Posted by Rowie > 2017-10-26 10:21 | Report Abuse

vultures & insiders too
If i'm not mistaken TG says announcements by end of the month & mentioned listed companies too in the glove business. So not long wait, just monitor price action by insiders

Posted by vxpoison > 2017-10-26 13:47 | Report Abuse

KUALA LUMPUR: ES Ceramics Technology Bhd, which reported its first drop in annual net profit in six years for its financial year ended May 31, 2017 (FY17), is looking at developing new ceramic formers for other dipping industries to reduce its reliance on the glove-making market.

“We want to further diversify our portfolio to include complementary new products within the dipping industry,” its chief executive officer Wong Fook Lin told reporters after the group’s annual general meeting yesterday.

This came amid declining utilisation in ES Ceramics’ Thai factory, said Wong, who did not provide an exact percentage but said that it is “rather low” at the moment.

The decline, he said, is in tandem with the decline in the group’s order book over the last few months. “Price competition among glove producers is stiff in the marketplace today. Some of our customers have taken a stand not to participate in the price war and, hence, [they] lose out on sales.”

“Their clients are also taking a wait-and-see approach [on prices before placing new orders]. All these pose an environment that is very difficult for us to operate in,” he added.

ES Ceramics saw its net profit drop 28.8% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM6.33 million in FY17, despite revenue rising 11.06% to RM33.27 million. It attributed the lower profit margin to higher energy and material costs, as well as more competitive pricing of its products.

While emphasising that the global market demand for rubber gloves has seen single-digit growth y-o-y over the last few years, Wong is not expecting a significant rebound in the group’s performance for FY18.

“It does not help that key glove makers have been expanding so aggressively over the years,” he said.

“There is a price competition because some players are hungry. Why? Maybe they have increased capacity, but utilisation has not caught up.

“The market environment will be challenging, [at least] until all this excess capacity is taken up or normalises,” he added.

On its part, ES Ceramics has diversified from producing moulds for different glove types — examination, household, industrial and specialty — to include breathing bags and balloons as well. Wong did not reveal the latest products that ES Ceramics is looking to include in its list, noting that discussion is still at its infancy stage.

“We are talking to local and overseas customers who are not alien to us,” said Wong. “While this may not significantly impact our top line, this may help improve our utilisation rate and thus margins.”

The ACE Market-listed company has put some plans on the back-burner such as its intention to diversify into product packaging or the chemical sector and its planned transfer to the Main Market as it tackles hiccups in the adoption of automation — a company agenda since 2015 — to reduce operating costs.

The real issue in implementing automation, Wong said, is human capital. “We do not have the advantage of some manufacturers who can purchase turnkey machinery [to adopt automation]. Our machinery needs to be modified and tested. For that, we need engineers.

“But some engineers are from fields that are relevant to our operations, and some are inexperienced. We have been hiring and firing, that has caused our staff costs to increase slightly, but that will stabilise when the right team is established to speed up the adoption,” he added.

“Right now, our factories are not applying automation at a significant level,” said Wong. The group is currently focusing on less critical parts of the manufacturing line to allow for more room for modifications.

“The first objective is to make sure automation can work before it is being applied across the board. Only then can we look at improving quality,” he said, without giving a timeline for the adoption to be meaningful to ES Ceramics’ financial performance.

As at end-FY17, the group’s cash and bank balances stood at RM23.69 million — up 8.96% from RM21.74 million in FY16 — with relatively no borrowings. On that note, Wong assured shareholders that the cash pile provides the company with much-needed flexibility to stand by for the aforementioned activities.

“When the need and opportunity arises, we can have an edge over our competitors if there is sufficient ammunition and room to gear up the company in order to take action,” he said.

Posted by Artemis > 2017-10-26 15:03 | Report Abuse

"While emphasising that the global market demand for rubber gloves has seen single-digit growth y-o-y over the last few years, Wong is not expecting a significant rebound in the group’s performance for FY18." Gloomy outlook by the management themselves. If TopGlove wants to acquire a former manufacturer, i think companies like Mediseram will be a better target than ESCeramics...

Posted by jack2 > 2017-10-26 15:59 | Report Abuse

the CEO Wong shud work harder and think out of the box to get more business. ESC is a smallish company that can easily turn around with handful of big contracts from the big gloves companies etc

Posted by Rowie > 2017-10-26 16:11 | Report Abuse

perhaps he is not a big risk taker, he is slowly growing the company
look at the annual report....40-50 million shares are held by Investment Funds
his break may come if there is a takeover otherwise slow & steady.
yes i agree the ceo must secure bigger contracts & rub shoulders with the big glove makers

Posted by Goldchia MH > 2017-11-22 22:23 | Report Abuse

Ohmidofuk

Posted by vxpoison > 2017-12-07 14:18 | Report Abuse

8 million transacted volume first half but only less than 2% buy rate. what is going on with ESCERAM?

