Neptune Orient Lines, Southeast Asia’s largest container
line, will hire as many as 200 people in Phoenix as it moves its
Americas headquarters to the city as part of wider cost-cutting
efforts, reported Bloomberg.
The shipping line intends to employ as many as 400 people in
Phoenix, half of whom will be hired locally, it said today in a
statement on its website. The rest will relocate from the current
office in Oakland, California.
NOL intends to complete the move by the end of the third quarter as it
moves its facility to cut operating expenses. The shipping line, which
expects a full-year loss, has also fired staff and parked vessels to
offset plunging demand for container-shipping.
The company employs approximately 10,000 people worldwide
including 4,000 in North, Central and South America, according to the
statement. Its new Americas offices will occupy one and a half floors
of the 6-story MAX at Kierland building in Phoenix.
The Rights is not a FREE thing. Usually Rights is a CASH CALL, it means the company want to get cash from investors to fund their company business. In order to make Rights attractive to investors, company normally give 'deep discount to the market price' so as to make investors want to subcribe to its Rights share.
If you are entitled shareholder and you ignore your rights issue, then when the Rights issue is subcribed by other investors, your share holding will be diluted by the additional shares issued accoding to the Rights issue.
SO, the analysts got it right this time, at least with the earnings of S-chips.
A bright spot: Yanlord
Gardens in Shanghai. Yanlord's net profit more than doubled to $24.27
million for Q1'09 from $9.31 million for the previous corresponding
quarter
In line with projections of a
double-digit slump, the combined net profits for 95 S-chips -
China-based companies listed in Singapore - that reported their results
for the first quarter ended March 31, 2009 tumbled 51.8 per cent from a
year ago. Analysts are expecting further weakness in the seasonally
slower second quarter.
The total net profit of these S-chips
during the quarter was $436.72 million, more than half the level of
$905.26 million in the same quarter last year.
It was a mixed bag of results as some went through a rough patch while for others, it was business as usual.
A quarter of these companies were in the red, of which 19 were in the
black a year ago. About 42 companies posted lower profits. Still
holding up are about 25 companies which reported higher earnings from a
year ago, among the 69 S-chips that stayed in the black.
Given the shortage of bright spots on the earnings front, there hasn't
been a major re-rating of S-chips. And where earnings are looking up,
analysts are assessing the governance aspect of these companies.
CIMB-GK analyst Ho
Choon Seng noted that the fall in earnings 'is not unexpected as most
companies were hit by the same problems'.
Some chemical fibre companies and retail plays sang the same dreary tunes of dwindling sales and depressed selling prices.
Among them, China Sky Chemical Fibre Co swung to a net loss of $12.9
million from a net profit of $36.28 million and Sino Techfibre recorded
a net loss of $8.06 million compared with a net profit of $26.77
million.
China Hongxing's net profit for the first quarter slid
50.9 per cent to $12.44 million, thanks to lower sales and product
discounts, while Pine Agritech swung into a net loss of $5.02 million
from a net profit of $15.58 million a year ago.
Cosco Corp's net
profit plummeted 60.5 per cent year on year to $33.15 million dragged
by lower charter rates for dry bulk shipping and the lower profit
contributions from the ship-repair, shipbuilding and marine engineering
business.
But defying industry trends, Yangzijiang turned in a
30 per cent rise in first-quarter net profit to 483.3 million yuan
(S$103.2 million) on a 23 per cent rise in revenue to 2.09 billion
yuan, and kept its gross profit margin above 20 per cent, taking a lift
from the construction of larger vessels at the group's new yard.
Bolstered by higher selling prices for its high-end projects, Yanlord
Land Group's net profit more than doubled to $24.27 million for the
first quarter ended March 31, 2009 from $9.31 million for the previous
corresponding quarter.
Also showing resilience was China
Fishery, whose net profit put on 8.2 per cent to US$43.7 million on the
back of higher sales. This triggered a 'buy' call from DMG &
Partners Securities in anticipation of its long-term growth potential.
Alan Lok, director at Sabio Global, noted that S-chips come under two
different tiers - those with exposure to overseas markets and those
that rely on domestic consumption. Unfortunately, the profiles of the
S-chips here mostly fall under the first group, with main export
markets being the United States and Europe.
The second group of
S-chips, however, has held up well but 'the risk is we don't know how
long China's consumer market can sustain this kind of results', Mr Lok
said.
Henderson Global Investors fund manager Andrew Mattock
noted that industrial activity in China has picked up and this could
benefit mid-caps with domestic exposure.
