Straco Corporation

[chialc88]

Good morning, valuebuddies.
Just some update on the Q1 result and yes, it inlcudes financial  impact of Singapore Flyer downtime.

10 May 2018 Announcement of Q1FY18 result
link



Take note of the net profit ratio, borrowing and cashflow...

Thanks to Kelvin Seetoh for writting a blog post for valuebuddies who prefer to read than think:

link

Today (30 May 2018), Straco brought back 505,000 betwee $0.76 - $0.77 with total consideration = S$386K
link

Exciting day.
Couldn't wait for tomorrow to come.

[chialc88]

add another 220,000 from $0.775 to $0.78 with total consideration of S$171,941
link

[kelvesy]

Chialc88, are you not concerned with the restriction on visitors imposed on their Xiamen Gulangyu asset? Also, Shanghai Aquarium might have a stronger competitor soon?

Straco biz is great when it is expanding, but when the top line does not deliver, bottom line suffers. Still wondering whether what assets can they potentially acquire.

[chialc88]

Good morning, K.
I search your profile and confirmed that recently you wrote about Straco Q1 performance.

Really appreciate your kind sharing and I'm learning about Straco too.

Thank you very much for teaching me.

---

#1. Xiamen Gulangyu 
- impact likely already fully accounted and reported/recorded in the report card. 


#2. Shanghai Aquarium
- will definitely face stronger competitions from new player
- I'm not convinced that SOA is end game or biz deteriorate significantly
- We need to see what SOA can do to turn the situation around
- I tell myself to be patient

#3. Asset to acquire
- not sure but I'm very sure Mr Wu already mobilise the entire company to work harder on this initiative

#4. Singapore Flyer
- the effect of downtime might still be felt in Q2 FY18
- I have a confession. I'm not concern about #1. #2. and #3.
- However, by early Feb, the silence and motherhood statement from Straco really get into my nerve.
- I sold enough Straco shares so that I can sleep peacefully at night.
- again, not due to lost of revenue but because of the complete silence of what had caused the downtime.
- The good thing to me is, after my sell-down, I become very peaceful.
- Especially, when the reason of the downtime and also the successful reboot of Singapore Flyer on 1st Apr makes my day again.
- At this moment, I felt very lucky to be a shareholder of an excellent entertainment business operate in fast growing region.

Once again, thank you K for your contribution.
I'm learning.

Sharing my favourite picture rgds to Straco

[chialc88]

May 2018 cummulative Share buy back
link

3 July 2018 Share buy back: 63,200@75-77 cents=$48k
link

25 June 2018 Insurance claim
Straco Leisure has in place a Property Damage & Business Interruption (Industrial All
Risks) insurance policy (“Policy”) covering the operations of the Giant Observation
Wheel. The Company has been notified, through its insurance broker, that the insurer
is denying the Company’s claim for cost of repairs and loss of profit arising from the
breakdown.

The Company understands that the reasons for the claim being denied by the insurer is
that the reasons for the breakdown, and the principal reason for the loss of profit, fall
under certain exclusions set out in the Policy. These exclusions relate to claims arising
from damages arising from gradually developing flaws, damages for which certain third
parties are responsible, and damages attributable to enforcement of laws being excluded
under the Policy.

If the Company’s claim against the insurers is unsuccessful or not wholly successful, it
will not be able to recover all or part of the costs of repairs and/or loss of profit for the
breakdown of the Giant Observation Wheel. In this regard, the Company refers to the
Announcements where it has disclosed the decrease in sales and profit in its first quarter
of FY2018 due, amongst others, to the technical breakdown of the Giant Observation 
Wheel. No accrual of other income in relation to the progress of insurance claim was
previously reported.
link

[ikur1]

Hi all,

on 4th of aug Mr Xu Niansha has resigned from the board.
He's one of 2 directors on the board from Poly group.

is this a serious red flag?

[chialc88]

For those vested, check out this evening annoucement.
link

For those no time to read, let me summaries in one phase:
满江红




There are still some saving grace, eg. GPM, NPM and cash.

