Astro to Shine again?

This was taken from the website " Value Investing in KLSE". As the blogger has done his homework tracking this stock, let us give him our attention.

Astro All Asia Networks plc (AAAN), a Malaysia-based investment holding company engaged in the provision of management services is currently involved in the following business segments. These are:

Malaysian multi channel television, which is engaged in the provision of multi channel direct-to-home subscription television and related interactive television services in Malaysia;

Radio, which provides radio broadcasting services;

Library licensing and distribution, which is engaged in the ownership of a library of Chinese filmed entertainment and the aggregation and distribution of the library and related content,

A magazine publishing business

And others such as interactive content business for the mobile telephony platform, Malaysian film production business, talent management; creation of animation content, television content aggregation and distribution, ownership of buildings, and regional investments in media businesses and other investment holding companies.

Astro is the sole provider of satellite DTH TV service in Malaysia with exclusive DTH rights until 2017. It's the biggest pay-TV operator in Southeast Asia with 2.56M residential subscribers. Its total penetration of Malaysia TV households is 44% to date. This is a highly cash-generative business which generates around RM 0.13 of cash flow per share - per year on average.

Astro is spreading its wings to India,Indonesia(but failed) and Middle East. Due to its sheer size of population in these prospective areas,the volume of business to be generated will be enormous!

The article did an estimate of the value of business in Malaysia.

Its Malaysian DTH monopoly business is valued at RM 3.50 to RM 4.00 per share. But current share price is around RM 2.80 per share.At current price,it's selling at a discount because stability of Malaysian business and future potential are not factored in.

Major shareholders are Tan Sri Ananda Krishnan (42.4%), Khazanah Nasional Bhd (21.4%) and Employees Provident Fund (7.3%).

Recently,rumuors abound that Astro,Measat and Maxis will be 'lumped' together to create more value through cost savings and synergy. This rumour is not new and has been circulating in the industry for sometime now.

This event is very likely to take place some time in the future if the share prices of Measat and Astro is kept for too long at low valuation. This should be an indicator for investors to come in.

So,if you are looking to diversify your investments, Astro could be just that fillip.

Get in at an opportune time when the market hits the wall on unfavourable economic or political news.

SIA Pilots Takes the Lowdown in Pay Cut

As the battle for the skies take its toll on once high flying service providers, one elitist airline-Singapore Airlines (SIA) has got its pilots to agree to take no-pay leave as well as a pay cut from July 1. This is the latest to erupt in a string of cost-cutting measures as global airlines take continuous revenue battering.

SIA also said its management staff and board of directors have agreed to a pay cut of at least 10 per cent which will help SIA to save about S$21 million (RM51 million) in costs in 2009.

After months of tough negotiations, an agreement between SIA and the Air Line Pilots Association-Singapore (Alpa-S) was finally hammered out and signed on June 18.

Under this agreement, the pilots – more than 1,800 of them – will take one day of no-pay leave each month and a cut of 65 per cent of one day’s pay a month, pro-rated from their monthly basic salary.

SIA said that the terms of the agreement with Alpa-S were determined by the situation where there arose surplus pilot resources because of reduced flight schedules,as SIA cuts back flight frequencies following the sharp fall in demand for air travel.

SIA passenger numbers last month fell by almost 24 per cent from the same period last year to about 1.2 million, outpacing an almost 14 per cent cut in capacity.The airline’s passenger load factor also fell to about 67 per cent, down almost eight percentage points year-on-year.

From next month, all SIA management staff will take a pay cut of at least 10 per cent, while its chief executive will have his pay chopped off by 20 per cent.

The board also volunteered a cut of 20 per cent in director fees.

Almost 2,000 employees have also signed up for SIA’s voluntary no-pay leave scheme where staff can apply for no-pay leave of up to two years.

SIA's salary cuts and related cost-cutting measures are akin to what Hong Kong’s biggest carrier Cathay Pacific and Australia’s largest carrier Qantas Airways have announced. In May 2009, Cathay announced that 90 per cent of its pilots had signed up for unpaid leave while Australia had earlier on in April cut 1,750 jobs.

So what about MAS and Air Asia? Are they doing so well to prevent such cost-cutting measures from happening back home?

Hannah Tan-Another Rare Find.

Sexy and charming! Brains and beauty. That is Hannah Tan, another sparkle in the current Malaysian social scene.

Hannah Sarah Tan, is an accomplished Malaysian singer-songwriter and television personality. She is half Chinese and half Kelabit. Very interesting combo here.

