whether it's a pure syndicated play (ha ha ha, on a non-penny stock, then again there was Harvest), insiders who know more expecting something to happen, or just institutionals coming in, we'll probably be the last to know.

Agree about Sultan of Johor. Want to add a few more things but lest I get hit with lese majeste and end up in jail. :p

zero: will look into it, but it'll take a couple of days before I can get you something (don't like to give a half assed summation) and also because end of May just finished (#@$!! companies that all love to announce quarterlies at the last minute) - so eyeballs still rolling from all the reading.

If you don't mind, I'll need an email address to send my conclusions to (I don't want to open another forum thread to follow :p, and obviously I can't post it on this thread). Feel free to set up a dummy/one use email account for us to correspond on.


bonescythe: Just read your blog, uh...a couple of things.

1) Your starting paragraph on the article "Too many chefs ruin the soup" seems to imply that it was a family dispute that resulted in Vincent Leaw taking control after pushing his brothers out. Not true. The brothers are out because they committed breach of fiduciary duties/trust to the company. This is not a Kian Joo type of situation where one side doesn't agree with the other.

2) The way you wrote it is like Benalec has already gotten STP2 in the bag which as far as I know is not true. Tenders (again to my knowledge) have not even been called yet. Feel free to elaborate if you do know more on this matter.

3) "Sole player in the industry without any possible market competitor sighted in the next 5 years" Untrue/disagree. Unless you're trying to say they are the only listed entity for a near pure reclamations specialist.

Inai Kiara is an unlisted power house (having a paid up capital near RM200m implies it), and the one thing that seems to be keeping them quiet is the amount of government jobs that they're getting.


I also note you've written all the positive points on the company whilst neglecting to list any of the difficulties that the company has i.e.no EIA approval as yet for Tanjung Piai/Pengerang.

staind86: Cheers. =)

With regards to country garden, bear in mind that the announcement for that joint venture (with KPRJ) regarding Forest City was only announced in March 2014.

If that was the initial announcement, sincerely doubt they've even gotten EIA approval yet. :p

Whilst Danga Bay was not done by Benalec, no doubt some people will be excited at the prospects if/when EIA approval is granted and tenders are called for the reclamation works.

Of course this is probably a couple of years down the road at least.

Note, I'd like to reiterate I'm still bullish at the company's prospects over the long term. Whilst without Tanjung Piai/Johor things will be really disappointing (another extension to the term sheet will be a downer), there are some decent facts to consider.

The company still has some 500 acres of land available to sale, and that's a potential RM700m in revenue (this is my own estimate) that can keep the company going for a couple of years assuming they're able to find buyer(s).

For those who are invested at a price that's lower than the current price, you're better off again waiting until the EGM just to see what visibility there is for the company (as a lot of questions will be asked then, of which the answers would probably be of interest to anyone investing/invested).

Whilst for those whose entry pricing is higher (as Zero puts it, hopefully don't end up into Longer Term investors :p), I'd probably advise you to wait till then as well. If no visibility comes about for Johor, you might want cut by then if you're tired of how things are going.

Without Johor's approval I don't see the price appreciating like what it has over the past month or so. And you'd have to wait for some other major catalyst to see it appreciate (i.e. winning E&O's Sri Tanjung Pinang 2 when it's tendered out) or the like. Johor then becomes a gamble (or prayer depending on how you look at it) which you'll only find out when it gets announced (unless you have some form of kangtao/inside source lah).

staind86:There should be two main items on the agenda. One is of course ratification by the shareholders of the HoA, and the other is the shareholders ratification of the RM235m land sale to Ultra Harmony.

And yes, if/when shareholders approve the HoA, you can say that the issue between the brothers is more or less coming to a close (it'll be final once both sides have completed all the points on the HoA).

Right now the cynic in me is always concerned that somehow or other the HoA doesn't get approved (it's voted by all the rest of the shareholders excluding the 47% or so held by the Leaw family). In other words, it's possible for shareholders to say we do not agree and the whole agreement collapses and everything goes into a tailspin.

Logically though, we have to assume that Vincent Leaw and family realise this so they've made arrangements so that friendly parties would have acquired shares for the vote when the EGM does occur (this probably includes the parties that bought the 45 million shares from them on April 9 for 77 sen).

The second item (the land sale to Ultra Harmony) is something that requires shareholder approval simply because of the value of the transaction relative to the value of the company and is no biggie (consider it as just part of the ordinary course of business).


Also as an update, I had a more detailed chat with my friend who'd contacted Benalec for more information about the EGM. According to him, the date that they were aiming for is June 25th. (Logically Bursa has to tell them in advance what date/range is acceptable since Benalec has to make arrangements to ensure that the EGM's venue is available for that date before the circular is issued)

He also inquired about the 1000 acre Tg Piai land sale and what it status is? According to Benalec, the EIA is __still pending__ and __has not been approved__ as yet.

He couldn't get anything further out of him. Whilst Benalec did confirm they had mobilised some resources in anticipation of approval they have no clear idea when such approval will be given.

