Salcon

Date listed 7th Aug 2003.

IPO price 1.20. Price now 0.455 (waa!!!!...buy and hold? or issit buy and die kow-kow?!)
Forecasted a net profit of 29.3 million for fy 2004.

this is what Salcon did.

2004 Q1.... 5.402 mil
2004 Q2.... 5.570 mil
2004 Q3.... 0.217 mil
2004 Q4... -1.923 mil

for a total of 9.266 million. Which means Salcon missed their IPO prospectus earnings by some 20.034 million or by some 68%. (now u see why them ipo investing is sooooo risky esp when companies prospectus earnings are soooooooo overly optimistic!! - err... some call it bullshit hor!)

And how did Salcon the next fiscal year?

2005 Q1.... 0.252 million
2005 Q2.... 0.085 million
2005 Q3.... 0.230 million
2005 Q4.... 0.003 million (Ahh.. Salcon is changing their fiscal calender, so this quarter was shortened to 2 months only)

But still... Salcon only managed to earn only 0.570 million. With current number of shares at over 212.045 million (oh, there's a private placement thingy, so future earnings would be even more diluted!), Salcons earnings per share totals a paltry 0.3 sen. (0.3 sen hor and not 30 sen hor)

Sibeh geng leh!

How?

Company never deliver what they promised to their IPO investors (still can trust ka?).. and today.. there's a huge write-up on Star Bizweek: China boost for Salcon , which was written by me favourite creative write, Jose Barrock.

Correct me if i am wrong here cause i am seeing a trend developing here. Want a nice juciy article written in a 'creative manner', just call Jose!

Sigh. Isn't it utterly disgusting? No?

Take a look: (snippet of the creative writing in dark blue italic)

For the first six months of its financial year, Salcon posted a net profit of RM570,000 on the back of RM112.6mil sales. The company’s earnings per share during the period was 30 sen, while its net tangible asset per share stood at 52 sen.

EPS of 30 sen????!!!!???

See how badly the fact is twisted? An error of intent? Or was it a mere printing/typo error?

If this was a printing/typo error, how come such error occurs so frequently?

And i like this part...

“At present, Salcon is for investors with an appetite for slightly longer-term gains. The fund managers are not sure when the sector will pick up, so they are scared to take positions, I can understand that ... There is a lot of opportunity here, we have the right contacts and have forged some strong relationships here. Just like when we started out, it was difficult. It is all part and parcel of business. So far we have done well,” he says.

See how creatively written?

Here's my simple question: How can an investor trust that you will deliver when you have utterly failed to deliver what you promised to them ipo investors? Another case of talk is cheap?

At its close of 45.5 sen on Thursday, Salcon is trading at a price earnings ratio of some 9.4 times. The company’s price to net tangible asset per share is at an attractive 0.9 times, which is well below that of its peers, Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd and Taliworks Corp Bhd.

A PE ratio of 9.4 times?

LOL!!!.... yet another badly twisted fact. EPS is only 0.3 sen lor and not 30 sen. So how to get a PE ratio of 9.4 times? LOL!!!

Isn't it utterly disgusting that we have such blatant shenanigans going on in our daily financial news?

Sigh!