(22-10-2013, 07:18 PM)kelvesy Wrote: I am not well-versed at commodities at all, may I ask, why are agricultural commodities are suffering for so long?
demand vs supply... when the world's biggest consumer of agricultural products slows down by over 300 bps, inventories will start piling up...
when the price of all commodities skyrocketed during the years preceding the 2008 crises, farmers were very bullish and planted a lot of trees... they were wrong... now after 4 years of planting, fruits are ready to be harvested... but few are there to absorb the new supplies...
inventories are now around all-time record high but they've been slowly normalizing although this hardly can push the price back to 2007 level again...
a lot of financial analysts from the big banks like to utter the famous words "end of commodity super-cycle"... so i think the outlook is just not exciting at the moment...
@BlueKelah
interesting point of view about listing its subsidiary in IDX... but can you enlighten me more on how does it impact the company's profitability? because that cash cow subsidiary, which I believe you were referring to Salim Ivomas, is also not doing well itself... even Salim Subsidiary, London Sumatra, which has been listed decades ago is also suffering at the moment....
i think declining profitability and margin have more to do with their farm management practices and quality of their land than with the listing issue... take a look at their yields for example, the productivity of their trees is just very low... its 1 ha of land probably can produce only up to 16-17 tons of FFB, while First Resources and Astra Agro can produce up to 22-23 tons of FFB per ha... so clearly their practices are inferior to FR and Astra Agro... and this has been going on for years....
i think using NAV is still appropriate for an asset heavy company like IFAR... you are true that during downturn or bankruptcy their assets probably have to be sold at a discount... but that's because they are in need of liquidity... these assets are commodities, they will still be the same no matter whether they are bankrupt or not which means the discount won't be that huge... not to mention plantation land price in Indo has been going up 15-20% in past few years, and combined that with the land moratorium regulation the Indo gov just released recently.... which should drive the land price even higher....
but i still like to know more about the management incentives for holding IFAR... i agree with you that the management is ultimately the one piece that determines the fate and hence share price of the company... Salim family has so many businesses, IFAR can just be a supporting company for its Indofood business....