I discussed this further with my friend and we're both rather cynical on the chances of Benalec getting it approved before the term sheet expires (it'll probably get another 6 month extension). We've managed to get an early timeline of the EIA application process and it is disappointing to say the least.

The original submission was in April 2012. It was rejected on July 2012. Benalec however was allowed to resubmit it in early August 2013, however Benalec voluntarily withdrew it by late August 2013 and resubmitted a few days later.

The timeline after that gets murky and we'll have to assume that there was a lot of political back door dealings/discussions to get approval.


Will throw an entertaining bone out to those who like conspiracy theories though about what might/could happen. The term sheet for Tanjung Piai expires on June 11th.

The minimum notification period to call for an EGM is 14 days.

Benalec's targetted EGM date is June 25th.

:P

This is probably nothing but a coincidence, but it can drive some people's minds onto overdrive. Much as we hope that there'll be a third item on the EGM's circular, I have to say in all honesty we are doubtful that will happen. We hope to be proven wrong of course!

Just got a call from a friend. He spoke to someone in Benalec. EGM circular still waiting for Bursa's approval but they're looking for it to happen in the last week of June.

This tidbit (about speaking to someone in Benalec) is confirmed (my friend is reliable on this).

EGM occurring end of this month to be considered as highly likely but not confirmed since it's still in Bursa's ballpark.

zero: Lol, good one. XD

For some people: Short Term = manage to sell during contra/extended contra period with profit. Medium term = couldn't sell during Short Term for profit, so have to hold.

:p

tkteoh80: Don't really have all the figures on hand atm since I'm on the move, but eh, I think your seriously underestimating the selling price.

Taking Melaka as an example. One acre is about 43,500 square feet. Benalec has been selling reclaimed land there at a price of between RM42 to RM48 per square feet. (RM1.82m to RM2.08m per acre)

If you take the time to read the analyst reports when they first covered the Tanjung Piai announcement (look for reports in mid 2013 mostly, I know CIMB did one, heh), IIRC they were talking about a selling price of about RM65 per square foot.

The higher price is mainly because the reclamation cost in Tanjung Piai is supposed to be more expensive than Melaka (I recall they were talking somewhere in the range of RM45-50 per square foot).

So even with economies of scale (1,000 acres is huge after all) the selling price is still substantially higher than what we've seen thus far.

If you want to do a back of the envelope calculation, assuming a RM65 per square foot selling price with a 20% margin:

1000 (acres) x 42,500 (square feet per acre) x RM65 (assumed selling price) =
RM2.7625 billion

Divided over five years:
RM552.5 million

And assuming a 20% profit margin:
RM110.5 million

over a current paid up capital base of 881.2 million shares you get an average EPS of:
RM0.125

Of course all this is once again assumptions, even analysts can get it wrong. I'd suggest reading up on the reports if you have the time and inclination.

Powerwk: AFAIK whilst DoE has given their approval, E&O is still waiting for the go ahead letter from the Penang state government. Once that happens, only then will they call for a tender for the reclamation works.

Thank you. Always appreciate it when people highlight research reports. I tend to miss some of them at times if not.

And for those who take the time to read my own postings (lengthy as they are) and are appreciative of it, also my thanks. It makes it worth it.

C. Balance Sheet (comparing previous quarter (Oct-Dec 2013) vs this quarter (Jan-Mar 2014))
1. Trade and Other Receivables shot up by almost RM180m, but of course this is in tandem with similar increase in Deferred Revenue from the land sales.

2. Cash at bank dropped from RM16.7m to RM4.9m. At the same time Fixed Deposits increased from RM24.7m to RM38.6m. Quite prudent but to be expected. Cash which was downpayment from land sales not yet recognised (this is probably from popiah king) is parked there pending recognition/EGM approval.

3. Borrowings were all reduced, for long term borrowings from RM9.5m to RM8.5m, long term trade and other payables from RM56.7m to RM46.8m

Now I thought this was just a question of reclassifying them from long term to current, but man, even current stuff was reduced quite well. (which is good!)

I.e. current trade and other payables from RM100.7m to RM68.2m (pretty good!), current borrowings from RM18.3m to RM13.0m. The only thing that naik is current tax liabilities (which is a good thing under the circumstances XD) from RM1.7m to RM14.9m.

They're definitely an extremely prudent chinaman company (not the Keck Seng style lah, keep growing cash and cash equivalents until the day you die) who pays on time (reminds me of Sunrise's accounts payable department, that good!). Good in terms of image, PR and also working with any future subcontractors/suppliers.

Balance Sheet wise, extremely stable.


D. Profit&Loss
Nothing much else to add except that net profit for the quarter is so low also because of an unrealised forex loss of RM2.8m (assuming this has to do with some of the work they've done in Singapore? Need to check). Keyword here is unrealised so theoretically it could turn around as well in following quarters (doubtful though). Need to find out how they're exposed and how much and for how long more.

Head aching so can't really research this at the moment.