There are also
tentative signs that the Chinese residential property market may be
bottoming out, as transaction volumes in major cities continue to
increase. But he is wary of some export-driven industries, which are
dependent on a pick-up in global demand.
Given the shortage of
bright spots on the earnings front, there hasn't been a major re-rating
of S-chips. And where earnings are looking up, analysts are assessing
the governance aspect of these companies.
CIMB-GK research head
Kenneth Ng has, for instance, noted that China Sky could return to
marginal profitability in the second quarter.
But 'the weak
environment, the cash burn and a share overhang from the revelation
that CEO Huang Zhong Xuan has pledged his 19 per cent stake in the
company are reasons for a negative position on the stock', he said,
cutting his rating from 'neutral' to 'underperform'.
Kim Eng analyst James Koh said he expects earnings per share of S-chips to be flat, compared with last year.
While some economic indicators in China seem to suggest that things are
picking up, fundamental positive developments 'should likely still be
industry and company specific rather than broad-based', he added.
S-CHIPS
have been the epicentre of recent corporate scandals but they are not
inferior to other small caps when it comes to corporate governance, a
study shows.
Prof Mak: To build trust and confidence, S-chips may need to do more than what other small firms do
They had similar scores on governance and transparency to non-Chinese
listings with a market cap of less than $50 million or below $300
million. But S-chips are more likely to have busy directors sitting on
their boards.
These facts emerged after a more in-depth study by
NUS Corporate Governance and Financial Reporting Centre (CGFRC) on the
Governance and Transparency Index (GTI).
The GTI database
contains 136 S-chips as some companies may not have released an updated
annual report at the time of scoring. Each firm can score up to 100
points in the core corporate governance (CG) index.
The mean CG
score for 136 S-chips was 36.89, close to the mean score of 36.52 among
300 non-Chinese listings with a market cap of less than $50 million,
and not far away from the mean score of 37.26 among 453 non-Chinese
listings with a market cap below $300 million.
All three categories of companies have the same median score of 37.
Similarly, there were no major statistical differences on how S-chips
scored on board matters compared to small non-Chinese listings with a
market cap of less than $50 million or those below $300 million.
Under board matters, S-chips have a mean score of 13.52 versus 13.43
for non-Chinese listings below $50 million in market cap, and 13.8 for
those below market cap of $300 million.
In areas of
'remuneration' and 'accountability and audit', S-chips also scored
similarly as the typical small caps, with the same median score of 5
and 11 respectively.
S-chips scored a higher mean of 7.79 for
transparency and investor relationships, compared to non-Chinese small
caps with market values below $50 million that scored a mean of 7.76,
but still lower than the mean of 8.12 among non-Chinese stocks with a
market cap below $300 million.
But in most categories of the
GTI, the maximum scores of S-chips tend to be lower than other small
caps. The GTI scores do not capture the robustness of the business
model, the governance and management 'culture', ethics, and of course
the economic conditions.
Some 47.8 per cent of S-chips have at
least one busy director (holding at least six directorships), while the
proportion of other small caps with such board profile is about 37 per
cent. Those with 'busy' directors include China Aviation Oil, China
Essence, China Sky, China Yongsheng and Ocean International.
'To
build trust and confidence, particularly amidst the problems involving
a disproportionate number of S-chips, S-chips may need to do more - not
just do as much as the other smaller companies,' said Mak Yuen Teen,
co-director of CGFRC and regional research director for Asia-Pacific at
Watson Wyatt.
Prof Mak noted that the biggest change needed may
be a mindset change on the part of controlling shareholders to set the
tone from the top and to welcome good independent directors (IDs) who
are truly able to contribute and challenge their thinking.
'I
think trying to get one very good ID would be a good start, and this ID
should be given an instrumental role . . . to try to bring about
culture change and improvements in those other areas,' he added. 'But
the reality is that better directors will need convincing to sit on
S-chip boards.'
Market talk has it that some S-chips that have
fallen into negative spotlight have difficulties in getting new
directors on board.
A case in point is Zhonghui Holdings,
which defaulted on a loan and where special accountant
PricewaterhouseCoopers found an advance payment of 50 million yuan
(S$10.7 million) for an acquisition made without board approval.
Its last ID quit last month, citing difficulty in discharging his duty
due to a lack of accurate, timely and complete information from
management. No replacements have been appointed so far.
'Companies need to examine who are the members of the audit committee
and whether they have the time to make that commitment because they
need the time and effort to continually educate the companies on
corporate governance,' said Robson Lee, partner at Shook Lin & Bok
LLP.
