Boustead Singapore

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(15-02-2013, 12:09 AM)Musicwhiz Wrote: What I do find puzzling, however, is their doggedness with regards to Salcon. As you yourself mentioned, it is a pale shadow of what it used to be and even after legacy issues were cleared up in recent years, the division has difficulty pulling in a decent profit; and has been a drag to the Group. I seriously hope FF Wong can give a good explanation for holding out with Salcon for so many years, even when it is becoming increasingly apparent that Salcon is not a good idea!

A business or company is more than just owners, shareholders and profits. There are employees, contractors and suppliers working for the company. Unless there are some other corporations that can absorb the company fully, any corporate action to improve bottom lines is likely to cause many to lose their jobs.

Salcon is not doing very well(but it is not such a big drag anyway) but if the alternative is to let the employees lose their jobs to make the company attractive, I will prefer Boustead to keep the company running.

Who knows, the fortune of Salcon may turn one day.
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> Salcon is not doing very well(but it is not such a big drag anyway) but if the alternative is to let the
> employees lose their jobs to make the company attractive, I will prefer Boustead to keep the
> company running.

I asked FF Wong this question before. The reason he is keeping this business in many cases the bid is multiple line of services. So if he has a choice, he will not keep the water business. But in reality, he has no choice. So that's why he just focus on the EPC projects.
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(15-02-2013, 12:09 AM)Musicwhiz Wrote: Hi GG,

Thanks for recounting your long experience with Boustead, and it is indeed good to know of someone who has been a shareholder for the past 11 years. Big Grin

Reply: Its difficult being a Boustead shareholder initially especially when Boustead had to rely on lumpy earnings like sale of properties to ensure earnings track record. While growth from lower bases are good, the quality is definitely not there. In addition, the black hole due to red ink at Water division is a constant worry for shareholders.

No doubt what you said is very true, Boustead has steadily transformed itself after the GFC with FF Wong's commitment to finding investment opportunities for the cash and to build up Boustead Project's DB&L portfolio. What I do find puzzling, however, is their doggedness with regards to Salcon. As you yourself mentioned, it is a pale shadow of what it used to be and even after legacy issues were cleared up in recent years, the division has difficulty pulling in a decent profit; and has been a drag to the Group. I seriously hope FF Wong can give a good explanation for holding out with Salcon for so many years, even when it is becoming increasingly apparent that Salcon is not a good idea!

Reply: If you had went through so much just to stem legacy contractual obligations from previous management of Salcon plus numerous attempts to revive the fortunes, then I think it will be difficult to chop and go. In fact over the years, you would have notice attempts to embark on mega projects at the Water division. Unfortunately, these contracts were clinched in exotic regimes where regulatory environment are lacking and hence cashflow certainties are simply not there. I think the last ditch efforts to integrate with other divisions to provide an integrated infrastructure solution also went up in smokes with the Arab Spring in Libya.

Wow you must have held Boustead through the Easycall cum China Education days, and seen the dividend in specie offered by Boustead of Easycall shares which then went up 10x after the privatization offer! That was a good deal I missed out as I only bought in late-2006.

Reply: Even Easycall is a toughcall. Share price did nothing post the free distributions of shares to Boustead holders. As I am holding on to a Boustead share cert, I also received a Easycall share cert that is sitting in my biscuit tin. I even went to Mr Wong and the then CEO Chia Yew Boon for autograph. Easycall only saw its last hurray when ex darling Raffles Edu came in with the midas touch. That if I remembered was after at least two years of wait. By then, due to investor fatigue I sold at least half of easycall before the final frantic jump from 10 cents to 80 cents.

As for real estate, now that D&B will be more competitive and projects harder to come by, I am not sure if they can easily grow this division consistently. While it is true that they have recurring income from their current stable of DB&L projects, it has been increasingly tough for Boustead to secure more of such contracts to add to their recurrent income. I suspect FF Wong may need to pull another rabbit out of the hat to ensure the cash hoard does not just lie around earning next to nothing.

Reply: Never say never. Even now B Projects are still getting design and build projects. Presently, the portfolio size is around 100k sqm. Management has indicated that they need at least 300k sqm in order to create a REIT platform. It is such an ambitious target but with a quality portfolio and many established funds out there, the options to unlock value remains galore.

True, Geo-Spatial is the under-stated winner for Boustead, and seeing PBT increase about +20% for 9M 2013 is indeed pleasing and encouraging. This division has never failed to grow every single year and brings in most of the FCF for Boustead Group.

Reply: ESRI has been flying under the radar for a long time and I think its leadership down under will continue to underpin its prospects. Should emerging mkts such as resources rich Asean neighbours start to embrace the technology, we may then see the next phase of growth.

Currently, Boustead has a few investments on its plate; namely Hankore (which just announced decent results today), OMH (still in limbo regarding the Sarawak Smelter) and the most recent integrated development in Tongzhou district in Beijing with Perennial Real Estate. Whether these eventually bear fruit remains to be seen, but my concern is whether Boustead may stray too far from its core competencies in their pursuit for "growth" and "returns". As a shareholder I hope to be able to articulate these concerns to Management and receive a satisfactory answer. The litigation in Libya is also another wild card and would represent a bonus of sorts if they won it as the amount had already been written off.

