YTL-Something's Brewing

After a long hibernation not unlike the seasonal preoccupation of the polar bear,YTL Corporation has stirred into some volume action.

I was away for the last two days and have not been keeping up with the Bursa action when I was told that YTL has cross into the RM1.50 price territory.

When an acquaintance told me about it, I was nonplussed as my average price was RM1.55 and that development was not really comforting.

This morning, it spurted passed the RM1.60 price on huge volume with some deals done in 100,000 tranches.

What is brewing in YTL as it is neither GAB or Carlsberg? And certainly not from heavy smoking in BAT?

What is Francis up to this time?

After taking YTL Cement off the board and compelling every shareholder possible to convert to YTL shares, he will be using his legal avenues to wrestle away those stubborn YTL Cement shareholders who refuse to part with their YTL Cement shares.

YTL Corp Bhd is a good share.

For its second quarter of its current fiscal year ended Dec 31, 2011, it posted a 44.6% year-on-year jump in net profit to RM237.4mil as compared with RM164.2mil a year earlier. YTL Corp and its listed arms' financial year ends on June 30, 2012.

For the quarter under review, the well-diversified group's revenue increased 18.4% year-on-year to RM5.3bil.

Francis informed the Group continued to perform well due mainly to the “ongoing resilience of our multi-utility businesses in Malaysia, Britain and Singapore”.

“Our cement and multi-utility operations, which are the group's major contributors, continue to register sound performance,” he added.

For the six months ended Dec 31, 2011, YTL Corp recorded a 10.4% year-on-year jump in net profit to RM489.2mil while revenue increased 10.8% to RM9.87bil.

Meanwhile, for the first half of FY12, YTL Power International Bhd's net profit grew 5.2% year-on-year to RM560mil while revenue rose 9.4% to RM7.7bil, due mainly to better performance of its merchant multi-utility businesses.

However, the division's YES mobile broadband operations registered a loss due mainly to the upfront implementation costs to build the 4G network for scale in order to cover the peninsula.

YTL Cement Bhd saw its net profit for the first half of FY12 grow by 8.8% year-on-year to RM167.9mil while revenue increased 12.2% to RM1.15bil due mainly to higher demand for cement in the construction industry and contributions from offshore subsidiaries.

On YTL Power, analysts said the company's results for the first half of FY12 were within expectations.

According to CIMB Research,YTL Power has a cash horde aimed for suitable mergers and acquisitions it can find.

“We believe YTL Power would eventually win the national 1Bestarinet smart school project. The project is worth RM300mil per annum over 10 years,” said CIMB Research. This is most interesting, don't you think? A certain little bird is up to no good?

Meanwhile, HwangDBS Vickers Research pointed out that YTL Power's dividend per share was lower quarter-on-quarter.

The research house said this was possibly because the company wanted to retain cash to fund increasing capital expenditure for YES, and potential investments in new power plants in Malaysia and overseas regulated assets.

YTL Power had declared a 1.875% or 0.9375 sen per share second interim dividend for FY12.

So, what do you think is brewing at YTL.

There will be no need for another share split. After the share exchange with YTL Cement shareholders, there is definitely a certain glut of YTL shares in the market.

Even the buying for Treasury shares is fast approaching the 10% legal limit.

So what can one expect from this sudden flurry of buying apart from possible Treasury buys?

Share redistribution in specie to loyal shareholders? Very likely.

At the close, YTL Corp became the most traded counter rising a spectacular 17 sen to RM1.75 on a volume of almost 12 million shares.

I think besides the Treasury buy-ins, other parties both speculators and institutions from at home and abroad could have jumped onto the counter on some expectations of positive corporate development.

Who knows?

The Wholesome Angel

If there is anyone of 'Charlie's Angels' that can be considered really wholesome, then it must be Cheryl Ladd. This star has the appeal of whatever is meant by the word, 'nice and beautiful'.

