Palm oil plantation operating margins are fairly predictable. For Jtiasa, at their current level of FFB production they should be able to make substantial profit if they can achieve a reasonable oil ext rate in future.

Jtiasa's FFB is resonable but the oil extraction rate is ridiculously low - ie 60606 MT of FFB to produce 4938 of CPO in Dec 2013 at an extraction rate of 8% compared to industry's rate of 20%. It is quite puzzling. R they sending FFB to other mills??

Bryan, thanks for your points on MBF holding. As for MBF Corp,I had browsed through MBF Corp account for the qtr ended 31/3/2007 (before MBF's delisted on 3/8/2007. MBF Corp Paid Up cap was RM282 mil and Acc. losses as at 31/3/2007 was RM200 Mil, as such technically, became affected listed company as the shareholders' equity was less than 50% of its paid up capital.

As for MAA, two factors that could be contributed non-waiver in 2012 were the certainty of final amt to be recived from Escrow acc and the financial performance of PT MAA General Assurance in Indonesia. PT MAA General Assurance insurance underwriting activities have been disallowed by Indonesian Financial Authority (See Indonesia Financetoday) and will be dissolved within 6 mts as per MAA's chairman. As of 31/12/2012, MAA investment cost in PT MAA General Assurance had been fully impaired and written off due to net deficit as reported by Auditors - therefore, Zero book value. There will not no financial impact on MAA group if the Board decision is not to revive the company.

Now that these two factors are clearer, hopefully MAA group will see better light.

Bryan, could you explain why Major shareholders of MBF holding who controlled more than 82% chose the hard way of takeover?

Hi fellow minority shareholders. It is time to stand up. I have consulted my remisier who is an accountant by profession. His comments are and going to give me more details regarding MAA's value and operation later:

1.0 Listed company verses non-listed.

As far as shareholders' rights are concerned, shareholders still have the same rights for participation in dividend, company's profit, assets etc. and voting at general meeting. The company is still there and business operation will remain unchanged.

The only difference is that shareholders of listed company can sell their shares in open market (Bursa) at market price. He said, however, this difference or convenience does not benefit the shareholders if the market prices are persistently below the fair value of a listed company.

In fact, majority shareholders will have more to lose if their controlling interest is less than 50%. For MAA, there is only one major shareholder who controls about 34%. Once MAA become unlisted public company (> 50 shareholders), MAA's existing major shareholder will lose their management rights if the other 66% minority vote against him. The minorties (me included) can then decide the fate of the unlisted public company. For once the minorities might have the "say".

Using Facebook as an example, Tan Sri Vincent Tan and Sri Lee Ka Shing invested in Facebook when it was unlisted. However, they profited greatly after Facebook's listing.

I am not politician. There might be leakage here and there in m'sia. However I am of the view that Khazanah and a few non-elected ministers and elected are doing the right things.

Come to think of it why i think ICap is well far too conservative. From 2009, we have HLbank - cap around RM5.50, HLcap at RM1.1, HDBS at RM1.60, Maybank at RM3.9, Kseng at RM3.8 etc. I have been watching Icap cos I was thinking of having Icap in my portfolio. On secong thought, I decided no.

Thank you for your detailed analysis.

That is the reason why I said ICap fund managers are sleeping and yet receving unjustifiable fees.

The problem with investing in a closed-ended fund is that the fund managers have the power to make all the calls. They do not have to worry about redemption. As long as the funds exceed issue price then the fund managers can virtually stop working and fall asleep. The fund managers still get one % of the fund value when the fund is holding lot of cash or otherwise. Looking at Icap now, at the end of the day, the fund manager will do better than the unit holders.

This is m'sia bah. Apa pun boleh.