The local stock market sentiment is poor , affected by the inability of IMDB to honoured huge amount of debts. Huge sum of government bonds are due for payment this month too. Political stability also negatively affecting confidence. So, any good will not work or will only work for short while.

LearnFromMistake, How do you arrive at fair price of $1.25 ? Pls share your calculation.

None of the self proclaimed "experts" can actually get it right all the time. Don't waste time to fish the bottom because the bottom is not known to anybody.

Stock market pricing is so dynamic and depend on whole lots of factors, both domestic and international and sometime beyond fundamental. You will agree if you are long enough in the market.

Just buy when you feel it is right.

When people sold down WCE to below $0.90, I continued picking up considerable volume between %0.84 to $0.90. At that point of time, some "expert" predicted that it would go down to $0.70 as the future of the company was in doubt. Should I have listened to the "expert's" advise to wait for $0.70, I would hate myself. Fortunately, I trusted myself.

The company is in much more solid footing now. There is continuous flow of earning from Rimbayu and expressway construction while waiting for the toll revenue to kick in 1 to 1.5 years from now.

I learnt from mistake NOT TRYING TO MAKE THE LAST DOLLAR from the market. Have you Learn From Mistake ?

No hard feeling. May be there is really something you know that I don't.

Calvin, I like your patience with Joetay. Hahaha ...

Joetay, First of all, I NEVER mentioned Potash price is 15-20 years low! I say FERTILIZER price is near 15-20 years low. Potash is just one of the many nutrient/fertilizers required for oil palm. Plantations have to feed the palm with N, P ,K, Mg and B fertilisers to provide balance nutrition. When we look at fertilizer price, we look at the whole basket. That shows how little you know about FERTILIZER and Plantation business.

I must bring you to read the latest United Plantation (UP) financial report 6 months Jan-Jun 2017 which has just been released to Bursa.
UP is a PURE plantation company and a well run one.

Group Sales (6 months) $734 mil
Group PBT $246 mil (33.5% on sales)

That doesn't accurately tell the Gross Margin of Plantations - because UP has Plantation and Refining segment business.

Pls go to note A8) in the published report : Segmental information

Revenue (Plantation) $395 mil
PBT (Plantation) $212 mil (53% of Sales).
In other words, Gross Margin could be as high as 60% to give rise to 53% PBT. Got it ???

Pls go to note B1) in the same report : Analysis of Group Performance 6 months ended 30/6/2017.

Group PBT increased 43.6%. The increase due to higher production, higher CPO and PK (palm kernel) prices and LOWER COST OF PRODUCTION. CPO and PK production increased 22.5-22.1%. COST OF PRODUCTION of CPO and PK drop by 21.6% and 4.1% respectively !

UP don't tell lies, Right ??
Still don't trust me ??

Cheong3288, I am sure you haven't spent time to analyse the last few years financial account and the corporate development surrounding Talam.

It is absolutely OK as there are many more undervalued counter out there to choose from.

Calvin, That is true! Is for the investing community benefit.
Unfortunately, since I join this forum about a month ago, I find a lot of noise , unconstructive criticism and unsubstantiated claims.

Calvin, you analysis on plantation sector prospect under present context is NOT wrong at all.

We are talking about big plantation, listed company who own sizable area.
Don't pluck figures from a small holding or mini size plantation to confuse the whole issue about efficient production cost.

Joetay, I can see that how badly you are mis-informed about production cost of the efficient plantation! Or is it your deliberation to mis-inform others ?

Fertilizer which make up significant portion of the production cost are near 15-20 years low due to global over supply situation. Hope you can do more research on fertilizer prices trend before you shoot your mouth.

Optimus, That's good analysis.

Due to poor market sentiment, RM1.25 may reach. But I doubt there are many sellers at this price. So hard to get sizable holding if you believe in this counter. 60% of the share already in the hands of IJM+MWE+Pang(of Mamee). Many other longer term investors hold most of the remaining 40%.

Don't forget MWE and Pang of Mamee pay about RM1.35 per share to acquire their stakes few years ago when the company was is much less favourable state. Now the company is very solid with expressway on schedule, regular return from Rimbayu and WCE construction's revenue.
The company still make profit qtr by qtr despite the expressway is still under construction.

As your fair value of RM1.25 is just about 10% away from prevailing price, I don't have to wait.