But Mr Lee, who sits on board seven listed companies
including Youcan and Qian Hu as an ID, noted that 'busy' is a relative
thing.
It is more important that companies bring in directors
with the experience of dealing with Chinese companies and an
understanding of their culture and way of doing things, instead of a
novice who may not add value to the company, he said.
(SINGAPORE)
S-chips or Chinese listings have seen their market values increase, but
analysts are holding back their re-ratings of these stocks as they have
largely been driven by the broader market momentum - with uncertainties
in the sector still persisting.
'Investors need to be vigilant still, though the general upturn of the
market should reduce the margin calls from pledged shares,' said
CIMB-GK analyst Ho Choon Seng.
Year-to-date, the combined market
caps of 149 S-chips grew 19.8 per cent to $29.14 billion. The Prime
Partners China Index surged 25 per cent from the start of this year to
77.1 points yesterday and the FTSE ST China Index put on 17.7 per cent
to 218.9 points. This compares to a 25 per cent jump in the benchmark
Straits Times Index year-to-date.
UOB KayHian dealing director
Chan Tuck Sing noted that the surge in S-chips was largely a result of
investors seeking out underperforming stocks to play catch-up with the
broad market rally.
'S-chips are generally considered higher
beta stocks, so they have rebounded sharply along with the market,'
added Kim Eng analyst James Koh.
Analysts feel that perhaps more could be done to assure investors that good companies do exist among S-chips.
Most are still
trading at undemanding valuations of below 5 times historical
price-to-earnings ratio and less than one time price-to-book (P/B).
Guangzhou Investment Co remains the biggest S-chip by market cap at
$3.71 billion, while the rest played musical chairs. Yanlord moves up
two places to be runner-up, nudging Cosco Corp off to fourth place.
Epure got into the top 10, while China Hongxing fell off the league.
Since the beginning of this year, Yanlord's market cap has doubled from
$1.63 billion to $3.23 billion and Yangzijiang's market cap surged 62.6
per cent to $2.7 billion.
Interestingly, Yanlord is also well
placed in the Governance and Transparency Index (GTI), an index
launched by The Business Times and NUS Corporate Governance and
Financial Reporting Centre (CGFRC); of the 676 companies reviewed, it
came in 111th.
Midas, ranked 61st on the GTI, enjoyed an 11.2
per cent growth in Q1 earnings and saw its market value jump 24.7 per
cent year- to-date to $511.4 million.
The same story could be
told for some other S-chips as well, suggesting that investors tend to
reward companies for good governance.
But recent scandals in
S-chips have caused investors to turn the other way and paint the whole
sector with the same broad brush. Mr Chan of UOB KayHian noted that
many fund managers got their fingers burnt by S-chips such as
FerroChina and Fibrechem. 'These sorts of memories may cause them to
avoid such stocks,' he said.
A more significant reason for these
stocks falling off the radar of fund managers, however, is that many
S-chips - Beauty China, China Energy, China XLX, Delong, Fibrechem and
China Sky - have now been reduced to penny stocks.
China Aviation, China Fishery, Cosco Corp and Yanlord are among the handful in the sector that trade above a dollar.
CIMB-GK analyst Ho Choon Seng noted that the free-float in many cases
is also quite low since a large chunk of shares are held by insiders.
Some brokerages have slowly shrunk their coverage of these stocks.
Westcomb Securities, for instance, has dropped its coverage of S-chips,
except for those that come under the SGX Research Incentive Scheme,
which is a paid scheme under the Exchange.
CIMB-GK has also dropped seven S-chips from its coverage this year while Kim Eng has stopped covering one or two S-chips.
'The market has certainly lost some interest in S-chips, after
corporate governance issues with the likes of Fibrechem and China Sun,'
said Mr Koh of Kim Eng. 'Also, some management 'guidance' in terms of
plans and profits has proved quite misguided.'
Analysts feel that perhaps more could be done to assure investors that good companies do exist among S-chips.
'While there are black sheep among them, if the communication issue had
been dealt with in a more mature manner, we would not have this kind of
depressed valuation,' said Alan Lok, director at Sabio Global.
In assessing the valuation of S-chips using the P/B ratio, there is a
concern that the accounting book 'may not be the actual book' given the
credibility issues clouding the sector, Mr Lok said. 'If we factor in
the corporate governance issue, a P/B ratio of 0.5-0.7 times would be a
good target.'
There is also the opaque issue of pledged shares. But don't write off S-chips just yet, analysts say.