Hannah Tan,also known as Hannah T or Hannah Sarah Tan, is also a beauty queen representing Malaysia in the 2002 Miss Global Petite World Finals in Montreal. Here she won Second Runner Up as well as the coveted “Miss Congeniality” subsidiary title.

In 2006, she was voted by FHM as Malaysia’s sexiest woman. Another wow feather for Hannah!
Hannah Tan has appeared in a number of first rate advertisements, including an advert for Lux in which she appeared alongside Karen Mok.

She has hosted numerous Malaysian television shows, including What Women Want on 8TV, Motorsports@Petronas on Astro Super Sports, Ringgit Sense on TV3, Girls’ Club on NTV7, Looking Good Feeling Good on NTV7 as well as being part of the cast for Sketches also on NTV7.

She is one great gal and I hope she has the vim and vitality to continue climbing to greater heights in that direction.

Just subscribed to her official site so that I can keep track of the achievements of this rare gem.....

Jojo Struys' Official Site has Disappeared!

It must have been the unwarranted publicity after being showcased on the nuff-nang's innit.Actually it was good because if not for it, I would have paid scant attention to who Jojo really is.

I have been fortunate to go through the official website before it was barred from public scrutiny.

Now there is a watchdog authority holding the access to the site and so if you are not the welcomed type of people, you are disallowed entry.

Indonesian Maids for Muslim Employers Only?

A wild suggestion. Is it beyond the reality of the true ground situation in Malaysia?

Let's look at the issues.

A Bernama report today(20 June) says that Bocehe Dewe Association chairman, Ambar Setiowibowo has urged the government and the relevant agencies in Malaysia to ensure that Muslim Indonesian maids are placed with Muslim employers only.He believes this could help end maid abuse since normally the problem relates to differences in language, culture and religion.

“If possible, Muslim maids are placed with Muslim Malay employees. This should take precedence now."

“If this is not possible, a condition should be imposed that the maids are allowed to perform their religious duties like prayers and fasting and are not told to do something that goes against their religious belief,” he told Bernama.

“Bocehe Dewe” in Java means “group for youths only” and it is a social network formed in 2001 to help all Indonesian workers in Malaysia.

Ambar came up with the suggestion after Siti Hajar Sadli, 33, from Garut in West Java was believed to have been abused by her employer since three years ago. She was also said to have been given pork to eat.

Her single mother employer Hau Yuan Tyng has been charged at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court and pleaded not guilty to causing her grievous hurt.

Presently, the Immigration Department allows foreign Muslim maids to work for non-Muslim employers.

Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (PAPA) president Datuk Raja Zulkepley Dahalan said about 80 per cent of employers of 320,000 legal foreign maids in the country were non-Muslims.

Most foreign maids came from Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Thailand with a small number coming from China.

From the total, 270,000 are Indonesians and most of them are Muslims.

Raja Zulkepley said this explains why most abuse cases reported involved non-Muslim employers bent on recruiting maids individually or using illegal employment agencies.

“Most of the Indonesian maid abuse cases, especially those involving the Muslims, started from communication breakdown resulting from language, culture and religion differences,” he said.

Raja Zulkepley said there were also cases where maids were forced to do something else like washing the car and looking after the shop.

“PAPA’s suggestion is for more maids from China to be brought in to solve the different religion and culture problem. With this, food, language and religion issues will not arise again,” he said, adding that the agencies have the capability in handling the recruitment of maids from China if allowed by the government.

PAPA also calls for a ban on individual recruitment of foreign maids because it believes that this is the source of the abuse problem.

Presently, foreign maids can be brought in by agencies registered with the Manpower Department and the Immigration Department, and individually by the employers.

According to PAPA estimates, however, there are 150,000 illegal foreign maids including those brought in by illegal employment agencies.

The Bocehe Dewe Association agreed that the activities of illegal maid agencies in both Malaysia and Indonesia should be stopped.

“In my opinion, the preliminary step should start in Indonesia, to check these illegal agencies. The management of Indonesian manpower should be made through legal means with sufficient training and all,” said Ambar.

He said both governments could also sign a memorandum of understanding to allow employment agencies to visit their maids on regular basis to monitor their condition directly.

“It all depends on the governments of the two countries. Where there is a will there is a way. The solution is there,” he said.

Maid problems will always be there. It's as old as the hills.

Do you think this is the solution?

Can't Maids take Leave?

A storm is raging over the government's plan to give the nation’s 370,000 foreign maids one day off every week.

