Ganesh Sahathevan

Dear Readers The  Bujang Valley archelogical site   has been in the news recently and by all accounts it seems to be a site of some significance which has yet to be properly surveyed.This is an attempt to  publicly survey  that site using satellite imagery of the terrain at and around the site. The first picture below is a Google map view of Northern Malaysia onto which a terrain image captured by a Shuttle mission has been superimposed. The second image is a magnification of the latter. The elevation (height) has been exaggerated to enhance features that may otherwise remain hidden.  Its colour scheme is arranged such that higher elevations are more brightly coloured, and the plains mostly blue. The Valley is located to the south the peak at  the top left corner of the "blue box"  in the Google Map image, and in the terrain image below that. The images may be magnified by clicking  on them. Penang island is located at the bottom left corner of t...

The decision to appoint Quah Poh Keat as CEO should not be approved of by Bank Negara which has responsibility to depositors whose funds are the obvious, predominant source of  Public Bank's financing. To begin with Quah has had no experience running a bank. His only qualification seems to be the fact that he is Chinese, and was the managing partner at Public Bank's auditor KPMG. This alone should count against him, but the fact of his prior duties at KPMG raises questions about potential conflicts of interest. Indeed the conflict arose in 2008 when Quah was appointed a non-executive director and KPMG remained auditor. Then , come questions concerning past audits. While Public Bank has been awarded a number of awards for best annual report and so on in Malaysia by the Malaysian audit and accounting fraternity, the fact is the Big 4 in Malaysia have been known and proven to be rather slack in their work.For example,as  one study found : Audit quality can be defined as relating ...

Quah Poh Keat might have made a good accountant, given his experience in "audition" but CEO of a bank? Then again, Public Bank is no ordinary bank .  A 83 year old who saw it fit to be chairman of  Berjaya Toto and the bank, and who oversaw massive loans from that bank to Berjaya(more about that later) , remains to this day its chairman, while the CEO of the same age continues to run the bank out of his hospital bed. That said, when out of bed he continues to display the usual conservative style  that has marked his leadership, accentuated as always by his dancing girls. This is how the bank, using public funds, celebrated the his birthday in 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=INm7japeUDU&feature=youtu.be That same sense understated style  is seen again at an awards night for  salesmen and women from its mutual fund business:  Yang Berbahagia, Tan Sri Datuk Teh Hong Piow , the Chairman of Public Bank, Public Mutual, 3rd richest man in Malay...

For anyone not familiar with BHP Biliton, a company with a history of over 100 years , and a current market cap of AUD  175 Billion see http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/BHP:AU Published: Wednesday October 9, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM Updated: Wednesday October 9, 2013 MYT 7:12:54 AM New shareholder fails to lift Blumont; Asiasons and LionGold also fall by risen jayaseelan AND tee lin say Email Facebook 0 SINGAPORE: The share prices of the three Singapore-listed companies with Malaysian major shareholders – Blumont Group Ltd, Asiasons Capital Ltd and LionGold Corp Ltd – continued to fall, even after the announcement that Alex Molyneux, the former chief executive officer of SouthGobi Resources Ltd, would acquire 135 million shares or a 5.2% stake in Blumont at 40 Singapore cents (RM1.02) per share, and become chairman of...

As reported: A) Ekuinas allocated RM400mil in the first tranche and the three fund managers raised RM143mil from private sources. ( http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2013/08/19/Ekuinas-steps-up-outsourcing-programme.aspx ) B) Asiasons Group , headed by chairman and co-founder Datuk  Mohammed Azlan Hashim , has been selected as the replacement manager of the earlier-launched Outsourced Programme Tranche I. ( http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2013/09/04/Ekuinas-sets-aside-RM360mil-for-Tranche-III.aspx ) C) SINGAPORE: The share price of Singapore-listed  Asiasons Capital Ltd  dropped as much as 90 percent to S$0.17 ($0.14) after a trading halt was lifted on Monday. The Singapore Exchange halted trading of shares in Asiasons,  LionGold Corp Ltd and  Blumont Group Ltd  on Friday. Blumont shares resumed trading, down 81 percent to S$0.167. - Reuters D) Shares in gold miner LionGold and its biggest shareholder, Asiasons, plummeted 42....

These two stories make the point that Rowsley's value is predicated on proprietary rights that are far from secure, and that the share price of yet another SGX counter rises despite obvious concerns about itts underlying value. What makes this interesting is that the warning has come, in part, from none other than Lee Kuan Yew GCMG: How Singapore Billionaire Peter Lim Makes Money From Thin Air Not a single brick has been laid and the ground has yet to be broken on Singapore billionaire Peter Lim ’s real estate venture in Malaysia’s Iskandar project. But it has already added around $95 million to his net worth on the basis of 29.9% shareholding of his investment vehicle Rowsley. Shares of the company are up around 370% since the real estate venture was announced. http://www.forbes.com/sites/neerjajetley/2013/09/02/how-singapore-billionaire-peter-lim-makes-money-from-thin-air/ Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew sounds a warning on Iskandar   In his book "One Man's View Of The Worl...

Maybank's "stabilization" of  Air Asia X's share price, which has not moved beyond the RM 1.25 IPO price , expires in about 2 weeks. AAX's Bursa filings make  clear that Maybank's support is what keeps the price at even RM 1.25, thus raising the inevitable :what happens in 2 weeks , or less  , when the price is no longer supported? Given recent past valuations of the company, based on transactions by company insiders (see previous posting below) , and after making some rough and ready adjustments for the IPO proceeds, but bearing in mind that share price is a function of earnings, it does appear that by Tony Fernandes's own reckoning AAX shares are worth only 5-70 sen (ie 40-50% of current price). Based on the price Richard Branson asked for his shares, AAX is only worth 25-40 sen per share. Friday, June 14, 2013 Tony Fernandes says AAX is a RM 3.1 B company, that was worth RM 1.25 B in 2008, and which plummeted in value to RM 660 ...