Henderson Global Investors fund manager Andrew Mattock said he sees
'exceptional value in some of the Chinese property stocks' and favours
mid-caps with domestic exposure.
Mr Lok suggests that investors
look into S-chips whose earnings have not been badly hit by the crisis
- those with a sound business model, good branding and reasonably low
valuation.
'I would go into the mid-caps that are on the way to becoming blue chips,' he said.
Singapore Technologies Engineering (STEG.SI) expects to raise its
orderbook in 2009 as it is bidding for government projects in China,
Europe and the Middle East, a senior executive told Thomson Reuters in
an interview today.
The engineering comglomerate, 49% owned by state investor Temasek
Holdings (TEM.UL), also said its 2009 financial performance is expected
to be within 5% of last year’s results.
“All those infrastructure projects that the governments are putting
their money into, we are ready to take more of these projects,” said
Seah Moon Ming, deputy chief executive officer of ST Engineering.
As of March 2009, the company had an order book of $11.03 billion, up
from $10.6 billion at the end of 2008, though Seah did not specify the
expected increase for 2009.
For those allotted lots, we can go to ATM to confirm that we want the
full allocation, right? YES
If we want excess rights, we have to send in
cashier order? No need to, one stop at ATM can handle both rights and excess rights
Can we apply online?Yes, when using ATM, after normal procedure, ATM ask you how many is your entitlement , you key in the number you are entitled. then second question ATM ask is how many Excess rights , you key in the number you want, be sure to have enough money ..
Always check CDP to be sure you have the stock in FREE colume before you do a SELL, sell got to be careful so as not to make mistake and get BUY-IN and fined for naked short
I would like to share my comparison here for some of you to refer to. Perhaps you might need to review the hardware and consider firefox .
Also in my observation, Java took time to load, chart ploting use java and become slower. Therefore, may be you need to consider upgrade hardware especially RAM. One hint is to see your hard disk signal light, if it keeps blinking after you load sgx website, then it is a signal to tell you that the comp is busy using hard disk and RAM together to work on very large program, so it will be very slow.
Sometime we have no choice but to catch up with new technology and pay more for hardware to enjoy the new things.
I compare one old comp and one new comp:, my internet is Starhub maxonline express, 8M download speed and 768Kb upload speed.
run
firefox, the website load in may be 8 seconds. If i open all-in-one, it
is several seconds. if i type a company name , due to chart plotting it
is slower , like 15 second to 20 second.
Using IE7, loading sgx website initially take much longer, like 20 - 30 second, after that all in one info is quite fast, similar to firefox
2. New comp, Intel Core 2, 2.4G CPU, 4G RAM. Win vista
run firefox, very fast, all in one info about 2-3 seconds, type company name , click, chart and all information take may be 4-6 seconds
run
IE7, take longer time to load, once loaded, it runs equally fast like
firefox.
at time it becomes very slow on loading. what i do is to use a
simple software to erase all the IE cache and other things to speed up loading and processing.
As such i prefer firefox which is really fast and less problem.
1. You cannot use ATM to pay for your Rights for those held in CPF investment account
2. You must instruct your CPF Agent Bank to exercise ( payment via CPF money) on your behalf. Many feedback that Agent Bank give you a date earlier than CDP date ( which is 2 June for Cash account held in CDP). So please pay attention to the earlier cut off date and submit your form to Agent bank before their cut off date.
another director sold 8million and cease to be major shareholder
NOTICE OF CESSATION OF SUBSTANTIAL SHAREHOLDING *
* Asterisks denote mandatory information
"DISCLAIMER:- This announcement was prepared and issued by the below
mentioned listed issuer to the Exchange. The Exchange assumes no
responsibility for the correctness of any of the statements made,
opinions expressed or reports contained in this announcement and is
posting this announcement on SGXNET for the sole purpose of
dissemination only. In the event of any queries or clarification
required in respect of any matters arising from this announcement, such
queries are to be made to the listed issuer directly and not to the
Exchange. The Exchange shall not be liable for any losses or damages
howsoever arising as a result of the circulation, publication and
dissemination of this announcement."
Name of Announcer *
ACHIEVA LIMITED
Company Registration No.
199307251M
Announcement submitted on behalf of
ACHIEVA LIMITED
Announcement is submitted with respect to *
ACHIEVA LIMITED
Announcement is submitted by *
Adrian Chan Pengee
Designation *
Company Secretary
Date & Time of Broadcast
20-May-2009 18:14:39
Announcement No.
00087
>> ANNOUNCEMENT DETAILS
The details of the announcement start here ...
>> PART I
1.
