Popular Holdings

Congrats valuebuddies!

*not vested!*

(16-01-2015, 04:44 PM)brattzz Wrote: Congrats valuebuddies!

*not vested!*

Huat Ah! Vested since 2010.

Just saw the news today. I've been too busy with work this week.

Is there any other companies out there facing similar situation (QC charge) as SC global and Popular? Maybe it's time to load.....

it seems like due to eight raja, popular was forced to delist..anyone rem some years ago, the hot blood younger chou stormed out of the boardroom? ....could this week's announcement be what the younger chous has foreseen then will be coming..?

Marissa Lee
The Straits Times
Saturday, Jan 17, 2015

The controlling shareholder of bookstore owner Popular Holdings intends to make a general offer for the firm so it can delist it. Grand Apex Holdings, owned by Popular chief executive Chou Cheng Ngok and his wife, Ms Hu Nan Lee, will lodge a conditional cash offer to all shareholders of 32 cents a share. This is a 39 per cent premium over the 23-cent closing price on Tuesday, the last day the stock traded.

Popular shares have not traded at or above the offer price in seven years while trading volume has been "generally low", noted broker CIMB Bank in the announcement posted to the Singapore Exchange yesterday.

Popular's average daily turnover over the past 12 months has been at around 308,000 shares, only 0.1 per cent of the group's publicly held capital, and just 0.04 per cent of the total issued shares, said CIMB.

Mr Chou and his wife are the main shareholders of the firm, with a combined stake of 61.2 per cent held through their World Holdings company.

Grand Apex believes privatisation will relieve Popular of compliance costs that come with its listing status. Under weak market conditions, the group has had difficulties marketing and selling unsold units in its property developments within the timeframe required under the Government's Qualifying Certificate.

As at October 31 last year, 21 units of a total 26 units of the property Ei8ht Raja remained unsold. Popular would incur additional expenses for the extension of time to sell the unsold units, as the Qualifying Certificate (QC) stipulates all units must be sold within two years from May 28, 2013, the date of the issue of the Temporary Occupation Permit.

Once Popular is wholly owned by Singaporeans, it will be in a position to seek exemption from the QC rules.

Trading of Popular shares was halted yesterday. The offer announcement was made after the market closed.

marilee@sph.com.sg

A honourable man taking a noble action to avoid government rulings he deems unfair against shareholders' rights and interests? Or is it just an excuse for his ambition to own everything in the business he has built, so that he can pursue other untold objectives for his personal or family's financial interests?

(17-01-2015, 06:54 PM)dydx Wrote: A honourable man taking a noble action to avoid government rulings he deems unfair against shareholders' rights and interests? Or is it just an excuse for his ambition to own everything in the business he has built, so that he can pursue other untold objectives for his personal or family's financial interests?

Invested in Popular since 2002. As far as I can remember, he always treated his shareholders fairly such as giving out regular and special dividends and does shares buy back to instill confidence.

One of the reasons why I kept invested in the shares for so long.

I remember quite a few pages back there was a lot of discussion about the mistaken investments into the property sector, declining business model etc.

I don't disagree with a lot of the points made, but experience has taught me that what happens in investing is often very different from the logical outcome. It's a lot harder than saying A will result in B which will result in C. The range of possible outcomes is far greater than we can often consider at the point of time.

My own takeaway is to find undervalued investments - simply because the range of possible outcomes that are positive far outweigh the negative. I can't say which will be the ones that drive the returns of my portfolio (otherwise concentration will be the next logical step). What I can say is that good things happen to buy things that are cheap.

theasiareport.com

(17-01-2015, 06:54 PM)dydx Wrote: A honourable man taking a noble action to avoid government rulings he deems unfair against shareholders' rights and interests? Or is it just an excuse for his ambition to own everything in the business he has built, so that he can pursue other untold objectives for his personal or family's financial interests?

what is yr take may i ask? i tend toward the latter

As CEO Chou Cheng Ngok (aged 77) together with his wife already own 61.25% of Popular, his GO to privatise Popular at $0.32/share if successful will eventually cost him approx. $100.0m ($98.8m for the remaining 38.75%, plus professional fees), a substantial portion of which would likely have to be financed by temporary debt, before Chou could draw on Popular's large cash reserve to settle a big portion of it.

Who in Chou's family will take over him when he eventually retires? If nobody, I suppose he would have to sell his business empire, perhaps by breaking it into parts: publishing, retail, property, etc.

Price now drop to $0.31 even though the offer is for $0.32. What gives?