Kenanga Research: An Underperform Label for AEON

The Malaysian Daddy Big Bucks

Most of them became super-rich either through licensing, inheritance, monopoly, political connections, proxyships or other considerations.

That they have harness the initial germ of potential business into something of grandeur proportion is their own making.

These then are the daddy big bucks of Malaysia!

Still building their fortune

Dyana-The DAP Gambit

A Promise for tomorrow?

The Teluk Intan Parliamentary By-election will once again be another test-bed for DAP.

Dyana-70- Days Old

On 5 May 2013, the gambit paid particularly well in Johore where they clinched a number of seats at both Federal and State levels from the MCA, Gerakan and UMNO.

Dyana-Her Mother's Daughter

Now the seat of Teluk Intan has become vacant once more because of the death of the seating DAP Parliamentarian, Seah. DAP has decided to once more test this seat with another gambit-field  a novice, Dyana Sofia Daud, the current political secretary of the DAP Advisor, Lim Kit Siang.

A Worthy Adversary for BN

What makes it particularly  interesting is Dyana Sofia is a Malay lawyer wading in a demographic pool of majority non-Malays voters.

Can she move mountains?

Will the gambit pay off again as this is a by-election where the full impact of the Barisan juggernaut election machinery can be put to frightful use?

Beauty and the BN

While the demography is still dominated by an almost equal percentage of Chinese and Malay voters, the Indian voters can now become the king makers.

A  Potential MP in the Making

Can the claim by MIC that they are now in the good books of the Indian voters valid?

Beauty and the Bizz?

With Hindraf out of the government, will this translate to less support for any Barisan candidates by the Indian community?

Looking for a hattrick?

Will the hudud issue brewing in the wind confuse all the three communities that who they vote can be anybody's guess?

On the Campaign Trail

The fight for Teluk Intan is an open field.

Fresh Face-Fresh Hopes for Malaysia?

If the Chinese continue to support DAP, Dyana may stand a chance of a close shave win against the Gerakan President, Dr. Mah Siew Kong who has now joined the State Exco.

May the Force Be With You!

The verdict on 31 May is much awaited.

Dyana-mania

Money Taken Away By Whatever Name

Money Taken Away!

In economics, money is what money does.

You spend it, save it or invest it.

Here are some of the terms used for money as it is received, used or taken away.

Enjoy!!

Is MAS Still Good?

Any Future?

MAS is the greatest penny stock on Bursa Malaysia
BY JAGDEV SINGH SIDHU

WHAT surprises me is that Malaysia Airlines’ (MAS) share price only dropped 2 sen to 19 sen yesterday, about a 10% drop after the airline revealed the extent of the financial damage to its business caused by MH370.

The action, though, was furious as attempts to defend the share price was futile in the face of an onslaught of selling. To hold the stock’s price when the company has 16.7 billion shares and the outlook bleaker than it has ever been means there could be more pain in the future.

The possibility is that losses will be worse in the second quarter, which is traditionally the weakest period for the company. The full impact of MH370 will also be felt from that quarter onwards.

What stock watchers, investors and employees of MAS will watch for from now is the plan to right the company. To put it bluntly, there is so much wrong at MAS which has never been fixed.

What I am alluding to is the various proposals in the past to rectify the airlines’ problems. We have all seen different rescue attempts crafted to right what is wrong, but the hard fact is that they have all failed. Maybe things would have been worse without those attempts, but the truth is none of them have worked.

So why should stakeholders of MAS be hopeful that it can be different this time?

Previous attempts to restructure MAS I suppose was done within certain constraints. Efforts to improve the operations of the airlines had been undertaken but what stood out was the balance sheet shuffling that took place.

Assets were either transferred or sold, in the case of the MAS building in downtown KL. And now talk is swirling that the airline’s engineering division is in the cross-hair for some form of intervention from management.

Like the catering business MAS disposed of, doing the same with its engineering business will likely not solve anything. In fact, the cash raised from the sale of assets will be whittled away if the airline does not tackle its fundamental problem.

Selling assets will raise money or free up cash flow but the one thing that MAS has been grappling with, and accentuated by the expected losses, is the operations of the airlines.

The latest financial results showed that management has been actively doing what it can to bring down costs, but with yields falling, it was always going to wade upstream against strong currents.