Posted by keong90 > 2017-12-07 22:31 | Report Abuse

what is the reason buying rate so low but it still had price up?

Posted by vxpoison > 2017-12-07 22:36 | Report Abuse

changing hand!

Posted by nikicheong > 2017-12-07 22:44 | Report Abuse

This is just cross trades or between the same fund house (like RHB to RHB fund).

Posted by Sebastian Sted Power > 2017-12-08 18:24 | Report Abuse

niki, how you think this counter? Share your views just like CWG

Posted by CharlesT > 2017-12-16 07:31 | Report Abuse

Wait for RHB funds to dispose all first

Posted by nikicheong > 2017-12-16 14:03 | Report Abuse

@Sebastian, I "incorrectly" bought ES Ceramics in March at 0.465, sold in October at 0.370.

I have no strong opinion on ES Ceramics. I think there are better buys out there honestly speaking.

Posted by proxxymax > 2017-12-20 10:18 | Report Abuse

Artemis, can't find Mediceram is listed in BUrsa, any idea how are they doing compare to ESCERAM? Same same? Better? Worse? Then we know how is the hand former players all doing.

Posted by BillyK > 2018-01-08 08:21 | Report Abuse

ringgit strengthened, cost of import materials will be lowered
expect profit margin to increase

Posted by nikicheong > 2018-01-22 18:53 | Report Abuse

Quite bad wor.

http://www.bursamalaysia.com/market/listed-companies/company-announcements/5671313

Posted by Jon Choivo > 2018-01-23 14:49 | Report Abuse

This is starting to look attractive again.

If the automation ever gets off, considering how hard it is to set it up. Thats a nice edge,

Posted by Sami_Value > 2018-01-23 15:23 | Report Abuse

continuous profit drops & margin compression, kinda risky until the cloudy sky clear

this one if one deployed dump dump hold on FA investing since early 2017, the underwear also got stripe by now

Posted by BillyK > 2018-01-23 16:28 | Report Abuse

looks like bad results already been factored in the price already
may looks attractive if biz turnaround
small cap co, turnaround is not that difficult

Posted by Andersonlim > 2018-01-23 21:03 | Report Abuse

Third time buy back. Buy some in 0.24. Wish me good luck

Posted by TrippleZ > 2018-01-23 21:37 | Report Abuse

Sorry. I'll wait below 20sen.

Posted by BillyK > 2018-01-24 09:50 | Report Abuse

buy and keep
earning weakness already priced in

Posted by Simonlee22a > 2018-01-24 13:29 | Report Abuse

As i know glove market demand is speaking up now, Top Glove and Hartalega keep increasing their capacity and this is showing the market trend still very promising..really don’t understand why this company have low sales, and I heard one of the foreign hand former company in Indonesia name Mark doing very excellent, they keep expanding every year according to the published news..I think to invest and earn some profit ..

Posted by Simonlee22a > 2018-01-24 13:32 | Report Abuse

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/07/13/mark-dynamics-eyes-double-digit-growth-after-going-public.html

Posted by BillyK > 2018-01-24 14:33 | Report Abuse

opportunity to buy
once the co got it biz strategy right and with few big clients
wont see such price

Posted by deepseafisherman > 2018-01-24 20:10 | Report Abuse

Shrewdinvestor, refer back to my post on Nov 2016, now you know what is hard landing, still cannot understand ?

Posted by NickLai > 2018-01-29 15:44 | Report Abuse

this stock is syndicate played. I have tested buying at 125k units at 30cents. Whenever you want to sell lower, the buying amount would automatically reduced drastically after 3 seconds. Forcing you to sell at a very much lower price if you are desperate.

The same goes for the selling amount which will increase instantly once you put a sell call for it. It seems like the buying and selling is computer automated by syndicates / proxies. I have tested a few times and the results is the same.

Somewhat I am so fed up with this stock, I sold off at 24 and 23 cents with a 20+ percent loss.

Beware, do not invest in this stock. It is computer automated. You will definitely lost in this game. You might earn in one instant, but you will loss more than you earn if you continue investing in this stock.

Posted by NickLai > 2018-01-30 10:10 | Report Abuse

Chongker is okay. But if the whole stock is solely managed by chongker, u would not want to invest in it.

Posted by ran777rpt > 2018-03-21 15:49 | Report Abuse

Stock Alliance is here again to con. Beware. Before election he is trying to sell his stock to take his money

Posted by Faiza > 2018-04-06 15:24 | Report Abuse

how come can offer ESOS up to 30% shares and at discount. Just reject esos
why not buy from the market

Posted by Lim Tek Wai > 2018-04-09 16:11 | Report Abuse

What happened to this counter? :(

Posted by paris88 > 2018-04-11 14:23 | Report Abuse

Major shareholders are selling. Such as high ESOS issue will diluted the share price. Sell NOW!!!!

