Popular Holdings

[zhangwuji]

when a company makes a profit they can use the cash in many ways
like expanding business
paying dividends
keeping the cash
or buying back their own shares

Generally I would like to company to buy back their shares if its cheap
if the shares are expensive, I would rather the company pay me dividends instead

hope this helps you

Tk for your explanation. Perhaps they should consider scrip dividend scheme. Shareholders can choose to receive either cash or shares as dividend.

[KopiKat]

Today (7Jan13), Popular bought back another 3,021,000 shares, all at $0.25/share.....
http://info.sgx.com/webcorannc.nsf/Annou...endocument
This makes a total 14,242,000 shares, or 1.693% of total issued shares, purchased in just 4 days since the first purchase on 20Dec12. Impressive!

Yes, very impressive! I wonder if this sudden activity is related to 8Raja....?? A successful launch could free up some cash from the $75.4Mil now carried as Development Properties in their Balance Sheet and perhaps some profits since property market remains bullish...??

Any shares buy-back tomorrow will be capped at 25ct based on 105% of average for last 5 working days closing.... After that, likely 25.5ct for the following day as long as it closes at 24ct and above tomorrow... Q3 (Jan) is traditionally their best Q (even without any Property sales) and based on historical data, NAV should go above 26ct. No reason why they won't buy till at least 26ct...Just dreaming on my part..

[KopiKat]

Shares Buy-Back @ $0.25 for 308,000 shares.

One week since their last. Looks like they may have set the Buy-Back price limit @ $0.25. Makes sense to cap it below latest NAV = 25.17ct as buying above NAV will have a negative impact on NAV. Let's see if I'm right and whether they'll change their limit when NAV changes...

[KopiKat]

They just raised the bar (5-Feb-13)... Shares Buy Back @ 25.5ct for 3,381,000 shares, nice no....

How to justify buying above NAV = 25.17ct?? Perhaps the currently only internally available prelim figures for the recently concluded Q3 (Jan)?

---

The bar is raised further (6-Feb-13)...
Shares Buy Back @ 26ct for 903,000 shares.

I'm estimating NAV to be ~26.5ct for Q3 (Jan), I wonder if their upper limit is capped @ NAV....

[zhangwuji]

Another share buy back! Now at 26cts
[/u]

http://info.sgx.com/webcorannc.nsf/Annou...endocument

[a74henry]

I have bought Popular shares since year 2007 at $0.30 and has continued adding to my portfolio at prices as low as $0.10. These share buybacks looked after long term shareholders which is good for value investors.

MV $0.265. NAV $0.252. PE about 13x.

The business model is viable and profitable. Waiting for the price to correct before buying.

[dydx]

Looking at the unusually high volume traded since 5Mar12, and the some 17% advance in the share price since the close of 4Mar12 to $0.31 this afternoon, something positive could be happening to Popular? I wonder if fellow forumers have anything to share.

[a74henry]

Today, it is $0.315. I love this stock which has seen the founder buy shares plus share buy backs over the past year. The management is friendly and confident of the company. It has one of the best retail margins.

Above BV. I wanted to buy below BV and did not get the chance to add to my portfolio. I will have to wait for the right time.

Well, it has gone above my highest buy price of $0.30 in year 2007 which brings on a smile.

The 3rd quarter results will be out soon.

[KopiKat]

Closed @ 31.5ct, +2ct ; Vol = 6,674,000

That's +21% higher than the last Share Buy Back Price of 26ct (also at their highest price) on 8-Feb. Q3 results will be out on 15-Mar. I'm not too optimistic looking at 1H trend of lower margins due to higher expenses but, the past few days of run up is giving me hope that I may be wrong or there's something else we don't know...

Nevertheless, am enjoying this rocket ride but am also slowly doing some profit taking, initially starting with 0.5ct interval but got greedy and now at 1ct intervals.

[lonewolf]

Popular is the second longest share in my portfolio (1st is Singtel) and I have been vested since its IPO in 1997.

While I have never added positions since then, I did participate in both its right issue. So without really realising it, my investment in Popular has become a two-bagger for me, which is a nice surprise.

Will Popular finally inched itself back to price level not seen since it IPO-ed at 36c? Only time will tell.