Foreign Land Deals-Silly Risk Taking?

Investing in land is a very good move towards developing a nest-egg. Remember, location of your land is very important if it is to appreciate in value.

Strangely, many Malaysians have invested much of their hard-earn money in overseas property from USA, Australia,UK to Canada.

There were a number of issues with regard to these overseas land investment. Some people are of the view that this type of investment is illegal and disallowed by Bank Negara Malaysia. A few years back, a local company dealing with UK land was in the lime-light. This land investment was advertised widely on Malaysian radio stations then but I do not know whether the issues were amicably resolved with BNM.

Buying land overseas is very risky. You do not know the laws in that foreign country. You can likely fell prey to sundry risks from illegal activities to misrepresentation. There are loop-holes just like what Edgeworth took advantage of, for their own nefarious leverage purposes or even those that constitute downright cheating of the gullible.

In many overseas land sales, foreign buyers have been duped to buy non-residential or commercial land with the most remote hope that it will be converted in due time. Sadly, not all such lands may be allowed to be converted and may be land to be reserved for 'green lungs'. After all, agents are just interested in their commision and not in after-sales service. They convince you to get your sale in grand style by giving you a hard talk,lunch at a 5-star restaurant as well as complimentary shopping vouchers. So, caveat emptor when approached by any such agents.You may just be the 'sucker' that they are waiting for!

When I read about the plight of Malaysians who fell prey to the Canadian land scheme sold through Edgeworth Properties, I remembered all too clearly my experience with one such company a few years back.

I do not know about anyone getting super returns from their risky investments but my investment forays overseas have been bitter sweet,at best. My investment in an overseas insurance policy in an off-shore facility was disappointing and that pertaining to an Australian scholarship trust was really not worth the while.

A friend of mine who invested in a piece of land in Florida had so much anxiety woes that he visited the land physically in the USA and seeing that there was no' safety net' in the investment, he sold it. Thank God, he did it before the sub-prime fiasco.

Some people are really gutsy. Investing RM750,000 in parcels of land overseas through dubious companies and agents.They dared to invest in the 'unknown' overseas and yet not invest in blue chips on Bursa KL or land in their back yard in Malaysia.These are definitely less risky, for sure!

I wonder why the so called investors are attracted to the remote, 'potential gains' from such land purchase overseas?

Gullibility, again, financial adventurism or just plain silly greed.

TASCO-Better Net Profits and Dividends

TASCO officially announced its results for the full fiscal year,paying good dividends of another 12.9%.

Performance has also improved. For the full year ending 31 Dec 2011, TASCO's revenue rose to RM469,211 million which is 5.5% better that that achieved in the corresponding period ending 2010 of RM443,362. Profit after tax for the period was RM34,676 million,almost 40% of that attained in 2010 of RM24,776 million. Basic earnings per shares has also risen to 34.59 sen from 24.78 sen in 2010.In terms of dividends, the dividend declared for the current year is 12.90% where 1.3% is tax-exempt while 11.6% is taxed at 25%,effectively translating net dividend to 9.13%. This is better that 9.3% gross declared in 2010.

The last quarter results, though, was lower than that achieved in the corresponding quarter in 2010.Revenue shrunk to RM113,870 million, RM10.8 million lower than RM124,692 million chalked up in 2010. This is equivalent to a 8.6% fall. Thankfully, net profit has been higher at RM13,963 million as compared to RM8,471 million registered in 2010. This is equivalent to a spectacular improvement of 65%.

Let us now look at TASCO's quarter results thus far.

Though revenue is so much lower than in 2010, net profit earnings per share, dividend (12.90%) and NTA (RM2.41)have been good.

Dividend-wise, this year has the best yield thus far ;comparing to the low pay-out of 7% in 2009 and 9.1% in 2010.

If the yearly and quarterly revenue is any indicator, the logistics industry continues to be challenging for TASCO though profits has indeed improved tremendously. Whether the industry can still support such a profit performance is very much dependent on both the global and domestic economy.