Popular Holdings

these are some of the pictures taken from an outlet in Hong Kong in the Wan Chai district. it was a very small outlet in comparison to what we are used to in Singapore.

It was a quiet outlet without much traffic. There is no queue at the cashier. i saw only a handful of customers. i was there at about 730pm. so, i'm not sure if it will be busier at a different time.


  Popular HK - WanChai.pdf (Size: 328.64 KB / Downloads: 29)

Wah... such high volume today. More Buy-Ups than Sell-Downs, mostly at 23ct. I wonder if it's Shares Buy-Back?

[Image: 15x8m8p.jpg]

That 1000 lot buy up is just $230k nia.

(13-09-2012, 06:59 PM)violinist Wrote: That 1000 lot buy up is just $230k nia.

If you are taking about the trade at 15:31:12, that's one seller of 1000 lots. For the buyer, you'd have to add up all that was done at that same time,

15:31:12 0.23 42 S
15:31:12 0.23 5 S
15:31:12 0.23 40 S
15:31:12 0.23 21 S
15:31:12 0.23 200 S
15:31:12 0.23 187 S
15:31:12 0.23 2 S
15:31:12 0.23 5 S
15:31:12 0.23 100 S
15:31:12 0.23 50 S
15:31:12 0.23 7 S
15:31:12 0.23 20 S
15:31:12 0.23 1,000 S
15:31:12 0.23 250 S
15:31:12 0.23 30 S

ie. Total = 1959 lots. But, yes, only small money if you're a big timer or if it's Buy Back....

Married deals today,

15:20:04 0.230 2,264,000 X
15:18:58 0.230 1,200,000 X

I wonder who and who? Anything >2Mil Shares is a Top 20 shareholder, but, except for World Holdings (Mr Chou's investment vehicle), the rest are unfortunately non-substantial shareholders ie. <5%. So, we may not know till next AR...

Yesterday (18Sep12), Chairman Chou, through his investment holding company, World Holdings (Pte) Limited, added 2,714,000 shares at $0.23/share......
http://info.sgx.com/webcorannc.nsf/Annou...endocument
and through his wife, Hu Nan Lee, added another 1,200,000 shares at $0.23/share.....
http://info.sgx.com/webcorannc.nsf/Annou...endocument
The above 2 purchases have raised Chou's total beneficial interest in Popular Holdings to 57.5%.

It appears Chou is re-investing in advance the money coming in from the $0.008/share Final dividend, which is payable on 26Sep12. This is indeed a show of confidence and commitment by Chou to his business.

To better understand who may be the bigger 'players' for this stock, especially for large married deals, I was looking at the Top 20 shareholders list from AR2011 and AR2012. The last in the list is 2Mil shares. Surprisingly (to me), there were 4 Securities Company in the latest list (5 last year). Who are they?

[wrap]
[table=WHO]
Phillip
MayBank Kim Eng
OCBC
Lim & Tan
DBSV*[/table]
[table=2012]
9,066,500
5,469,500
2,106,646
2,050,500
<2,000,000 [/table]
[table=2011]
10,217,500
4,419,500
6,626,988
2,050,500
5,796,400[/table]
[table=Change]
-1,151,000
+1,050,000
-4,520,342
--
-3,796,400 (at least)[/table]
[/wrap]

* DBSV dropped out of the Top 20 list, Qty is unknown for FY2012.

Note that the above are held by the Securities companies, not nominee accounts.

Not a very huge vote of confidence from the Securities Companies, I must say, with 3 Net Sellers, 2 of which had reduced their stake substantially...

Also, I had previously guessed wrongly that Mellford (linked to the descendants of the late Tan Chin Tuan) was the seller in married deals last year and was surprised that they had instead increased their holdings from 16,556,000 in AR2011 to 19,013,000 in AR2012.

I like to believe businesswoman (the Chews) are more savvy than Securities Companies...

Let's see again in FY2013 who'd been the large sellers...

(21-09-2012, 10:38 AM)KopiKat Wrote: Note that the above are held by the Securities companies, not nominee accounts.

I am curious. Why would securities companies want to own shares in totally unrelated business?

Quote:I like to believe businesswoman (the Chews) are more savvy than Securities Companies...

I know Chew Gek Khim plays BIG, but has she been successful so far?

(22-09-2012, 12:14 AM)touzi Wrote:

(21-09-2012, 10:38 AM)KopiKat Wrote: Note that the above are held by the Securities companies, not nominee accounts.

I am curious. Why would securities companies want to own shares in totally unrelated business?

Quote:I like to believe businesswoman (the Chews) are more savvy than Securities Companies...

I know Chew Gek Khim plays BIG, but has she been successful so far?

You make a very valid point. We ought to invest based on the merits of the company itself and not who's buying / selling the shares of the company...

Just for educational purpose for those who're interested, some links on the legacy left behind by Tan Chin Tuan....

Two old S'pore families compete for Straits Trading - by AsiaOne dated 11-Feb-08
Ng Ser Miang ousted as WBL chairman - by AsiaOne dated 11-Jan-12
Tecity Group - The Tecity Group is founded by the late Tan Chin Tuan
Straits Trading - A listed company held by Tecity
Tan Chin Tuan Foundation - Philanthropic Activities

---

TRADE OF THE DAY (21-Sep-12)

12:26:36 0.235 14,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 2,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 10,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 30,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 13,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 2,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 28,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 9,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 2,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 1,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 20,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 55,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 12,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 8,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 25,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 10,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 20,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 27,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 10,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 50,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 152,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 5,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 30,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 100,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 30,000 Buy Up
12:26:36 0.235 33,000 Buy Up

Total = 698,000 ; $164,030.00 (before brokerages) nia ....

DMG report on popular:

Scoop of the Day: Despite the onslaught of online media, Popular
Holdings has been weathering the competition well, having carved out a
strong niche in assessment books, textbooks and stationery products and
chalking up healthy growth in its book retailing business year after year. In
its latest full year results ended April 2012, the group reported a sterling set
of results with net profit climbing 31% to $31.1m. Stripping out the writeback
of impairment losses (S$6.5m) for its property division in FY11, net
profit growth would have been even more impressive at +66%. The key
growth driver came from the retail and distribution segment, which saw a
52% surge in pretax profit to $29m and an increase in 9 outlets during the
year, bringing the total number of outlets to 148. Pretax earnings at the
publishing division saw a 25% decline to $7.3m due to one-off expense to
close down an under-performing magazine. Popular’s fledgling property
division, meanwhile, remained profitable, and should see stronger
contribution in the year ahead with the launch of 8 Raja, its third
development project. Popular continues to run a highly cash-generative
operation with annual cash flows of $30-40m. The value drivers of the stock
include: 1) Net cash of $115m (13.7cts/share), 2) development property with
book value of $82m (10cts/share), 3) the book retailing/publishing business
which we valued at 8x P/E, or $235m (28cts/share).This implies a sum-ofparts
valuation of $432m, or $0.51/share. At current price, the stock is
trading at a 53% discount to its sum-of-parts, and on a 30% discount to its
SOTP should still be worth $0.36/share. Recommend Trading BUY (Goh
Han Peng)