Immigrant labour working in plantations are generally piece-rated and based on CPO price.|
As CPO price rises, harvesters earnings will increase accordingly..

one of the main objectives of ESOS is to align employees' (& directors) interests with that of shareholders... it does not seem to be the case ... or is it that its Directors & Senior Mgrs are just not loyal and are just too greedy to continue disposing their share options?
ESOS is supposed to be a long term proposition, and not within 6 mths!

For this year, it should be much better as FFB production and CPO prices almost similar for Q3 & Q2... PK prices are better in Q3, so gross profit from estates maybe about 10M. Mill should make more profit with only 10% processing margin this year. Power plants now only in working order.
By Q3 results, net profits for 9 mths should exceed the 12 mths of year 2016.
If not, Mah's horse cannot run...lah!

Last year in 2016, Cepat was disastrous.... had impairments from Indon venture, oil mill and biogas plant just struggling....
I wonder whether Cepat has replaced those responsible for the Indon fiasco and those who are unable to fix the mill....
The plantation and oil mill business is is a very simple business and the the Malaysians are already World's Best.After more than 17 years, the plantation should be a cash generating machine... so what gives?

If this year Q3 & Q4 results can net 13M & 14M profits, then total for year net profit 44M.
This will match the Cepat's best year in 2011 when CPO price was RM3200 pmt.
Mill & Power plants can continue to increase its profits of 3M each per qtr with efficiency and capacity utilisation... Good prospects for Cepat! December dividends coming...

As in MRT project, Fajar usually get to contruct the station buildings... so after they have done the LRT3 rail structure... the buildings will be completed last in 2019-2020

1st half 2017 profits already 75% of previous full year 2016
2nd half 2017 profits with higher production & prices expected to be 20- 25% more than 2016
Overall, 2017 may exceed 2016 net profits by 40-50%
...whatever, it's exceedingly good for this plantation stock

Significant increase in US wooden furniture imports....
https://www.globalwoodmarketsinfo.com/significant-increase-in-us-wooden-furniture-imports/

Q1 EPS was 12.3 sen/ shr. At factory site visit after AGM, Mr Chua said Q2 earnings more than Q1... that was the confidence...

Expect 6 sen/shr for 2nd Interim dividend (19 Aug earnings call) as EPS for Q2 is more than 12 sen, else will vote against prt sale of factories sites fr directors...

What's getting interesting here is that the volume of daily trade is improving after Ty-Koon and owner Chua have sold down their shrs. When foreign ownership of shrs increases, the local fund mgrs will follow later.

Liihen & Air NZ were on par 3 wks ago at 3.22, now AirNZ has moved to 3.55 as foreign ownership of shrs increases... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11890005

The best part is Liihen have better metrics than AirNZ on EPS n Dividends...so just wait until our investors wake up soon to export counters improved earnings...

No Good News for these stocks (of soft investor interest in general ) :

1. Lotte Chemical Titan IPO public issue underscribed (35% not taken up) even after IPO price reduce by RM 1.50
2. Edra Energy IPO has a call to public by PKR MP not to take its new share issue
3. Kumpulan Jetson RM919M construction job revoked on misrepresentation allegation
4. Spring Gallery Bhd RM176M contract in Perling,Johore called off
5. Petronas Dag selling off LPG gas business in Philippines for USD124M
6. Texhem (of Sushi King) shuts down Tim Ho Wan (One Michelin star) outlets
6. IWC & IWH merger extended deadline to Sept (need more time for talks)...
Who talk2 Who? Hoo n Hoo?

Good News in Defensive stocks like Liihen :

1. Malaysia's exports for May growing est at 20+% yoy - double digits growth for 6 mths since Dec 2016...
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/malaysia-exports-likely-rose-22-in-may-poll-2017-07-05?mg=prod/accounts-mw
2. Malaysia's ban of rubberwood exports wef 1 July2017 will benefit wood furniture manufacturers to improve raw material availability and reduce cost of production
3. Ringgit losing strength as crude oil price retraced below USD50/barrel. USDMYR may head lower to 4.40
http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/ringgit-seen-sliding-440-against-us-dollar-3q
4. US Economy still growing at moderate pace and this bodes well for Malaysia's export sales

My calc guess is that by Fri, Mr Koon will be done with Liihen shrs.
Next he will start selling Sendai... or is it someone has already started the big sale of Sendai on Mon.
Tomorrow, the seige n squeeze of Qatar starts as deadline for negotiation is over....or maybe gulf war redux

