Realistic Moving Stills- Interesting

Yes, these truly spooked me at first. But today, with computers and software, anything is possible.

Click on the pictures to view the effects.

Enjoy!

Shaddup,Bird!

Yes, this is no ordinary domestic scene.

Oftentimes, it is quite the opposite.

More reminiscent of Mad Magazine's The Shadow Tells.

Marc Anthony and Tiger's Losses

Yes,it depends how you look at it.

Both ladies have their exes too, I am sure.

Why they gave away of shared lives that they were so sure of when they did get married is beyond all comprehension.

I would understand why Erin Nordegrin reacted the way she did after Tiger's transgresses.

But why J. Lo? Are 7 years a mere trifling and a pair of twins to boot of little consequence?

There is definitely more than meets the eye here.

I read today of Erin and a billionaire's scion of a son adating.

Interesting what the billionaire's son sees in Nordegrin. I do.

As for Jennifer Lopez, what are you not telling?

Whatever it is, I know  that both Marc and Tiger will be missing them so.

A Shout in the Shadows

There will always be this sense of unease when you are accosted by strangers.

In fact, in one of my English comprehension exercise to my students, I had one that dealt with dealing with strangers.

The most succinct points were those of escape.

When accosted, do not engage the strangers if possible. Try to get away from the situation. If there is harassment, shout for help.

And so it came to passed.

I was walking towards my car after class just last week.

While walking in the dark five-foot way, suddenly I heard a shout. A man on a motorbike harkened to me as if in need of help to get directions.

I smelled a rat. He could easily had stopped at the brighter coffee-shop areas to do that. Yet, he chose me walking solitarily in the dark shadows-an easy prey.

So, I pretended not to have heard him and quickly walked into the beckoning light of the coffee shop. Safety,at last.

I took my own advice,so it seems straight from the text of my own lesson!

Passing On

Yes, a morbid issue indeed to blog.

My good old neighbour, Mrs Tang, passed on about 10 days ago.

I did not know about the passing on until the day she was cremated.

Looking back, I know another nice lady such as the late Mrs Tang.

There was our affectionately known wife of the manager of Chung Keow Bank. Never got to know their names.

She was so friendly and used to give us things.

In fact she introduced us to fresh scallops. We did not know what it was and had to go to the nearby market to ask the fishmongers what it was;only to be told that it was konichi or scallop.

She passed on when we were in Penang.

God bless the souls of both this lady and Mrs. Tang.

Oldtown-Down the Bin As Well?

 Anything can happen!

The fortunes of man are intricately tied to the emotions of perception these days.

While some analysts are bullish about Oldtown, OSK is pretty conservative in its stance.

Let's read what they said.

"OldTown Bhd is a home-grown proprietor involved in the white coffee business that also operates with an extensive chain of cafes in Malaysia. The group has a total of 182 café outlets in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

It also distributes its coffee and other beverage products particularly in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong although its products are also marketed worldwide.

It plans to grow its chain of outlets by 15 per cent this year and ramp up production capacity of its beverage products by 500 per cent by 2013. While a reputable brand name, OldTown will continue to face stiff competition and rising costs.

OSK Research values OldTown at RM1.34 pegged to 12.5x FY11 EPS.

Inspired to provide quality white coffee to Malaysians, the group’s founders Go Ching Mun and Tan Say Yap created their own instant white coffee formula in 1999.

The duo established their manufacturing operations in the same year under the “Oldtown” brand name and in 2005, expanded vertically into the food services segment under the “Old Town White Coffee” brand name. Today, the group has 171 café outlets in Malaysia, 9 cafés in Singapore and 2 in Indonesia.

OldTown started manufacturing its own blend of 3-in-1 instant white coffee in 1999 and later expanded its product line to include variations of its instant coffee mix. Within a decade, its products were distributed nationwide and successfully commercialized in more than 10 overseas markets.

OldTown expanded downstream into the food service segment by establishing its first café outlet in 2005, and in the span of five years, extended this to a network of 182 outlets.

Apart from a strong brand name, other factors that fuelled this fast growing business are the adoption of a franchising strategy and the fact that the group is operated by experienced management. With a large number of outlets and wide distribution network, OldTown enjoys significant advantage in ensuring that its products are easily accessible to as many end-consumers as possible.

OldTown plans to open 27 more outlets in FY11, which will bring the total number of outlets to 209. The group also plans to relocate its food processing operations and manufacturing plant to a central location in Ipoh.

Construction of the new plant started in 2Q2011 for completion by 2013. The new plant, once completed, is expected to ramp up the group”s production capacity by 500 per cent.

OSK Research decided to be conservative and remain neutral on the prospects of OldTown’s F&B segment, which contributes the bulk of its revenue due to stiff competition and rising costs. The analyst valued OldTown at 12.5x FY11 EPS, which translates into a fair value of RM1.34, or a 7.2 per cent upside from the listing price of RM1.25.

Oldtown has recommended a dividend payout of no less than 50 per cent for FY11/12, which translates into a divided yield of 4.3 per cent-4.8 per cent."

So, will you be lucky when the shares list?

The People's Choice-Yingluck

This is the face to watch.

She is 44-year-old Yingluck Shinawatra.

As Thailand is famous for its beauty queens, this time a pretty politician is poised to take over

the helm of the goverment of Thailand as the first Lady Prime minister.