Date of notice to issuer *
19-05-2009
2.
Name of Substantial Shareholder *
Pok Tam Soon
3.
Please tick one or more appropriate box(es): *
Notice
of a Change in the Percentage Level of a Substantial Shareholder's
Interest or Cessation of Interest. [Please complete Part III and IV]
>> PART II
1.
Date of change of [Select Option]
2.
Name of Registered Holder
3.
Circumstance(s) giving rise to the interest or change in interest
[Select Option]
# Please specify details
4.
Information relating to shares held in the name of the Registered Holder
No. of [Select Option] held before the change
As a percentage of issued share capital
%
No. of N.A. which are subject of this notice
As a percentage of issued share capital
%
Amount of consideration (excluding brokerage and stamp duties) per share paid or received
No. of N.A. held after the change
As a percentage of issued share capital
%
>> PART III
1.
Date of change of Interest
19-05-2009
2.
The change in the percentage level
From 6.53 %
To 4.99 %
3.
Circumstance(s) giving rise to the interest or change in interest
Sales in Open Market at Own Discretion
# Please specify details
The sales were made on 15th May 2009 and 19th May 2009.
4.
A statement of whether the change in the percentage level is the result of a transaction or a series of transactions:
A series of transactions.
>> PART IV
1.
Holdings of Substantial Shareholder , including direct and deemed interest :
NOTICE OF A DIRECTOR'S (INCLUDING A DIRECTOR WHO IS A SUBSTANTIAL SHAREHOLDER) INTEREST AND CHANGE IN INTEREST *
* Asterisks denote mandatory information
"DISCLAIMER:- This announcement was prepared and issued by the below
mentioned listed issuer to the Exchange. The Exchange assumes no
responsibility for the correctness of any of the statements made,
opinions expressed or reports contained in this announcement and is
posting this announcement on SGXNET for the sole purpose of
dissemination only. In the event of any queries or clarification
required in respect of any matters arising from this announcement, such
queries are to be made to the listed issuer directly and not to the
Exchange. The Exchange shall not be liable for any losses or damages
howsoever arising as a result of the circulation, publication and
dissemination of this announcement."
Name of Announcer *
ACHIEVA LIMITED
Company Registration No.
199307251M
Announcement submitted on behalf of
ACHIEVA LIMITED
Announcement is submitted with respect to *
ACHIEVA LIMITED
Announcement is submitted by *
Adrian Chan Pengee
Designation *
Company Secretary
Date & Time of Broadcast
20-May-2009 18:20:39
Announcement No.
00092
>> ANNOUNCEMENT DETAILS
The details of the announcement start here ...
>> PART I
1.
Date of notice to issuer *
20-05-2009
2.
Name of Director *
Soh Eng Kuang
3.
Please tick one or more appropriate box(es): *
Notice
of a Director's (including a director who is a substantial shareholder)
Interest and Change in Interest. [Please complete Part II and IV]
>> PART II
1.
Date of change of Interest
20-05-2009
2.
Name of Registered Holder
Soh Eng Kuang
3.
Circumstance(s) giving rise to the interest or change in interest
Sales in Open Market at Own Discretion
# Please specify details
The sales were made on 19th May 2009 and 20th May 2009
4.
Information relating to shares held in the name of the Registered Holder
No. of Shares held before the change
19,216,825
As a percentage of issued share capital
3.69 %
No. of Shares which are subject of this notice
16,716,825
As a percentage of issued share capital
3.21 %
Amount of consideration (excluding brokerage and stamp duties) per share paid or received
0.1186
No. of Shares held after the change
2,500,000
As a percentage of issued share capital
0.48 %
>> PART III
1.
Date of change of [Select Option]
2.
The change in the percentage level
From %
To %
3.
Circumstance(s) giving rise to the interest or change in interest
[Select Option]
# Please specify details
4.
A statement of whether the change in the percentage level is the result of a transaction or a series of transactions:
>> PART IV
1.
Holdings of Director , including direct and deemed interest :
anyway, you should have online access to CDP, that allows you to check CDP account. The Kepland Rights had been credited in the account prior to rights trading on 19 May.
As it is more convenient to use ATM to pay for Rights, as such CDP account is really more important than the documents.
huateduck ( Date: 19-May-2009 17:27) Posted:
has anybody recevied the document about the rights issue from kepland?
Neptune Orient Lines (NOL SP): Southeast Asia’s biggest
container carrier had its share-price estimate raised to $1.6 from $1.3
at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which maintained its “neutral” rating. The
stock jumped 13% to $1.43.