19 June 2017: Ong Ka Chuan: “The availability of raw materials in Malaysia, especially with the emergence of rubber wood, has been instrumental in the development of the Malaysian furniture industry.”

http://www.thestar.com.my/metro/community/2017/06/20/strengthening-the-furniture-industry-threeday-fair-serves-as-platform-to-promote-products-for-export/

To the Chairman BOD,
At the recent AGM in June, you mentioned that Directors fees have increased because of an additional Director. As Mr Koon is no longer a major Shareholder, wouldn't it be appropriate to reduce one director, namely Mr Chan, who was appointed because he is Mr Koon's bro-in-law.
Also, we the shareholders do not agree to any investment in JAKS as such Mr Chan (a consultant for Power Generation in Myanmar), this appointment is a now irrelevant....

On Malaysia's ban on rubberwood exports, this will benefit Liihen & Hevea as rubberwood is their main raw material for manufacturing.
Latitude & PoHuat have 80% & 60% respectively of their revenue from their Vietnam subsidiaries and their business may be affected... so, wood furniture exports from Vietnam & China will continue to decline

KYY probably has about 2.5M shrs +-10%. I guess he has sold some 3M on June 15...as someone bot 3M at 3.23

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/06/29/government-to-ban-export-of-rubber-wood-from-july-1/

Good reason now for BOD to abort planting of rubber trees project, after all it is a silly plan. Ever hear of a Lobster restaurant going into lobster farming to ensure regular supply of lobsters?

The MTIB is encouraging the Malaysian furniture industry to venture into more Original Design Manufacturing...
https://www.globalwoodmarketsinfo.com/malaysia-original-furniture-designs-generate-higher-returns/

oil is collapsing, tony will wish that he had left room to hedge fuel for the rest of 2017...

Ringgit at 4.295 n WTI Crude at 43.27 n DiCaprio returned all the 1MDB gifts.... soon it is crunch time. Hold on to your Liihen as it is Ringgit-proof, Oil-proof & 1MDB-proof... Ty-Koon has less than 3 M to dispose off then he's done...

A copy of Trump's 'Art of the Deal' book that was given to Kim Jong-un of North Korea recently.

Here's the 11-step formula that can apply to everything n everyone..
1. Think Big,
2. Protect the downside and the upside can take care of itself,
3. Maximise your options,
4. Know your market,
5. Use your leverage,
6. Enhance your location or position,
7. Get the word out,
8. Fight back,
9. Deliver the goods,
10. Contain the costs,
11. Have fun doing it all...

I don't have an acc in NZ, my son has...

The value of US wooden furniture imports declined for the second consecutive month in March to US$1.24 billion. Year-to-date imports were still 7% higher than in March 2016. As in February, the month-on-month decline was mainly in imports from China (-17%) and Vietnam (-15%). Yearto-date imports from Vietnam however, were 15% higher than in March last year..... https://www.globalwoodmarketsinfo.com/us-wooden-furniture-imports-from-china-down/

Nakata
One way is to open an acc with https://www.asb.co.nz/ then you can trade NZ & Aussie counters n transfer funds online wherever you are anywhere in the world

Very steady like Liihen? The closest I can recommend is Air New Zealand (AIR), an airline that is much better than AirAsia or SIA. Air NZ shr price $3.20, EPS 40 cts, Div 20 cts... Lii Hen Shr price RM3.22, EPS 42 sen, Div 26 sen... quite similar metrics as one in NZ$ and the other in RM. Why NZ? At least you got one foot there and one foot here... also your children can use the profits for tuition fees.. or just a holiday to Marlborough vineyards for the best Sauvignon blanc...

At the AGM, he did mentioned he did some off-market trade (1-2M shrs) recently and could only get 3.10 at best price. Normally, some Ty-Koons like to take care of the cents, as they know the dollar will take care of itself...