This year result will definitely be bad (both top and bottomline).

No amount of buy back can save the company.

Let see whether Mr Wu is able to do some magic soon.

Otherwise, even he buy back lots of share, give out lots of dividend also no use.

Having says that, is the decline in both top and bottomline a norm?
or this is just due to the Singapore Flyer incident?

---

May be it's time to visit Shanghai:

[CY09]

Despite Singapore Flyer resuming operations in Q2FY2018, overall revenue of Straco is lower quarter on quarter.

visitation to their attractions is declining and Shanghai Ocean Aquarium is experiencing falling revenue. My deduction will be that SAO is losing popularity because newer and bigger aquariums are springing out in China.

If possible Straco should use its massive cash reserves to pay off its debts quickly, reducing financial expenses by 1 million is good

http://infopub.sgx.com/FileOpen/Straco2Q...eID=521506

[chialc88]

Thanks buddy CY for the suggestion.

Straco is paying off it's debt slowly but steadily.

It's number is also inching up slowly too.

Overall visitation to all our attractions was 2.01 million visitors for the quarter, 5.5% higher than
the corresponding period in 3Q2017, as all three attractions in China reported higher visitor
numbers. 

In the third quarter of FY2018, the Group achieved sales of $48.49 million, 5.2% higher than the
corresponding period in 3Q2017, mainly due to higher revenues achieved by Shanghai Ocean
Aquarium (“SOA”), Underwater World Xiamen (“UWX”) and Lixing Cable Car, partially offset by
lower revenue achieved by our Singapore Flyer. Reversal of value-added tax (“VAT”) on ticket
revenue were being accounted for in this quarter by SOA, as the tax waiver on ticket revenue
for Shanghai educational bases for three years from 2018 to 2020 has been issued and SOA
will be applying for the refund for the net VAT paid for January to June this year. 

• 3Q revenue increased 5.2% to $48.5 million
  
• 3Q earnings remained stable at $21.4 million
  
• Net cash of $162.3 million, $0.19 per share 
  

link


Enjoy.

[weijian]

The opening the Disneyland in Shanghai, expanded the entire pie - ie. it brought more tourists to Shanghai as a whole. A new Ocean Park definitely cannibalizes SOA business.

New Shanghai Ocean Park hoping to glean some of Disney’s magic and net 5 million visitors a year

Creator Haichang Ocean Park being seen as playing important role in cementing city’s plan to become a world-class tourist destination

Haichang Ocean Park Holdings, the mainland’s largest marine theme park operator, is targeting annual attendance of five million visitors at its soon-to-open venue in Shanghai, buoyed by the rising affluence of people living in the Yangtze River Delta region. Wang Xuguang, chief executive of the Hong Kong-listed company which is based in the northern Chinese city of Dalian, told South China Morning Post that estimate was based on a joint assessment with local tourism authorities on entertainment demands.

http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/a...ic-and-net

The Shanghai Haicheng Ocean park opened for business last week. Looking at the pictures, it looks like a cross breed between SOA and Disney land. Ticket prices are 279yuan (SHCOP) vs 155yuan (SOA), which is 1.8x more expensive. To put into perspective at Sentosa, USS (76sgd) and SEA (39sgd) is at ~1.95x more expensive. Ratios are pretty similar although it suggests SHCOP/SOA is a slightly more value proposition compared to USS/SEA benchmark. Of course, with ticketing agents and other tie ups/promotions, the difference might be insignificant.

That said, check on ctrip seems to suggest SHCOP rating of 3.9 (415 reviews) needs to do quite alot of catch up to SOA (rating of 4.5 with 13439 reviews). Remains to be seen whether SHCOP can resolve the issues and meet the expectations. SHCOP officially launched last week and so Straco's 1Q19 results would be very interesting to review.

http://www.themeparx.com/shanghai-haicha...rk/?page=1
SHCOP ratings on ctrip: http://you.ctrip.com/sight/shanghai2/4651499.html

yeokiwi's ctrip post on SOA: https://www.valuebuddies.com/thread-2915...#pid144898