The opportunity is there now for MAS to take the big leap. Political will appears to be there after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the Government is willing to look at all angles after the huge first quarter loss.

Urgency to act is surely apparent as the airline is burning through its cash pretty fast and analysts feel the company will exhaust its cash by next year.

Although the Government says it will not bail-out MAS, the fact is that it’s a government-owned company and one that many feel will not be allowed to fail. Nearly RM 17bil in fresh capital raised either through bonds issuances or rights issues has been pumped into the airline since 1998. And what has all that money got to show up to now?

It’s time to take off the gloves. It’s common knowledge that MAS’ supply chain is not in the pink of health, and some will argue it’s rotten to the core. People have commented that the airline is overpaying for a number of its supplies and services, and one wonders why has that been allowed to continue?

Is it because of vested interest in the form of politics or employees? Whoever is going through the contracts and the supply chain needs to hold one big red pen to point out what is being paid above and beyond what is fair value.

That is where action needs to focus on. Tackle the cost structure that is dragging the airline down. The quick fix will be on staff salaries but that is only the tip of it.

If MAS staff cost as a percentage of total revenue is not the problem, then people who work for the airline shouldn’t be the ones paying for the legacy problems of structural inefficiencies within the supply chain of the company.

Furthermore, morale in the airline will be low and what MAS needs to do is to make sure that the mood and image of its airline is progressive amid the negativity from MH370.

Then MAS has to find a way to remain as a full service airline in the crowd of low-cost carriers. There is always room for such an airline in Malaysia, and being part of the One World Alliance will help MAS find its wings again.

If they do get the plan of action right, then expect the reverse of trading action to happen. MAS, although it has a lot to lose, could be the penny stock with the greatest potential on Bursa Malaysia.

Who Would Believe?

Key to a Scholarship

I am very thankful to hear about how my nephew Jemsen got a Star scholarship to do a Diploma course in ITC.

Jemsen likes to watch movies. He reads about up coming movies and blogs on them after seeing them with his own film review.

And so it came to pass.

He went for the scholarship interview and of all questions, they asked him about the movie called "The Journey"

Wow! Wasn't he not  in his element!

He let them had a earful of his impressions and won them over.

Now, you have to believe that seeing movies can lead to immense rewards!

Below Par Malaysian Students

I took this article from on on-line source.

PETALING JAYA (16 May 2014):

Malaysian students are below par when compared with their contemporaries in other countries, acknowledged Education Minister II Idris Jusoh.

Although literacy rates were rising in Malaysia, it was vital to assess and compare the Malaysian education system against international standards, he said.

“Out of 74 countries, Malaysia ranked in the bottom third in the Programme for Interna­tional Student Assessment (Pisa) 2009. This is below the international and OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) average,” he indicated during the 18th Malaysian Education Summit yesterday.

“Primary and secondary school education standards need to improve to bridge the gap between urban and rural areas. Though Malaysia has achieved commendable results in terms of providing access, we have to now ensure that access comes together with quality education of international standards.”

Meanwhile, at the higher education level, he said that the challenge was producing knowledgeable, competent and globally competitive human capital.

“Employers in Malaysia face a major problem when it comes to having fresh graduates fill out vacancies,” he said, citing poor command of English as one of the reasons.

The solution to this is the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB) 2012-2025, which was launched last September, as well as the soon-to-be-released National Education Blueprint for Higher Education 2015-2025 (Higher Education Blueprint).

Idris said the MEB offered a vision of the education system and students’ aspirations that Malaysia both needed and deserved and outlined 11 strategic and operation shifts that would be required to achieve that vision.

“The need for the Education Blueprint is justified in the context of raising international standards; the government aspiration of better preparing Malaysian children for the needs of the 21st century; and increased public and parental expectations of education policy,” he said.

“We have had international experts from the World Bank, UNESCO, and OECD to work with our national partners to evaluate the performance of our national education system in the development process of the Education Blueprint. Overall, more than 55,000 stakeholders were consulted in its formulation.”

“The Higher Education Blueprint will also be introduced in order to ensure consistency with the primary and secondary education system, and allow for seamless progression in terms of educational offerings, opportunities and advancement,” he added.

The Higher Education Blueprint will address challenges such as empowering university governance, democratising access to higher education and improving graduate employability.