This is getting interesting, at today's volume rate Ty-Koon will be completely free from the radar of Lhen in 3 days

On Pohuat's comparison of Qtr2 vs Qtr1, revenue in Vietnam has declined 27% and in Malaysia 9%. Read the qtrly report of Pohuat on their improving sales in Malaysia on bedroom sets that they recently introduced. Those having operations in Vietnam will continue to have reduced sales because of local labour and rubberwood issues... this makes Liihen different

Patrick13
Management of production units, facilities and logistics are all up to mark and in order. Customers (US distributors) all come to Lii Hen factories to make orders (5ft, 6ft or 7 ft beds) so no need for marketing except in Furniture Fairs. Lii Hen use sub-contractors for the volume business. Most of their products are of rubber wood furniture for the middle & lower class of American families. This is a low cost, high margin brick-n-mortar business using immigrant labour. Malaysia will eventually supersede China & Vietnam in wood furniture exports because of cheaper rubberwood raw material and cheaper immigrant labour. In any country, immigrant labour always work harder than local labour... like the Malaysia's plantation industry in the 90s' where eventually the local labour get displaced.
Business is encouragingly good and labour shortage is less an issue as mentioned by factory manager when I asked. Chairman is quite blurred on issues on rubber planting business, RPT of factory land and labour shortage.

Ty-Koon didn't say wood furniture exports is a sunset industry... he requested for more volume n excitement n higher price as he could not sell much. He suggested to Liihen to use cashpile to invest into JAKS but was shot down by Hays of Pangolin Fund. Another shareholder (the long-haired guy wearing sandals) identifying himself as a fund mgr said furniture is a sunset industry and related it like the palm oil industry that is able to turn it around if they can do something about it. A sunset could mean to me as sitting on my patio enjoying beer or tea when the Sun is setting knowing everything runs like clockwork n dividends n cash is growing, albeit not so rapidly (that is, not as rapid like Priceworth that can forecast a 100M gain in 2018).
After the visit to the HQ n factory sites n seeing the Evergreen containers, I asked MD Chua quietly how is Q2 & Q3 biz volume compared to Q1. He said better than Q1... he should know as his orders are made 120 days ahead....

If after two years, this airline cannot turnaround for consistent performance and share price languishing at 41 sen, it is about time that Tony look for another 'Peter Bellew' to run AAX...

For accountability of the Safitex bad debts since FY15, all Board members including the Chairman & CEO have to be replaced as soon as possible... else shareholders confidence will deteriorate further

With lots of funds, he can push up or down for quick gains, see what Ty-Koon can do wonders to XingQuan... 'tis better the BOD of Liihen listen more to him

Ty-Koon is not concerned on safety in stock investments, he has funds to last him a few lifetimes....he just wants to show you older people are smarter when it comes to making quick gains in the market.

Just hoping that there is no black swans in Sendai & Jaks to spoil his partying...

Revenue for 1Q2017 is 173M/qtr. As the US Employment & housing Starts statistics is on an upward trend, you can probably expect increasing demand & sales (as seen in the increasing Malaysian export data).
Liihen's Revenue for 2017 can attain 690-720M (170-180M x4qtrs). At 720M, this an increase of 100M over 2016's revenue (same effort was shown from revenue increase of 120M from FY2015 to FY2016).
Accordingly, you can expect the Market cap to increase by 100M to 676M or RM3.80/shr.
So, there is still some upside to appreciation while you spend your dividends every qtr.
'tis better that Ty-Koon spoils the party now rather than later...........

Letter to the BOD...those attending AGM can relay this msg

What2Do:
1. New markets in Europe, M-East & W-Asia. Get on board Alibaba Online Furniture Biz.
2. Expansion of factories
3. Fast expansion by mergers & acquisitions. Use your cash reserves to buy competitors & other innovative furniture companies
4. Focus on logistics & automation to streamline costs & improve your competitiveness

WhatNot2Do:
1. Do not venture into planting rubber for rubberwood own supply. Rubberwood is cheapest in Malaysia vs China, Thailand, Cambodia or Vietnam. There is no shortage, only price.
If wood prices are up, furniture prices also up. Planting rubber do not add value. Plantation project is a 12yr+ payback period. It does not add value to your furniture business. In fact, you can source better quailty rubberwood from others.
2. Do not buy land for factory site - it does not add value & is another 10 yr payback project. Furniture factories can operate any place in Muar Johor. Location is not an issue, logistics is.

I am against directors lining their pockets....

It should be fair for all if Liihen can reward all shareholders with a 20M special dividends at the same time the directors gain 20M from the PRT factory land transaction...