If I want to hazard a description of the other Angels, then Farrah would be the most sexy followed by Tanya Roberts and Shelley Hack. Jaclyn Smith was good to look at while Kate is just the girl next door.

I was looking through the WWW and only these Cheryl photos fit my description of 'nice'.

It's 29 February Today-Leap Year 2012

Well, as in all leap years, this day props up. Those who have 29th February as their birthdays certainly saves more money as they celebrate less much to their dismay, red-letter day or not.

Remember the movie,'Leap Year' starring the beautiful Amy Adams?

In the role of Anna Brady, Amy travels to Dublin, Ireland to propose to her boyfriend Jeremy on February 29, leap day, because, according to Irish tradition, a man who receives a marriage proposal on a leap day must accept it.

Interesting tradition if they still practise it.

Wonder what would happen if it is a Malaysian tradition?

Would that make for unhappy couples every 4 years?

Gentings-A Foothold in Banking

Genting Berhad has now gone into banking; albeit in a small way, for now and not at home.

Its maiden banking investment via its unit Vista Knowledge Pte Ltd is a 20% stake is in CIMB Group Holdings Bhd's investment banking advisory joint venture in Sri Lanka called CIMB Pte Ltd.

With Genting's entry, CIMB now holds a 45% stake in the JV (from 51% previously), while its two Sri Lankan partners — Alex Lovell and Reshani Dangalla — own 20% and 15%, respectively.

Last August, CIMB had formed a partnership with Lovell and Dangalla to establish an investment banking and corporate advisory presence in Sri Lanka. Shareholders had committed up to US$2 million for the venture.

Let us see how this investment can be spun into gold for the Genting group and its shareholders.

BAT Recovers on Last Minute Heavy Buying

It is not everyone's risk appetite to buy into a full lot of BAT at RM52.56 per share.

So, when you see a 100,000 share purchase or 100 lots done at this price, it is really a big cash outlay. Estimated gross payment will top RM5.2 million.

I guess a foreign fund came in to take out this tranche.

The highest price it went up to recently was RM54.00.

Today, BAT went up to RM52.64 before retreating to end at RM52.56.

Is something burning in BAT that is going to make minority shareholders stir crazy?

That, we have to see.

The Greek Tentacles are Here

Talk about globalisation and the effects will be felt from now on.

While the formal economy can parade all kinds of cosmetic numbers to shore up support for the government and the stock market momentarily,you cannot mickey mouse with the man in the street.

Go to the wet market and you can feel the gloom and impending doom. Ask the nasi lemak seller hawking in the byways and she tells you she used to sell 6 kilos per day and now even with only a reduced 3 kilo of rice, there is a visible lack of sustained buying.

Where have all the buyers gone?

I guess every one is cutting back. In spite of the 2 million odd foreign workers here, the lack of demand for cooked food at the stalls is alarming.

I believe every one is cooking at home or eating bread which is cheaper in comparison.

The crunch is coming to the informal sector. Very soon, the put on cosmetization of numbers from the formal sector will peel off and turn ugly.

As the Eurozone rolls back its demand for our commodities,the Greek debacle will be at our doors soon and this time it is no Trojan horse!

How sad. As they say, "In times of crisis, cash is king".

So, hold on to your cash, avoid unnecessary expenditure and buy the cheaper alternative to stretch your ringgit.

Pray, we get out of this economic black hole.

TASCO-Buyers' Reaction

Early morning trading pushed the prise of this logistics company to RM1.94 before the share retreated to RM1.87. There is not really many buyers for this stock even though dividend has gone up to 10%.

A cursory analysis shows the biggest lot done is 3,0000 shares, indicating very small buyers are nibbling on the counter.

I think TASCO is a good stock to have in one's portfolio if it continues with its profit and dividend performance. I am also incline to believe that the Malaysian-Japanese management is doing one fine job efficiently in a challenging sector.

TASCO ended at RM1.90 for a 5 sen gain.