E. Share buyback
Okay told you guys that someone on one of the forums I read claimed that Benalec had authorised a buyback of RM50m which has so far proven to be untrue. Don't want to say that he's a liar but rather that he may have been misinformed (or hell he could be right and management just doesn't want to do continuous buybacks - for some reason).

I was right about the amount though, I guessed RM10m, and it was pretty close at about RM9m. Who's buying me drinks? :p


F. EGM issues
Company said they wanted to call an EGM sometime in May for two things.
a) shareholders approval for the RM235m land sale to popiah king
b) ratify the heads of agreement with the other two brothers

So far nothing has happened (and am always worried something will derail item b)). Was wondering about that and realised that the problem lies with Bursa. For some reason they still haven't issued the damned circular to the shareholders for item a) hence no EGM. Ugh, gotta remember to call and ask what's going on there.

I think being a prudent chinaman firm, Vincent Leaw doesn't want to waste money in calling two different EGMs one to approve a) and one to ratify b). Probably thinks that b) is virtually in the bag, and I don't blame him.

I guess nothing to worry on that point although I just want b) to be over and done with so that chapter can finally be closed permanently. For now, no worries on the horizon for this issue.

Anyway that's it for this update lah.

Thought I might as well repost this here. This is what I wrote to a couple of friends who are also invested in Benalec (but don't follow forums/read announcements heh). I'm not going to polish up the language, it should be understandable as is.

A. Okay, just spent some time reading Benalec's third quarterly results (Jan-Mar 2014). Going to try and list out all the pros and cons that I see. If I miss something, blame it on the fact that I'm still down with the flu. Hard to think straight.

Quarterly results were what I expected it to be, profitable but weak and unexciting. All this is of course due to revenue/reporting timing.

Yes there were a lot of exciting announcements of land sales, but most of them happened in March (with one in May):

May 5 - 415 acres reclamation work / RM203m+ (still wonder how much rock revetment works will be worth) from Oriental
Mar 20 - 128.52 acres sale / RM235m to Ultra Harmony (the popiah king! :p)
Mar 13 - 23.01 acres for sale / RM48m to Teobros (this is the land they got back from the two brothers and spun it off for resale for a much higher profit)

As Benalec's one of those companies that join the herd mentality (like 99% of all bursa listed firms) for releasing their quarterly results near the end of the 2 month limit (okaylah, releasing it today on the 22nd is better than right to the last minute either on the 29th or 30th) we'll always get the information late. Things may be very the exciting right now for the company, but hell we'll only find out the details sometime near the end of August (for the 4th quarter results).

Putting it bluntly, you can sure expect a lot of price weakness in the short term. The fellars who never read quarterly/annual reports will be screaming, "DIE LAH! Only RM2M profit! Where is RM500m+ of revenue that's supposed to come in?!?!?" As per usual, not a single one of them will use their brain (or at least attempt to do so) to try to understand what's happening.

Okay let me put a caveat, bet you the weakness only shows on Monday and not tomorrow (Friday). You know how typical retail investors are, fairly slow on the uptake.

So does that mean you should arbitrage tomorrow? I don't dare say so, because for sure it'll be a case of sell all, and end of the day, announcement that 1MY SOT gets signed. XD


Okay highlights from the quarterly report.
B. Under the notes to the report.

Item 18 - Prospects
I like the opening line, "The Group feels entirely justified in maintaning a very positive outlook in terms of prospects for the next several years."

Overall they wrote a very glowing future outlook, not going to reproduce it here, you guys for once go read the damned thing lah. :p

This is in contrast to so many other company reports that I read. "The Board feels that this will be a very challenging year" or "The Board feels that due to the economic difficulties in current times, the results will not be encouraging although we will endeavour to do our best". Liked the last one especially. XD

Now this is of course assuming that Benalec themselves aren't bullshitting us when they wrote that, but overall I think it's a pretty fair assessment of the future.


Item 22.2 - 1 Malaysia Strategic Oil Terminal
Standard spiel here, nothing new. I swear I should go and contact that Affin analyst and pin him down on his statement that he's expecting them to mobilise their equipment come June. Term sheet expires on June 11.

If they announce another extension on June 12 of course it's going to be hell of a disappointing.

In the meantime I'll see about contacting Benalec directly to get confirmation. I don't think they've hired a new IR manager as yet though.

Anyway because the timing is so short and let's just assume that the Affin chap actually knows what he was talking about, and also assume the forum posters who claim to be in the know were actually telling the truth (or at least not being the victims of bullshit themselves), I'd suggest to hold until then. If it extends again, you want to cabut then would be the time. (If they sign immediately after, don't scream at me ah :p)

tshwong: I know I shouldn't allow myself to be egged by these kind of statements, but really it's hard when they flat out force me to *facepalm* when I read them.

Next up, I'm expecting someone to tell us something along these lines:

"My wife's sister-in-law's third cousin's uncle has a friend who knows a clerk in Benalec. The clerk sold 2,000 shares of Benalec today. Obviously it's a sign that there'll be strong selling pressure tomorrow since the staff are all selling."