Base on TP of mother RM6.40, Gamuda-WE should worth RM2.35 ( RM6.40-RM 4.05). Price for WE at RM1.37 is very very good buy.
I am in it and continue to accumulate.

Dutaland is NOT a pure plantation counter. However, Dutaland is grossly undervalued base on asset value.
For pure plantation play, SOP is much more superior.

My job for 30 years is closed linked to palm oil. CPO hovering at RM2,500-RM2,600 throughout 2017 coupled with strong yield recovery this year will see plantations laughing to the bank. Production cost is as low as RM1,300 for the efficient and bigger plantation and RM1,500 for the smaller players. What business give almost 50% Gross Margin ??
Even CPO at RM2,000 , no pure plantation company will NOT loss money.
So , buy pure plantation company like SOP which is grossly undervalued !

Not a straightforward counter. A lot of transaction I don't quick understand. So I don't buy even though NTA is much higher than share price.

LearnFromMistake, What you thing is the fair price ? how you derive your fair price ?

Pls share so that we all can learn from you.

I am not sure about the Management's quality.
The only worries that the proceed from the land disposal is mis-used or used to buy OVER-PRICED assets which is commonly happen among some G Agency.

Hi Cheong3288, For this you may have to take some time to study the background and more importantly recent years development surrounding WCE and Talam.

Talam is a subsidiary of Kumpulan Europlas (now renamed as West Coast Expressway Bhd, WCE). The controlling shareholder (i.e. CAC) /the company was over-expanded and over-leveraged in the early years and resulted a plunge . The KEuro/Talam bite the bullet and roped in IJM and others to provide financial lifelines and resorted to selling a lot of valuable assets to pare down RM billions of debts. The valuable asset sold include West Coast Highway concession and 1,800 acres of prime Rimbayu development and many more.

In recent few years , Talam has successfully resolved the heavy debt burden . Total bank borrowing as it stand is less than RM90+ mil. Upon completion of 2 more on-going assets disposal (one of which is Jilin hotel which I have discussed in my last posting), Talam will be debt free and more forward.

As I mentioned, Talam was a subsidiary of WCE. CAC , because of his financial incapability, was "forced" to dispose his valuable stake in WCE to IJM , MWE and Pang of Mamee who now collectively control about 60% of WCE. In return, WCE is selling all the stake in Talam back to CAC at 11 cents in the initial agreement signed in 2014 (?) and the agreement price is subsequently revised down to 9 cents and sold to CAC in about 2 equal tranches. The 9 cents deal, purportedly to "help" CAC. CAC has taken up the 1st tranche and the 2nd tranche is due to be taken up in mid-Aug 2017.

Is CAC so naïve to buy back Talam from WCE at 9 cents if the company doesn't worth that much ? I believe Talam should worth much more as WCE suppose to return "favour" to CAC at discounted price who sold valuable assets for a song to the controlling shareholders of WCE (ie. IJM, MWE and Pang).

Huge impairment on land assets and receivable in the tune of hundreds of million were made in the past 3 years ( pls read my earlier posting) . The impairment has resulted huge losses in the book (the loss are not from operations) and the impairment has also adjusted the NTA of Talam that tied in to the 9 cents price WCE selling Talam to CAC. WCE can not be seen selling Talam below NTA and the below share trading price of Talam because WCE has minority shareholders to answer to. Therefore the recent years impairment losses and the depressed share price of Talam is not a surprise at least until CAC take up the 2nd tranche of the Talam share by mid Aug 2017 if no dateline extension is granted to CAC.

You have to read between the line why certain thing happen that way.

Hope that answer you.

Stay tune for more fact why Talam worths a lot more.

SOP dividend yield is unattractive. It will worth a lot more only if Management is a bit more generous in dividend.
Steady and very safe business, sure profitable be it good time bad time.

I am holding tight, not selling until RM1/=

Hahaha .... No need to quarrel !
The share price has a lot to say about the Management and the controlling shareholder . From there you can already tell his integrity .
Company sitting on pile of cash belonging to shareholders and losing them by millions qtr to qtr !

MPHB is really boring !. The only hope is for the completion of the insurance sales and the management reward shareholders with handsome dividend. You have to ask yourself how likely that will happen .