Posted by Faiza > 2018-04-11 15:04 | Report Abuse

simple, just reject the 30% esos
get them to buy from the market, its cheap cheap now
reject during egm

Posted by Faiza > 2018-04-13 17:14 | Report Abuse

last one year was not performing, yet reward themselves with 30% esos, LOL
lets all together with institutional funds, reject their esos during egm

Posted by SAStockAlliance > 2018-09-13 22:36 | Report Abuse

https://klse.i3investor.com/blogs/stockalliance/173909.jsp
Esceram by SA

Posted by commonsense > 2019-01-30 03:39 | Report Abuse

2Q19 marks another disappointing quarter for Es Ceramics shareholders with profit of only RM46k from a revenue of RM7.4mil. The profit margin squeeze since FY18 was mainly attributed to the increasing cost of LPG and raw materials which are not expected to come down anytime soon. Investors will need to be prepared for the company to continue posting mediocre results for the rest of FY19.

Even if the company managed to somehow deliver a profit of RM2mil in FY19 (average 3Q & 4Q results will need to be around RM750k per quarter), at the current share price, the company would already been valued at a high of 19x PE which is normally given to those companies with at least double digit profit growth.

If you are looking to diversify your portfolio outside of Es Ceramic (due to its earnings uncertainties and relatively high valuation) I would recommend you to look at MBMR.

MBMR is a direct proxy to Perodua via its 22.6% interest in the company. Valuation is cheap at only 6.9x PE (based on target FY18 profit of RM145mil. 9m profit is already RM106mil). PB is low at only 0.7x BV. 4Q18 results is expected to be higher than 3Q18 and last year's 4Q17.

FY19 growth will be driven by the still high demand of the new Myvi and the newly launched SUV Aruz and also the newly revamp Alza in 2H19. The recent announcement of closure and potential disposal of the loss-making alloy wheel manufacturing business alone is expected to boost the company’s profit by an additional RM20mil. I am projecting a profit to shareholder of RM170 mil for FY19 which at the current price values MBMR at only 5.9x PE.

Please go through the analyst reports (https://klse.i3investor.com/servlets/stk/pt/5983.jsp) and do your own analysis before making any decisions. There are 8 analysts in total covering the stock with most of them having a TP of above RM3 (all have a buy rating). The average TP for the 8 analysts is around RM3.50.

Good luck.

Posted by dhiazahra > 2019-01-30 03:49 |

Post removed.Why?

Posted by commonsense > 2019-01-30 04:17 | Report Abuse

Hi dhiazahra,

Actually Es Ceramics customers are mostly the gloves companies which means their sales are mostly focused on some big clients like Top Gloves, Supermaxx, Kossan and Hartalega. And smaller revenue might come from the smaller gloves manufacturer like Ruberexx.

Even though, the company might be the largest former gloves manufacturer in Malaysia in terms of capacity, they actually do not command a big percentage of the total market share as the industry is really segmented with a lot of other former gloves manufacturers like Ceramtec (German based company which has a subsidiary in Malaysia), Shinko Ceramic, Vaytec etc. The most premium of which the big gloves manufacturers are willing to pay are actually products from Ceramtec due to its perceived higher quality.

This might be the reason to why the company is not able to pass the increase cost of production to its customers hence the lower profit margins since FY18.

Regards.

Posted by chanph > 2019-04-06 08:02 | Report Abuse

Suddenly big volume coming in after so long, something big coming?

Posted by Veron_teo > 2019-04-06 09:24 | Report Abuse

big volume and sink 8%. bad thing coming

Posted by chanph > 2019-04-06 21:19 | Report Abuse

Hard to say, more like accumulation, qtr this month

Posted by BillyK > 2019-04-06 21:25 | Report Abuse

More like cut loss
No point holdg to it if there is better choice

Posted by UnicornP > 2019-10-31 15:12 | Report Abuse

Actually this stock met KYY golden rule. Just that it is too small for him.

Posted by Teh1986 > 2020-01-03 11:32 | Report Abuse

Buy buy buy

Posted by BillyK > 2020-01-03 13:16 | Report Abuse

Teh, what is up

Posted by chl1989 > 2020-01-03 17:16 | Report Abuse

collapse. let me buy at 16c :)

Posted by Michael Poan > 2020-01-05 22:37 | Report Abuse

莊家开始了。。

Posted by karlmark > 2020-01-06 15:33 | Report Abuse

engine started

Posted by Chenghenglee > 2020-01-07 15:14 | Report Abuse

vbrooooom...

Posted by micben64 > 2020-01-10 09:58 | Report Abuse

NTA 0.25, has upside still...