Challenger Technologies

Well done!! Loo try again in 12 months time!!

Boss is pissed that opmi organised to prevent his privatisation, and opmi are getting punished. Dividends are sharply lower for the year, even even though there is more than enough profit and cash to support it.

I'm not sure if it is always better for opmi to challenge the BOD. For opmi hoping to monetise their shares at a price that is better than the privatisation offer, it could be a long wait.

https://links.sgx.com/FileOpen/Challenge...eID=596386

Dymon is PE firm in this context.

After a PE firm gets in, a portfolio company need to pay out even more div to help PE deleverage the loan.

I happen to pass by both Popular Bookstore and Challenger outlets at a shopping mall today. The Popular bookstore has some sort of queue mgmt control measures with a staff armed with a thermometer standing "guard" outside the store. The Challenger outlet looked to be "open as normal" from the outside. Does this perhaps reflect something abt the mgmt ?

On the other hand, the last done price for Challenger is $0.40. Taking into consideration the failed delisting offer of $0.56 last year, could it be worthwhile to accumulate Challenger now, notwithstanding one of the risks may well be going into some sort of a value trap ?

I look forward to taking a look at the Top 20 shareholders once the AR is out - it may offer some clues.

Challenger doesn't look so attractive now that the board has decided to be less generous to its opmi. There are also quite a number of stocks offering twice the yield of Challenger, with more or less comparable fundamentals.

In the long-term, it should still do okay as a retailer. And if the board improves its attitude towards opmi, then all the better.

I guess they never expected, and hence never prepared for, the possibility of losing their privatisation bid.

Popular has been increasing the number of IT items on its shelves. I think they are quite aware that they need to move towards higher margin SKUs to sustain the rising costs of physical retailing. If the relationship between senior and junior Chou is still as bad, then succession for Popular becomes an issue. If Popular loosens its competitive grip -- which seems to already be happening -- Challenger will benefit from having a larger share of the market.

I wonder what is to happen to Popular in the coming years.

I rarely shop at Challenger as I get my IT items mostly thru' online shopping websites or directly from the brand that I target. No offense to existing investors, personally I am still not sure what makes Challenger a good IT retail chain store. Their value club/hachi tech inhouse items also seem quite normal to me.

To be fair, there has been active discussion on the merits / demerits in earlier posts(example) but I did not spend much time on it.

Initially, I thought perhaps it could be their IT repair services. But I am surprised Challengers stores are all closed temporarily, so I guess their repair arm is probably not significant enough to be deemed essential.

"In line with enhanced public safety measures, all Challenger stores will be closed temporarily from 7 April to 4 May 2020."
http://www.challenger.com.sg/

"Star Shield at Challenger is a service centre offering technical services to help keep your computers up and running. The Star Shield inside Challenger is opened daily during store operating hours to assist you."
https://www.challenger.com.sg/products/c...s?value=23

(14-02-2020, 06:40 AM)karlmarx Wrote: Boss is pissed that opmi organised to prevent his privatisation, and opmi are getting punished. Dividends are sharply lower for the year, even even though there is more than enough profit and cash to support it.

I'm not sure if it is always better for opmi to challenge the BOD. For opmi hoping to monetise their shares at a price that is better than the privatisation offer, it could be a long wait.

https://links.sgx.com/FileOpen/Challenge...eID=596386

A decent set of results for a retail chain during Covid-19 (even after excluding the Gov grants)

2.7cents per share of dividend declared this year compared to the 1.5cents "punishment" last year, and seems like "normal services are resumed".

https://links.sgx.com/FileOpen/Challenge...eID=647634

revenue dropped badly.,mitigated by one off government covid support

(09-02-2021, 12:14 AM)pianist Wrote: revenue dropped badly.,mitigated by one off government covid support

I think an 18% reduction in revenue for a company whose business model is mainly brick-and-mortar retail + the periodic exhibition, is actually quite impressive.

"Badly" would probably be reserved for other companies whose business dropped by at least 30-50% I reckon? Of course, all these are subjective.

Do note there is a marked difference between the revenue and profit numbers of 1H (affected by CB) and 2H. Do note Challenger has a big local membership customer base and a pretty good on-line shopping website in hachi.tech. Do note the weakened local retail environment allows an established and financially strong chain-store like Challenger to bargain for good downward rental revisions and better locations. Do note weakened and a reduction in other retail competitors would benefit Challenge's market position and market share going forward.