True that this counter is wasting time if you hope to see quick capital gain.
But you also need to diversify into some good dividend stock like KFIMA who pay about 5% consistently and wait for its day.

The downside may be 10-20%. The upside is high in near future.
To buy or not to buy , It all depend on individual risk appetite and holding power.

Very few seller at 5 cents ? Where have the sellers gone ! I have been waiting to accumulate enough at 5 cents.

Hope to buy at RM1 and below ?
Is more like a dream unless something really bad taking happen .
Do you think of anything really bad going to happen for a company with net cash of RM1b (cash+ cash park in short term securities) ?
Nett cash per share is RM1.40 (RM1b/715Mil share)

Despite that, Talam is still hasn't excite investors or speculator. I am accumulating at $0.05 .

It's terrible character to spread unsubstantiated news !!

Dear Shareinvestors88,
As I don't add to my calculation Trade and other receivables amounting to RM58.84 mil, I therefore don't have to minus the trade and other payable of RM49.59 mil per financial report as at 31 March 2017.

Receivable > payable.

Hope that make sense.

Let me share with you the stimulus in store that may trigger " bull run" on this stock one by one. This is factual from published report to Bursa . I can not lie to you. ( WY Chan : pls don't buy).

Talam's announcement to Bursa on 5th Jan 2017 on proposed disposal of 85% equity in Jilin Province Maxcourt Hotel (JPMH)
The disposal is for RMB 84.66 million in cash. In the detail of the proposed disposal, it is also reported that the Purchaser will additionally guarantee full payment to all debts owed by JPMH including RMB 82,108,396.48 owing to the Vendor (which is wholly owned subsidiary of Talam) and RMB 3,820,610 owing to Talam directly.

That means, Talam will receive RMB 84.66 mil + RMB 82.11 mil +RMB 3.82 mil = RMB 170.59 mil. Base on exchange rate of RM 1.00=RMB1.52, Talam will receive RM112.21 mil cash.

This proceed will be enough to repay all the outstanding bank loan of about RM99 mil as at 31 Apr 2017 ( pls check the published financial report). Talam hence will be debt free !

In the announcement to Bursa on 5th Jan 2017, it is also mentioned that the proposed disposal is expected to result in a net gain on disposal of approximately RM47.78 million.

It is reported in the Financial report ended 30 April 2017 ( page 11) that Bureau of Econimic Cooperation of PRC has approved the transaction . The completion is pending approval of the Trade and Industry of Jilin Province.

WY Chan, You seem on denial mode on our factual analysis. I guess you must have suffered huge losses before by dumping your share too earlier.

Just in case you still hold any, pls key in sell orders at 5 cents for any volume. I assure you that it will all be taken up by the end of the day. This is the best way to get rid of Tilam Lama that you dislike so much.

WCE is generating profit even though the highway is under construction. The 40% ownership in the 1,800 acres Rimbayu at the booming area is really worth a lot of money. Rimbayu develop by IJM who is the other 60% owner is selling well and meanwhile contributing to WCE's bottomline and will continue to contribute significantly in the next 10-15 years.
Revenue from the highway will kick in late 2018 when a portion of it open to traffic and revenue will continue to grow when all section open and traffic grow.
WCE has very strong owners and management too - IJM (26%), MWE(27%), Pang of Mamee(9) .
PE may be high. Don't forget it is very normal for high growth stock.

don't trust the Lee. There is better stock out there to pick!

Fully agree with Mark Mobius.
What are the fund managers and investment banks' research team doing ?
They only like to look at the big name and big cap stock that everybody else talk about.

Gamuda WE look is extremely good at today's price compare to mother share.

To gain 200% , only Talam fits in.
now 5 cent. At 15 cent the return is 200%.

Any insider news about Bank Negara's approval of the call option to sell another 21% ??

Buy at today's price can not go wrong.

This is the only high growth banking stock in Bursa!
Cheap valuation at 1.1x book value.

In latest Annual report - Pang Tee Chew, owner of Mamee double decker hold 6,000,000 share in MWE. This is new.

Pang Tee Chew also bought 9% in WCEH after MWE (MWE hold about 27%)
Entry of Pang is a big boost of confidence to this extremely under valued stock and I think Pang will increase his stake further. After which, something big will happen . Surin(MWE) and Pang who collectively own 36% (more than IJM's stake in WCE of 26%) will join force to take over WCE under MWE??