If the Thais can determine their future rightly or wrongly and it is by popular vote through the

ballot box, why can't some other developing nations both in Asia and in Africa open up more

political space for its citizenry so that their countries can mature politically?

OldTown-Cheers to the successful subscribers! Or Will it Be So?

Oldtown Bhd (Oldtown) is upping its ante by penetrating further into the Chinese hinterland so said the Group Managing Director. I think this is what is attracting the heavy over subscription besides its minuscule offer to the general public. The IPO is oversubscribed by 10.8 times.

The cafe chain operator and instant beverages mix manufacturer to be listed on  July 13, received 9,366 applications for 117,642,100 shares with a total value of RM147.1 million for the public tranche of 10
million new shares under the IPO.

The IPO consists of a public issue of 63.4 million new ordinary shares and an offer for sale of 33 million vendor shares at RM1.25 each.

The company operates 180 cafe outlets throughout Malaysia and the region and exports its beverage mixes to Singapore, Brunei, Hong Kong, the US, Canada, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, China,
the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

By the fourth quarter, it plans to penetrate even further into the China market.

Oldtown sees great potential in the Chinese market due to the sheer size of the population and will leverage on our initial inroads to expand the revenue contribution.

So have a cuppa in Oldtown sometimes, won't you?

I would like to recommend the Hazelnut coffee.

Bumi Armada-Should secure a handsome premium

Some recent remarks on the Bumi Armada listing.

Some called it crafty-the way the IPO created an an “artificially high demand” for the company’s shares amongst institutional investors in lieu of its flotation onto the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia this month,

Market talk has been rife that Bumi Armada’s IPO has garnered strong interest from foreign and local institutional investors, with institutional offers  oversubscribing by 5.6 times on the first day of bookbuilding

Under its IPO, Bumi Armada is offering 878.54 million existing and new shares, or about 30% of the company’s enlarged issued and paid-up ordinary share capital, and the IPO is expected to raise RM2.8bil at a retail price of RM3.15.

Existing shareholders of the company, mainly Ombak Damai Sdn Bhd, Wijaya Sinar Sdn Bhd, Wijaya Baiduri Sdn Bhd and Karisma Mesra Sdn Bhd, are selling a total of 234.28 million shares in this exercise while there will be 644.26 million new shares up for sale.

The offer for sale comprises institutional offering for Bumiputra investors approved by International Trade and Industry Ministry (MITI) while from the public issue, only 79.86 million shares will be for retail investors including directors of Bumi Armada and its eligible employees.

With the company having secured cornerstone investors to buy a total of 300 million shares, representing 10.2% of the enlarged issued and paid-up capital of the company, some analysts says that the remaining portion left for institutional investors is small.

“From the shares up for offer under the IPO, only some 18% or 160 million shares are available to institutional investors under the booking building exercise as 34% of the shares up for sale have been secured by cornerstone investors, about 38% falls under MITI’s approval for Bumiputra investors and the balance for retail investors.

The cornerstone investors include Great Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia) Bhd, Permodalan Nasional Bhd, HwangDBS Investment Management Bhd, Prudential Fund Management Bhd, Hong Leong Assurance Bhd, Guoline Capital Ltd and Asia Fountain Investment Co Ltd.

With a potential market capitalisation of over RM9bil at an indicative retail price of RM3.15, the analyst says there will be an appetite among institutional investors wanting to buy into the company on its first day of trade.

“This naturally creates a strong demand for its shares (in terms of volume traded) and will likely see its share price close much higher on its first day of trade, as we saw for stocks like Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd and MSM Malaysia Holdings Bhd,” he pointed out.

With FY2011 price-earnings ratio (PER) of 26 times, the analyst expects the listing of Bumi Armada to provide a catalyst for a re-rating of the oil and gas sector and adds that it could become a FTSE Bursa Malaysia KL Composite Index (FBMKLCI) stock.

For the financial year ended Dec 31 2010, the Malaysia-based international offshore service player posted total revenue of RM1.2bil and net income of RM351mil, compared with a turnover of RM732.1mil and net profit of RM277.4mil for FY09.

Bumi Armada provides offshore services via four business units, which include floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO), offshore support vessels (OSV), transport and installation services (T&I) and oilfield service, as well as through two support units - engineering, procurement and construction and fleet management services.

So, I think a premium is in the offing for this stock.

Picture Bending

Yes, this has become an art. Enjoy!

Oldtown- So Little Coffee to go Around

Oldtown Berhad has completed its balloting. The results have shown that even the bumi portion has been oversubscribed by more than 3 times. As for the public portion, almost little chance even for one drop of coffee.From the ballot table, my chance is one in eleven.

Well, after reading some investment bank report that said there is a 25% upside to this issue, I took on another risky venture by going for yet one more wild Bill Hickok outing.

My forays.

UOA Development is an unmitigated disaster. Not all the King's men including UOA Australia, UOA Berhad and good ole EPF could do anything for its current melee. Went through the floor just like Rumpelstiltskin! Today it is shuddering at RM2.25 after losing 37 sen.

Then we have Eversendai. Did not lose but got candy cash. Too heavy,those steel structures, methink!

Yeah and missed the big one-MSM.

So,whether I get Oldtown or not, I do not fret too much because I believe that there are just too many IPOs going around at this juncture in time. The good one is obviously Bumi Armada.

May just concentrate on this one-lah