Sell @ $2.72
That was my last lots… after aro' 4.5 years. Lessons learnt,
- NAV Valuations – Altho' there's a hefty 27% discount to NAV, it's only meaningful if there's a G.O. Two possibilities are,
- Takeover – Rather remote as the Queks holds a major stake. Further, with Banking being rather liberalised locally, there's not a lot of incentive for a foreign bank to want to do a takeover. There were previous talks of HLBank (controlled by the Quek's Malaysian cousins) possibly doing a takeover but so far, no action there.
- Privatisation – IMO, the Queks is likely benefitting more by keeping it listed. They get their Salary + Bonus + Stocks Options, on top of the dividends.
- Yield Valuations – Recent prices seems to reflect a market valuation based on Yield ie. 4.5% to 5%.
- Core Competency – It'd appear that they're not strong in any area. The big 3 local banks and even foreign banks had been riding the boom for the past few years whereas HLFin had seen poorer EPS for the past years. At the very minimum, their ties thro' the Queks (CDL) ought to have seen some benefits from the Property boom. Even their stated focus on SME don't seem to be reaping in good earnings…
So, time for me to move on… At the right price, it's still a Trading stock for me.. 😀