Pengechut, penakut, tiada telor and pondan....Mr Kuok or That Idiot?

Here we have a tin pan alley umno gangster, complete with dark glasses and that menacing finger pointing gesture that this Malay pariah thinks will threaten the likes of the 90 year old Robert Kuok to take notice that he and umno are now gunning after this Chinese billionaire for whatever insane reasons they might care to cook up. Methinks that Mr Kuok takes more notice of an insect, a fly or a mosquito buzzing around him then to give any time of his day for this sad excuse of a human being. 

And while throwing these empty threats at Mr Kuok, this sad excuse of a father, a husband and a Malay, does not fail to include DAP and the Chinese into the equation. His reasons for doing so is unclear but that does not bother this bastard...though there is a method to his madness...and what is that you ask me? It is simply this...the Chinese, DAP and any other Chinese Billionaire must all be mention in the same breath so that the Malays will think they are all collaborating to ensure Umno's fall at GE14....and the rationale is that if umno falls, then so will the Malays. 

There is some truth in the bastard rationale. The Chinese, DAP and Mr Kuok are working, in their own ways, to rid our beloved Malaysia of this contemptible, corrupt and arrogant umno and Malays like him.... and they are doing so with the assist of many many Malays in their endeavours.....and I suspect that is the issue that is really bothering this bastard more then anything else. 

Just a freudian slip by Nazri. In his colourful description of Mr Kuok as a pengechut, penakut, tiada telor and pondan...is he not describing that Idiot in Seri Perdana? 

Anyway...this is another attempt by a desperate politicians to ride on any coat tail he can cling to, to take him past the finishing line come GE 14....but for him and umno, going past the finishing line after GE 14 means going straight to Jail...do not pass GO, do not collect $200...go straight to Jail!

Robert Kuok : Only when the greedy grabbing of wealth & power stops, will Malaysia have a chance to progress.

Encapsulating thoughts of Robert Kuok on Malaysia.

Malaysia's tycoons are investing heavily overseas instead of re-investing in Malaysia.

This definitely does not bode well for the country & her citizens.

As history past decades has shown, many of the Chinese businesses have been taken over by either GLCs or Malay businessmen aligned with politicians.

Bit by bit , many of the huge family corporations and big businesses are leaving for safer havens such as Singapore or Hong Kong, where they feel their fortunes and business empires are relatively safe and secure from greedy hands.

Come to think of it, it's an oxymoron.

On one hand, the Malaysian government tells us that they are trying to attract foreign investors / investments..

On the other, they are pushing away local investors (many of whom happens to be of Chinese ethnicity).

Another interesting reply from Robert Kuok in a Star interview below: ...

Asked about the sense of discrimination among the Chinese in Malaysia, Kuok demurred, saying:

"This will lead only to highly controversial statements, which is not good for anybody.
It may cause grief or hurt those Chinese who are living in Malaysia, one must never be the cause of any kind of inter-racial hostility.

To me, the future of Malaysia rests on the economy. It always has.

Only when the greedy grabbing of wealth & power stops, will Malaysia have a chance to progress.

Else, it will go downhill.

For now, the people can afford to make noise on a full stomach. Wait till their stomachs are empty.

All the racial & religious issues will lead to conflict when the economy tanks.

And it is prudent for politicians to stop playing up these issues, before they really get out of hand.

I'm not raising these points because these businesses are owned by the Chinese.

Businessmen are businessmen.Particularly the big fishes in the Chinese community.

Their wealth do not belong to all the Chinese. The point is, regardless of ethnicity, a growing economy is important to sustain this country.

More so for the Chinese whom are largely in the private sector. And many, many Chinese these days are losing hope.

The Malaysian economy and the Malays

Before the Malays start accusing & calling the Chinese unkind names, maybe they ought to pause and consider about how far they have come with a growing affluent middle-class and benefiting from affirmative policies.

It does not come free. It does not come solely from petro-money. It came from a strong and stable economy.

Indirectly, It came from sacrifices by the normal non-Malays who had to give up some of their rights.

It came from the risks non-Malays had to make to build up their businesses, and then share it with Malay businessmen.

Whatever the Chinese own, they paid for it. They did not get it for free.

Some had to borrow from loan-sharks.,taking most of the risks. Most sacrificed family time.
Not all benefitted and became wildly successful. Some lost everything, fortunes & family.
At the lower spectrum, they sacrificed years working overseas illegally to save enough to buy their home & capital for business.

Tan Sri Robert Kuok

The mystery of Sugar King Kuok exiting sugar business in M'sia

By RISEN JAYASEELAN

IT is and probably will remain a mystery why Tan Sri Robert Kuok has exited the sugar business in Malaysia. It is likely though that the following reasons played a part: First, the Malaysian sugar business is small compared with Kuok’s vast businesses overseas, especially in China.

Second, Kuok got a decent price for his exit and third, the Kuok group was unhappy with developments taking place at Tradewinds (M) Bhd, where a proposed acquisition of Padiberas Nasional Bhd (Bernas) is likely to result in Tradewinds having an unreasonable amount of debt.