Employers and business groups are unhappy with this plan and they have their reasons for feeling so.

Some fear these helpers will run away or catch diseases. Suhakam, the National Human Rights Commission said while it generally supported the move,it is still concerned about the decision.

“Maids would get naughty and there would be adverse outcomes,” one of the commissioners, Khoo Kay Kim, told Utusan Malaysia. He suggested that employers take their maids to designated places during their day off so that they could be monitored.

Accountant Audrey Tan, who employs two Indonesian maids, said: “They might run away with boyfriends, contract sexual diseases or get pregnant".

“I am responsible for their welfare and if this happens I have to fork out my own money for their treatment,” she said.

The changes to labour laws to allow this weekly leave for maids will be implemented by the end of the year. Employers who failed to follow the rules could be fined up to RM10,000.

“The changes are for humanitarian reasons, to prevent domestic abuse and are in keeping with international standards,” the Human Resources Minister told Parliament. He said the government was "serious about the changes and will be explaining the rationale to maid agencies and employers.”

Labour experts say the changes are an attempt to change Malaysia’s image as an exploiter of migrant workers. In the most recent case of abuse, police yesterday charged Hau Yuan Tyng, 42, with causing injury to her Indonesian maid, Siti Hajar Sadli, using hot water, a hammer and scissors.

Siti, bleeding from her injuries, fled Hau’s upscale flat on June 6, and took a taxi to the Indonesian embassy. The case has been widely reported in Indonesia, sparking outrage.

This week, the United States put Malaysia on a people-trafficking blacklist of 17 countries — with its treatment of foreign maids listed among the reasons.

Employers groups say a day off for maids is not practical because domestic work takes place seven days a week.

“Offices and factories can be shut down for a day off but we can’t do that in a home,” said Norizan Sharif, president of the Macom community group. “A home is formal place and maids work or rest in an informal environment. If they take leave, the home comes to a standstill.”

A spokesman for Papa, an association of maid recruitment agencies, said they feared many helpers would run away on their day off.

“This is already a big problem and inevitably would get worse if maids get a day off to be free and unsupervised,” she added. “They will run off with their boyfriends, leaving their employer in desperate need of a new maid. The cost will jump as every few months a replacement maid is needed.”

However, not all employers are opposed to the idea, as many have already been giving their maids Sundays off without any untoward problems, whatsoever.

“I have no problems with my maid on her day off,” said opposition lawmaker A. Sivanesan. “I can’t understand why there is a hue and cry.”

Sivanesan must be one lucky chap to be blessed with good maids thus far! Hope he continues to have good maids ever after..............

Ready to Bite the Bullet!

Be forewarned.

GLCs will likely go on a hair-cut exercise by September to trim salaries of its workers. The reason: fallout from the current global recession.

After having lived off the fat of the land for countless years, these GLCs which operated off-budget and enjoyed perks and pay better than civil servants,will finally feel some reality which has been experienced by its comrades in the more volatile private sector.

GLC personnel could not feel the pain when the foreign-based E&E companies closed the doors to local engineers and operators beginning the last quarter of 2008. These retrenched staff, especially those in the senior age-group oftentimes find it hard to find alternative employment.

MTUC vice-president Mustafa Maarof disclosed on 18 June that this message has been conveyed to the unions when the management of these companies headed by Khazanah Nasional met the workers' representatives recently.

Mustafa, who is also the executive secretary of the Malaysia Airlines System (MAS) Employees Union, told Bernama that the management also told them that "if the salary cut does not improve the companies' results, then they should expect to be subjected to either a mutual separation scheme (MSS) or voluntary separation scheme (VSS)".

Besides MAS, 90 other companies are also categorised as GLCs, among them, Sime Darby, Tenaga Nasional, Telekom Malaysia, Felda, Felcra, Pos Malaysia and Bernas.

Almost 200,000 of the workers in these companies are former public servants who opted for the new entities when their departments were corporatised or privatised in the early 80's and 90's.

Encik Mustafa fears that while the top executives who are highly paid and enjoy excellent perks like large bonuses and entertainment allowance, will be spared,the middle and lower-level staff may feel the brunt of retrenchment.

But that is the way of the world. Someone must go.....

Is the government's assurance to prevent job cuts good when the economy has gone from bad to worse because of the poor response to the economic stimulus package? No,because government has also to act responsibly. It's time to bite the bullet.

So does it looks like the days of the insulation of adverse economic effects on the iron rice bowl of civil servants and public servants are finally over? Yes or No?