Neratel

[brattzz]

personally, i won't buy in at 44.5 to sell at 45, but it's just me.

[cif5000]

This G.O. (General Offer) looks interesting to me as a freeloader Cat 4 (freeload to learn). I don't see STEng mopping up the shares at $0.45 and below (no SGX Annc). I think possible reasons,

1) Their Offer Price is actually $0.39 (xtra 6ct comes from dividend payout by NeraTel). If they were to buy from the open market at $0.45, they'd be required to "up" the offer price to all NeraTel shareholders irregardless of cd or xd.

2) The G.O. is made by by their subsidiary ST Electronics. I'm not sure if STEng is required to make any SGX Annc, assuming ST Electronics is mopping up NeraTel shares.

IMO, it's very unlikely for STEng to be able to get the 75% vote (to delist) unless they're mopping up the shares from the open market. Perhaps, we'll see them doing that after NeraTel goes xd? (Assuming they're not already doing that). In the first place, I don't quite understand why they need this special scheme of arrangement ie. "allow" NeraTel to pay a dividend of 6ct. The usual G.O. I'd seen usually have the clause like Offer Price = $0.45 but those who accept after xd will only get $0.39 (less dividend). The offeror would then be happily mopping up shares during cd and after xd. To conclude, STEng may not actually be keen to delist NeraTel?? Or they are confident that Eltek's 50.05% is good enough to acquire the 75% vote for all those 'Present and Voting' as the other 50% may be too fragmented and many may not even turn up to vote or use a proxy??

There's no G.O. but a Scheme. It could convert the Scheme into a G.O. when required.

Neratel will announce if STE buys from the open market.

[dzwm87]

Hyom, you are mentioned on this week's TheEdge..

Having vested interest in NeraTel, I wrote an article on my blog about it. Hope any potential acquirer will read it.

Loss of my favourite dividend child - Nera Telecommunications
I like to own companies that pay good dividends. I view them as my children. These children pay me annual allowance for my living expenses.

The best children are those with growing income and pay me a reasonable percentage of their income as dividends. This percentage is not so high until their own growth is stunted because they are not reinvesting enough of their profits back into the business. This percentage is not so low until I have problems paying for my living expenses. No parents like children who are stingy with their allowance despite earning fat salaries. A fast-growing income means that the children can afford to pay me rising, comfortable allowance without holding back their own wealth accumulation or even putting themselves into hardship. These are the best sort of companies to buy for dividends. They are very hard to find but if you can find them, they will not only deliver consistent dividends but good capital gains as well.

I do not like children who pay me generous allowance when times are good and ask for the money back (and more) from Papa when bad times hit. These children share a common name. Not all of them behaved this way but quite a number of them did in the credit crisis of 2008. The name of these children is REIT. I forgived them because the law stipulates that they have to pay at least 90% of their income as dividends which means they may not have enough internal cash to put back into the business. It is not their fault but this defining characteristic means the sustainability of dividends paid by REITs is questionable. I will consider buying REITs on a depressed basis when bad times hit and after they have raised money from other people.

One of my favourite child is Nera Telecommunications. Although this child does not enjoy growing profits, it has been able to pay out very generous dividends because of its strong, consistent cashflow. See the table below to judge how filial this child has been to me for the past 8 years.

Cannot publish table here. Please go to the link below
http://help-your-money.blogspot.com/2012...child.html

For the past 8 years, Nera Telecommunications have been paying dividends with yields ranging from 7.65% to 47.37%. On a growth basis, NeraTel is not impressive. In fact, the book value has been sliding down since 2003. Its earnings has been quite flat over the years too with earnings per share hovering at around 3cts per share. PE ratio is not impressive at an average of 17 for the past 4 years. So, one way to interpret this is that NeraTel has been sacrificing growth to pay generous dividends to its shareholders. So shareholder-friendly. Such a filial child.

A good question to ask at this point is whether the dividends are sustainable. Since dividends are paid from hard cash and not accounting profits, it is better to look to the cashflow statement rather than the income statement for the answer. NeraTel's operating cashflow grew 15% in 2010, 16% in 2009 and a whooping 80% in 2008. The absolute amount of the operating cashflow is comfortable enough to cover the generous dividends. There must be something about the business being a cash gusher that enables it to have a consistent track record of paying generous dividends for 8 years throughout good and bad times.

On 10 Feb 2012, ST Electronics made an announcement to buy my favorite child away. The price offered is $0.45 cents per share. The actual price paid by the Acquiror is only $0.39 excluding 6cts of dividends that will be paid by NeraTel.

Is the offered price $0.39 too cheap? If the worth of a company is the sum of its future cashflows, then NeraTel is surely worth more than $0.39 based on its strong, consistent, stable dividends in the past decade. In fact, the dividends that NeraTel paid in the past 7 years alone already exceeds $0.39 which is the offered price today. ( I hope any potential acquirer will take note of this point) Now, ST Electronics wants to pay only $0.39 to swallow up all the future dividends for decades to come.

It is very hard for me to find a better child than NeraTel. Nera Telecom has been a good child to many minority shareholders. Please compensate us fairly for the loss of such a fine son.

Disclosure: This post has been written with vested interest.

http://help-your-money.blogspot.com/2012...child.html

[hyom]

Hyom, you are mentioned on this week's TheEdge.. Big Grin

Hi dzwm87,

Thank you very much for the information. I am a bit surprised. One of the journalists did contact me to meet up for a chat about NeraTel after reading the blog post. I thought I irritated her by refusing to reveal even the slightest private information about myself. Glad to be mentioned in Singapore's premier business magazine.

[brattzz]

lolz! hyom, are u vested in singholdings? help to do a write up on it? looks like u are getting famous!
oppss... sorry... OT...

[Jared Seah]

Good show Hyom!

Hope your message will reach more Nera Telcoms minority shareholders.

Vote!

[wsreader]

Just my curious, hyom, did theedge give monetary compensation for the chat? A cup of coffee is a must, of course.

[hyom]

Just my curious, hyom, did theedge give monetary compensation for the chat? A cup of coffee is a must, of course.

I did not meet them because I did not have much to add further on NeraTel. Also, I wanted to protect my privacy and did not want to expose my real identity.

Good show Hyom!
Hope your message will reach more Nera Telcoms minority shareholders.

Thanks for the encouragement. I hope a competitor would bid for a higher price for NeraTel. $0.39 is too low.

lolz! Big Grin hyom, are u vested in singholdings? help to do a write up on it? looks like u are getting famous! Big Grin

Actually, I am vested in Sing Holdings. But, I seldom write about specific stocks on my blog. To be honest, I do not think it will be beneficial in the long run for readers to actively seek out blog posts on specific stocks. Take myself for example. When I post about specific stocks, it is always written with a hidden agenda to influence readers to act to my favor as in the case of NeraTel. I do not think I am alone. Better not get into this habit.

[VestedInterest]

Looks like STE is getting this counter cheaper by the day as the general market rises. It will have to increase its offer price if it really wants to take this counter private.

[VestedInterest]

Neratel reported a set of sterling 1Q reults. Net profit was up 184%! So we await the IFA report which will use this result to help make a decision.