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Showing posts from September, 2007

The Equine Capital Bhd Crash: Coming Soon to A Cinema Near You

Excerpt: As Businessweek puts it: In 2007, cash reserves at Equine Capital Bhd fell by 15.9M. As a percent of revenues, this was among the worst results by any company in the Real Estate Management and Development industry. This is a story seen many times before. Earlier versions of this story were titled, MRCB, Berjaya Land , RHB etc etc. The storyline was always the same: a) Listed company comes from nowhere, and listed company and/or associate is given prime land to play with (eg Brickfields Railway Yard, Sentul Railway Quarters, land opposite Pudu Prison etc etc) b) Huge billion dollar project is announced, project usually featuring foreign names-or at least foreign sounding names eg "Times Square", "Central", "Sentral"(last example is not meant to be proof that Sdr "Dr" Anwar cannot spell) c) Project appears to commence, but then listed company discovers that dreams are built on cash-flow, of which it has very little. Sometimes one can ge

AIRASIA Bhd profit before tax increase 838%-but see these numbers

From the AirAsia Bursamalaysia announcement of results for quarter ended 30 June 2007: The Group recorded revenue of RM432 million for the quarter ended 30 June 2007 ("4Q07"), 38% higher than the revenue of RM314 million recorded in the quarter ended 30 June 2006 ("4Q06"). The Group's profit before tax improved by 838% to RM130 million as compared to the restated profit before tax of RM14 million achieved in 4Q06. From the notes to the accounts: viii) Reclassification of revenue components Fuel surcharge, passenger liability insurance and admin fees was previously classified as part of cost of sales . The Group has now r eclassified these surcharges as part of revenue . The impact of the reclassification to the revenue component for the previous financial year and preceding year corresponding quarter is RM208.1 million and RM75.6 million respectively. NOTE THAT NO FIGURE IS PROVIDED FOR THE QUANTUM INCLUDED IN THIS QUARTER'S EARNINGS ALSO NO EXPLANAT