Kuok’s business empire in Asia needs little elaboration. Suffice to say, his net worth of US$10bil (RM34.3bil, based on Forbes magazine’s estimation) makes his Malaysian sugar business small by comparison.

The Kuok group’s Singapore-listed plantation giant, Wilmar International, has a market capitalisation of S$39.1bil or more than RM95bil.

File pic: It may be a few years old, but it may still correctly describe the man.

To recap, Kuok’s vehicle, PPB Group Bhd, is getting RM1.25bil from the sale of its sugar refineries and land used for sugar cane cultivation to Federal Land Development Authority (Felda). Of this, the largest asset is the Prai-based Malayan Sugar Manufacturing Co Bhd (MSM) operations, that was sold for RM1.2bil.

PPB Group said its cost of investment in MSM was RM60mil (incurred from 1976 to 1999), thereby giving it a massive gain of RM1.17bil from the sale.

That amount is justified, given that the investment had been made a long time ago as well as the fact that the Kuok group had managed the business well.

Furthermore, the price of RM1.2bil represents a price-earnings multiple of 9.8 times MSM’s FY2008 earnings and a price-to-book ratio of 2.46 times. On both counts, the deal seems to have been reasonably priced.

PPB Group had also disposed of its 20% stake in Tradewinds to Felda for RM207.5mil or RM3.50 per share. This was done at about a 20% premium over Tradewinds’ three months’ weighted average market price. While some could argue that this was at too high a premium, it should also been seen in light of the fact that Tradewinds’ net assets per share stood at RM4.63 as at June 30.

Kuok’s exit from Tradewinds had been speculated in media reports, soon after the latter announced plans to buy into Bernas.

In 2002, Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary had surfaced in Tradewinds and become a partner with the Kuok group. Syed Mokhtar controls about 43% of Tradewinds, compared with Kuok’s 20%.

It had been speculated that the partnership had been uneasy, although that could not be verified. Still, the fact remains that Syed Mokhtar owes Tradewinds some RM200mil and there have been related party transactions involving Tradewinds and him.

For example, Syed Mokhtar is said to control about 22% of Bernas, the company that Tradewinds is planning to buy. That purchase will gear up Tradewinds to unreasonable levels. There is now also a proposal for Tradewinds Plantation Bhd, a 70% unit of Tradewinds, to buy rubber conglomerate Mardec Bhd for RM150mil.

Syed Mokhtar is believed to be linked to Semi Bayu Sdn Bhd, which owns Mardec. The price of RM150mil was arrived at based on a valuation done by Ernst & Young, which used such benchmarks as adjusted net assets, discounted cash flows and the dividend discount model.

However, the announcement by Tradewinds Plantation does not provide any more details on how Mardec stacked up on these valuation methods. There is also no information on Mardec’s earnings.

There has been at least one other related party transaction involving Tradewinds and assets controlled by Syed Mokhtar.

Back to Kuok. PPB Group’s sugar refining operations are undertaken by MSM and a joint venture with Felda – Kilang Gula Felda Perlis Sdn Bhd –- which is also being sold to Felda. The two produce over 700,000 tonnes of refined sugar yearly. Kuok’s exit from these business is bound to have repercussions.

“With Kuok’s exit, will the management remain the same and as efficient, going forward?” asked an industry observer.

To be sure, Felda is seeking to reinvent itself. The entity that is buying PPB Group’s businesses is Felda Global Ventures Sdn Bhd (FGV). FGV is the new commercial arm of Felda aiming to spend over RM6bil in the next five years to expand its overseas presence in its core plantations and related businesses.

With that kind of firepower, it is conceivable that FGV may not be content with its 20% shareholding in Tradewinds.

“It is possible that Felda could seek to take over the operations of Tradewinds, considering that the latter will have Bernas in its stable,” said an analyst. Bernas is the country’s sole rice importer, with a wide marketing and distribution network nationwide.

At what price will Syed Mokhtar be willing to cash out of Tradewinds is another matter.

As far as Kuok is concerned though, this “cashing out” of Malaysia is more clear-cut than what happened in December 2006, when PPB Oil Palms Bhd injected its palm oil operations into Singapore-listed Wilmar International Ltd.

The counter argument then was that the merger brought about economies of scale and Malaysian shareholders still benefited, as there was a share swap, with PPB Oil Palm shareholders receiving Wilmar shares.

Furthermore, PPB Group ended up owning close to 18% of Wilmar, so the argument that Kuok was exiting Malaysia did not hold up.

Indeed, Kuok still has other small businesses in Malaysia and Wilmar even recently paid RM46.2mil for a stake in little-known Three-A Resources Bhd to venture into China together.

But the value of these businesses is small compared with Kuok’s sugar business here. In all likelihood, Kuok is unlikely to be troubled by the recent sale of his sugar assets here.

OSK Research reckons that the PPB Group may use the sale proceeds to invest in Wilmar China, which is planning an initial public offering in Hong Kong.

And judging by the way Wilmar’s China businesses are growing, Kuok is likely to get more bang for his buck by putting his money there. And so too will shareholders of the PPB Group.