This recent related party transaction to buy the industrial site is not necessary...The purchase price is RM19.7 M. The savings are from the rentals that Liihen is paying to the owners (also the directors) is about RM2 M/yr. Therefore it's 10 yr payback.
Why need to buy a space for a factory site, rent will do.. multinationals do not buy the land where they operate factories, they just rent. Business can change and factory sites can also change.... all Liihen need is a space for equipment & workers for factories, preferably near the port.
The factory land in Muar also has low value n low rate of appreciation compared to Klang or JB.
The argument that purchase of land will prevent disruption of business is not valid. Liihen should have an option to move to other factory sites where rentals are much cheaper. To prevent PRT, it is better not to use or buy directors's properties as property valuations are not in the minority shareholders interest, only directors.

This recent related party transaction to buy the industrial site is not necessary...The purchase price is RM19.7 M. The savings are from the rentals that Liihen is paying to the owners (also the directors) is about RM2 M/yr. Therefore it's 10 yr payback.
Why need to buy a space for a factory site, rent will do.. multinationals do not buy the land where they operate factories, they just rent. Business can change and factory sites can also change.... all Liihen need is a space for equipment & workers for factories, preferably near the port.
The factory land in Muar also has low value n low rate of appreciation compared to Klang or JB.
The argument that purchase of land will prevent disruption of business is not valid. Liihen should have an option to move to other factory sites where rentals are much cheaper. To prevent PRT, it is better not to use or buy directors's properties as property valuations are not in the minority shareholders interest, only directors.

After EverSendai 2017Qtr1 results & TA Analyst's comments
"After revising the earnings estimates and rolling forward our valuation
base year to CY18, we reduce the target price from RM0.68 to RM0.58,
based on 6x CY18 EPS. This is after applying 2x PE multiple discount to
our target PE multiple of 8x. The discount is in view of sizeable collectibles
in the oil and gas division. Downgrade the stock from HOLD to SELL as we
think the share price have run ahead of its fundamentals.

Just wondering now whether Ty-Koon will sell down Sendai and move to export stocks...

Can you imagine how LHen will fly when Ty-Koon finishes with selling?

perhaps the BOD should listen to KYY about the issue of warrants, else he'll continue to sell and move away...

RHB Research says Liihen may move higher..
http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/lii-hen-may-move-higher-says-rhb-retail-research

Hevea is a good wood export bizness but makes wrong move to spend 10M on a mushroom project just because some guy thought they got a lot of rotting sawdust that they can make use of. Leave mushroom growing to the small farmers... they know best and stick to what you know best..i.e. boring wood.
If you follow what MYEG does (buying Eat Food & Drink KL) & Supermax spending 65M on contact lens project... sure investors will know you do not know what you are doing...

Bing hopes may come true. EverSendai has retraced 19% in past 4 days... maybe KYY selling Sendai n buying back wood export industries. He said " I also sell too early to take profit" on the 'mistake of selling when the price is rising' in Aug 15, 2016. Of course, in his own words, he realised 'The danger of buying construction contracting company shares' esp if most of contracts are in India & M-east...

Keep your Liihen & Hevea shrs... it got real dividends n growing, not like 'Bandar Malaysia' stocks

Dear Patrick13, I hope you're part of Liihen. The option you have to decide is whether you want Liihen to be a family bizness or a corporate bizness. As you have listed, you need to move away from the family bizness & the small goodies that you enjoy. As corporate directors, you need to create more deals, mergers, negotiations, etc. not just buying estate land n planting rubber like farmers do. Set up an office in KL & Singapore & Dubai to look for customers all over.... employ more MBA professionals. Current employees only got MBWA (Mgt By Walking Around)... not good enough.
We got a lot of tropical and rubber wood here in this country Malaysia. Don't waste your time planting trees.... you can't do what real farmers do or don't know how

only today you've stopped pondering and start to move... it's about time
In risks, there is excitement.... so, BOD create some excitement, else I'll move on

On 2 Jun, 2016 Liihen shr price was RM3.20 and after 1 whole year still at this price or less, what gives? Furniture business is good, USD more than 4.10, no factories on fire, etc.
I guess maybe Directors are not performing or some just busy collecting rentals from their factory bldgs. The company must grow every qtr and so is the shr price. If directors do not perform as expected, investors will eventually move away, then this whole listed business is not sustainable. Why list then if Directors reluctant to move from just giving dividends? You got to feed your investors with news, warrants or bonus issues frequently.... else it will become another one boring wood company