Talam is the only likely candidate
$0.05 cent now , when reach $0.20 it is 300%.
I cant think of anything else.

Talam is certainly worth a look.
Real penny stock that can spring up 200% . All is needed is just one quarter of profit.

Although NTA per 2017 financial account is $0.10 per share, CAC is buying the share from WCE at $0.09.
Know you see why CAC is happy to pay $0.09 for a property company with NTA $0.10 .
If it is not for the reason that Talam actually worth a lot more, he must well buy share of many other property counters which is trading at 0.5 - 0.3 X book value !

Agreed with Calvin to hold. TP $0.30 long term, $0.15 short term.

Do you know why Talam lost money in year 2015, 2016 and 2017 ? Huge loss in 2015 especially. It is largely due to provision for impairment to land, property development cost and receivables

I found this very interesting "secret" in the 2017 financial reports :

Page 87 - Accumulated impairtment loss on land held for property development is whopping $265.086 million. How logical it is the price of land acquired in the 90s" early 20s' need to be hugely depreciate ? I can not believe that land value can go down this way !

Page 90 - Investment property net book value as at 31 Jan 2017 is $96.676 million which is shown in 2017's balance sheet. It is also mentioned that the fair value of the investment property is $193.928 million. The fair value gain is about $97 million ($193.928 less $96.676) and is not reflected in balance sheet and P&L. Shouldn't it be reflected for the same reason the property is impaired ? very strange.

Page 108 : Impairment on trade and other receivable is $6.098 million . It is done on receivable more than 121 days category ! very stringent policy. Good.

Page 111 ; Impairment on Other receivable is $98.464 million. Very significant amount and seem unreasonable.

All above is only provision for Impairment and can be reversed ! You only need to reverse part of all these impairments quarter by quarter, the company will see profit for many quarters.

It is truly a "hidden gem".

Any professional accountant in this forum pls feel free to comment.

This seriously undervalued counter just need one or two quarters of profit to trigger a "bull run".
As i am analysing the financial reports of this counter, i see that to turn in profit is very very simple for this company.

After spending some time to research this stock, I find that the potential of this stock is great!

My common sense is simple :

Boss Chan has bought 20%+ of the company at average $0.09+ in the recent few years and he is going to buy the remaining 10%+ of the company from WCE at $0.095(contract due in mid Aug 2017), thus making him controlling just under 33% of the company. Isn't Boss Chan know the value of the company better than all of us, the minority investors ? Boss Chan can not be a fool to overpay for a deal that should rightly be "a favour".

Talam is the only business left for Boss Chan ( after the cash flow disaster that caused his empire collapse). He definitely has to make it good. He definitely has learnt the very bitter lesson.

I suspect he may trigger MGO after completing the remaining stake acquisition from WCE which is making up close to the 33% limit triggering MGO.

Dear shareinvestor88,

Rough estimate of what MWE owns are as below for sharing :

a. 27% in WCEH of mkt cap $1.484 bil = $400 mil
b. about 5% in MPHB cap of mkt cap $1.087 bil = $55 mil
c about 5% in Magnum of mkt cap $2.448 bil = 122 mil
d Joint development of 100 acres of golf course land in petaling district = $180 mil (bad deal!)
e. Sales of Integrity Tracking LLL as announced in 2017= $45 mil
f. 20 storey office block in Georgetown of mkt value $100 mil
g. 2,000 hectares of plantation RM100 mil
h. many pieces of developmet lands,factory, freehold status, in Georgetown penang, setapak KL, etc conservative market value = $50mil
I. textile + telecom business of consistent NPAT contributiin of $25mil/year. At PE X10 times, the business worth 250 mil.
j. cash $100 mil

a to I = sum up to $1.402 bil.
Total borrowing 200 mil
--------------------------------
Net after borrowing $1.202 bil

No. share 231 mil

worth per share $5.2 or more.

Without Proton City's lure, Talam by itself seem very interesting too.
I am half way thru' vetting past few years financial accounts and details of various land/share transactions. I shall share with all of you once my homework is done in a short while.

seem something is boiling ?

enning22, just to correct you -MPHB capital is not owned by MCA nor management by MCA political appointees. You got it all wrong.