Harry's Holdings

[dydx]

In another rare move today, someone pushed the share price to a high close of $0.15 - up $0.025, or 20%! - by mopping up a total of 415 lots in the later part of the afternoon session. Something positive brewing? Let's hope this is not an act by someone under heavy alcoholic intoxication!

[Musicwhiz]

I've passed by some Harry's Bars around the Raffles Place and Boat Quay area, and I must say the crowd is not as large as I would have expected. For instance, the outlet near Boat Quay should be swarming with people after work (office workers), but usually they go to the Irish Pubs such as Molly Malones or Penny Black.

As for the Harry's at Far East Square, I passed by this outlet this evening at around 7 and it was not very crowded, while other watering holes and restaurants around the area were teeming with people. Could there be a reason for this? Pricing or variety of drinks/food?

I also visited the Esplanade branch before on a weekday evening and it was sparesly filled (about 20% of the tables).

The Company should release some info/suggestions on the profitability of outlets and the efforts they are undertaking to improve top line and margins.

(Not Vested)

[maniac]

Hi,

Those who are interested in knowing more about the history of Harry's and it's CEO, may want to read the book: The Story of Harry's. Quite an interesting read.

http://catalogue.nlb.gov.sg/cgi-bin/cw_c...559728+3+2

[sgd]

The problem is we don't have a culture for drinking. Unlike western culture where it's quite normal to pop into a pub for a few drinks after work or even during lunch time or like in China were drinking is part of their culture during meals.

In singapore there is no culture for drinking, in fact government disapproves drinking as often there's a lot of negative media attention to drink driving and authorities conduct nightly spot checks regularly and you must have seen for yourselves the penalties are stiff and offenders sometimes get their names published in the newspapers Drinking has now associated with bad behavior.

That's why If you try to stake out any of these Harry Pubs for a few days you will find their clientele is a lot of foreigners and very few locals because people only drink on social occasions and even then likely to go to a place with localized flavor like KTV or simple karaoke joint. If Harry's opened pubs in China then it could be a different story.

[Musicwhiz]

GO for Harry's Holdings at 23c/share. Congrats to all shareholders!

(Not Vested)

[dydx]

F&B Asia Ventures Ltd - a SPV and a 75.5%/24.5% j-v between Everstone Capital Partners II LLC/Everstone Capital (Indian) and Verlinvest S.A. (Belgium) - will be making a $0.23/share voluntary conditional cash offer for all issued and paid-up ordinary shares of Harry’s Holdings.....
http://info.sgx.com/webcoranncatth.nsf/V...2004753EA/$file/OfferAnnouncementFinal.pdf?openelement [offer announcement]
http://info.sgx.com/webcoranncatth.nsf/V...200483132/$file/PressReleaseFinal.pdf?openelement [press release]
with a view to privatize the company.

After reviewing the documents, it appears to me founder Mohan Mulani has negotiated a good deal for himself to eventually exit and retire from the business in 4 years' time, but only after he has collected another approx. $3.5m (my rough estimate) in extra cash compensation as provided for under a new service agreement.

As Everstone Capital and Verlinvest are PE funds and run by some smart finnacial investors/engineers, IMHO the GO at $0.23/share is still at quite a discount to Harry’s Holdings' fair intrinsic value.

Background info of Everstone Capital and Verlinvest.....
http://www.everstonecapital.com/
http://www.verlinvest.be/

[pianist]

The Offer is subject to the Offeror receiving valid acceptances, which when taken together with Shares owned, controlled or agreed to be acquired by the Offeror and parties acting in concert with the Offeror will result in the Offeror and parties acting in concert with the Offeror holding such number of Shares carrying more than 50% of the voting rights attributable to the Shares as
at the close of the Offer.

with mohan family giving their irrevocable intetion to accept the offer (they have about 45% stake), i guess this is almost a done deal.

i just hope that everstone is not as 'shaky' as the reliance brothers in terms of committed corporate actions.

huat ah!

[lonewolf]

GO for Harry's Holdings at 23c/share. Congrats to all shareholders!

(Not Vested)

Congratulation?? Hardly especially for those vested since its OTC days (like me) who paid 22c and additional fees; and so is probably just broken even (barely) with this GO. And if you factored in how long my money was stuck in this counter (since Jan 07) with pathetic dividends, in real term, I probably lost money.

But you know what?? I'm usually not happy with GO but in the case of Harrys, I will be taking the money and go and say 'good riddance! ' Truth be told, Harrys was my experimental stock cos I wanted to see how the Philips OTC market works. And in some aspect, for it to graduate to Catalyist was vindication in some way for my judgement.

Unfortunately my investment has not really panned out. Fortunately, I have a small stake and will be happy to take the money and go.

[Musicwhiz]

Hi lonewolf,

Sorry to hear of your experience. My congratulations were for those shareholders who had bought at 15c and are now being bought over for 23c.

Personally, I was expecting Harry's to do much better in terms of business performance, but seeing how competitive our F&B industry is, it's not an easy task. Now the focus (and fad) has shifted from previously donuts to now bean curd!

[propertyinvestor]

How is it that Soup Restaurant, Select Group and Breadtalk is doing so well but Harry cant?