Agreed 123456 and let's write in MSWG to force it for liquidation and refund cash to all shareholders, at least 15 cents per share can be refunded.....
Lets put it as one of the agenda for coming AGM or EGM to liquidate the company and get our shareholders' fund back at soonest possible.......someone has sufficient shares holding please do so or all of us can join force to request it......
Every now-and-then, we come across PLCs sitting on large cash balances. Inevitable, minority shareholders, and even institutional shareholders, sometimes raise the following question to the Board at AGMs: “Why don’t you distribute some of the cash rather than just sitting on it?”
For these shareholders, their rationale is simple: if you do not have any plans to use the money (like capex) over the next few years, why do you not return the money to shareholders as dividends.
Shareholders often phrase their statement to the Board as the PLCs ‘not sweating their assets (cash) enough’. The cash is merely sitting in the PLC and the PLC is only getting FD rates. This is not the reason why the shareholders parted with their cash to invest in the PLC, especially during the IPO.
To be fair, some of these PLCs do declare dividends while some do not. While some dividends are generous, the other dividends are not so…barely above the Fixed Deposit (FD) rates.
The answer from the Boards are often that the cash is being held as a ‘war chest’…we do not know what bargains (acquisitions/takeovers) will come our way in the future and when it does come, we must have sufficient cash. The PLCs argue that with cash settlement terms, they can obtain better prices and at the same time not affect their gearing ratios adversely.
Both the shareholders request and the PLCs response have merit. But is there a middle ground?
PLCs with substantial cash balances should declare generous dividends. The word ‘generous’ itself is subjective in the context of the savings for a ‘war chest’. Perhaps, what would appease the shareholders is a dividend yield that would be at least, above their popular opportunity cost i.e. the FD rate. Of course, ‘the more the better’ as far as shareholders are concerned, especially the minority shareholders.
From the PLCs perspective, their Boards need to consider what is enough for a ‘war chest’ and what should be declared as a healthy dividend. There can be a great temptation for these PLCs to have a ‘the more the better’ attitude (also) in relation to their increasing cash balances…and adopt a somewhat miserly attitude when it comes to declaring dividends.
From a financial statement analysis perspective, sitting on idle cash does not do any favours to the PLC. It creates a situation where your ‘return on capital employed’ is low.
Another trend that we have noted is in relation to the share price of such PLCs in that their share prices do not increase in tandem with the increasing cash balances. In fact, the share prices of most of such PLCs, which often have a business as usual model, trade sideways when it comes to their share prices. There are no share price increases to enhance the long-term value of the shareholders.
What we have noticed in some of the AGMs that we have been attending is that there is an increasing trend for shareholders to ask such questions at the AGMs of PLCs with large cash balances.
The advice to such PLCs is to be prepared to answer such questions convincingly.
Shareholders have parted with their money to invest in the PLC and expect a decent dividend. When the PLC went for an IPO, it was the shareholder who parted with their cash for the PLC to increase their operations…and by the same logic, the PLC should return the cash if they have no other foreseeable use for it.
123456...no wonder yesterday till today, there is abnormal buying queue.... And today volume is double the yesterday...buying power believed to be increasing mode as investors quietly accumulating....
Fleming's.....you are right, all of us should start accumulating it's shares, if this round they still not perform well in both businesses and share price then in coming AGM all of us shall know what to do........
If Tuna not ok better stop early..Go look for other business and improve the existing business ..Find the way to rent Production at other countries if PRC not restricted.
This book is the result of the author's many years of experience and observation throughout his 26 years in the stockbroking industry. It was written for general public to learn to invest based on facts and not on fantasies or hearsay....
flchongmk
16 posts
Posted by flchongmk > 2018-09-05 13:52 | Report Abuse
Agreed 123456 and let's write in MSWG to force it for liquidation and refund cash to all shareholders, at least 15 cents per share can be refunded.....