Reply: Never look down on these here and there investments. Strategically there are synergistic impact. I personally do not share your view that Boustead has strayed from its core. Hankore and Water, OMH and engineering and the mickey mouse stake in mammoth project in Tongzhou (building). Somehow,if you look at it from the option theory perspective, its a cheap option with high exercise price. If they pay off, then we may be in for an unexpected windfall in the future. Does anyone knows where on earth did Boustead realise a windfall in Q313?


Regards.
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> OMH (still in limbo regarding the Sarawak Smelter)

The jewel in the crown, from FF Wong, is for him to do engineering services projects for the mining and commodity industry. It seems he know the company well, having been an ID few years.

I read the operational updates of OMH. Seems progress is on track on the Sarawak dam.
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Another trip back down memory lane

http://www.forbes.com/global/2008/0901/040.html

Singapore's 40 Richest
The Restorer
Lan Anh Nguyen, 08.14.08, 05:00 PM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated September 01, 2008
Wong Fong Fui has made a fortune reviving companies like Boustead Singapore.

Wong Fong Fei



Complete List
By The Numbers
Singapore's 40 Richest
Featured
The Restorer
Palm Oil Pal
Feeling Pains

When Wong Fong Fui bought one of Singapore's oldest companies, Bousteadco Singapore, in 1996, he paid a premium for a piece of Singapore's corporate history. The relic's market capitalization was barely $14 million, but Wong spent triple that amount. "Everyone thought I was a fool," Wong laughs heartily. "Basically we bought the name. We started from scratch."

A dozen years later Wong, 65, whose nickname is F.F., has proved he was no fool. He has transformed the company, now called Boustead Singapore, from a hodgepodge of mostly unprofitable businesses into a well-regarded provider of industrial engineering and infrastructure.

The group has posted record sales and earnings for six consecutive years, up to $311 million and $36 million, respectively, through fiscal year 2008. It has orders for another $560 million in the pipeline. Boustead Singapore's stock has tripled in the past three years. Wong's 32% stake is worth $135 million, enough for him to debut among Singapore's 40 Richest at No. 37.

Wong says there's nothing magical about his success: Using a strong brand name, he offered services to emerging markets where demand for industrial engineering was rising, and won key business. "Generally, I'd say one needs passion and commitment and an ability to identify and deploy capable staff. Of course, it won't work if you don't have perseverance."

Perseverance certainly helped Wong change his own destiny. Born into a poor family that worked on a rubber plantation in Johor, Malaysia, Wong became a tree tapper at age 7. "Life was tough—all I saw every day was rubber trees and mosquitoes. My early objective was to escape it and live in the city," Wong says. He taught himself English by buying a dictionary and studying ten words a day. He woke up at 5 a.m. each morning to listen to the BBC on the radio. He was accepted into a secondary school after he wrote an essay, "My Story." An excerpt: "I tap rubber trees. I see rubber trees in the morning. I see rubber trees in the evening. I see rubber trees every day, day in, day out. Rubber trees, rubber trees. I hate rubber trees."

After graduating from high school Wong went to Australia with his family's life savings to study chemical engineering at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. He says he worked for Esso in Malaysia before moving to England to work for Ralph M. Parsons, an American company that specializes in infrastructure projects.

That's where he met his wife, a Singaporean citizen. They got married and moved back to Singapore in 1973. (He became a citizen in 1986.) Wong started a chemical engineering outfit. He says he showed up at the offices of Indonesian oil and gas companies like a door-to-door salesman to win business. Indonesia was a bigger market for chemical engineering than Singapore, with more industrial companies in need of his services. "I was willing to take risks because I had nothing to lose," he says. After eight years, Wong says he
made enough money, "by my humble standard," to retire at age 40.

But that turned out to be a rare bad decision. Wong quickly got bored and started buying ailing companies and trying to fix them. "I always wanted to try something new and go against all odds," he explains. So he took on the mess at near-bankrupt QAF in 1988 when, he says, its market cap was just over $15 million. The company, which posted an operating loss of $6 million that year, was all over the place, involved in businesses ranging from oil exploration to newspapers to supermarkets. Plus there was drama involving its major shareholder, Brunei's royal family, which was fighting internally over what to do about the business. It refused to give QAF any new contracts or licenses.

Wong, who became an investor and its managing director, homed in on the only profitable piece, a bakery called Gardenia. Within three years QAF had become a food business selling items throughout Asia, including India and China. (In Brunei the business remained diversified.) By the time he sold out to Indonesia's Salim Group in 1996 for an estimated $500 million, QAF had become one of the region's largest food businesses.

He embarked on his next adventure in Myanmar in 1993. He and some investors put up $5 million for a combined 68% stake in the national airline, which didn't even have an airplane; the government owned the rest. Because of the Myanmar junta's involvement, nobody wanted to lend to them. Wong used his Brunei connections to lease a plane from Royal Brunei Airlines and soon had the airline flying. Within five years the generals took back control, but at least Wong and his investors were able to double their money.

These deals earned him a reputation as "one of the most exquisite turnaround specialists," says Tee Fong See, managing director of UBS Singapore and Wong's private banker. Tee, who also heads UBS' wealth management in Southeast Asia, had introduced QAF to Wong.

Boustead Singapore is the latest group to be restored by Wong. Casting about for his next fix-it project, he became intrigued by the aging company, Singapore's second oldest of European origin, in part because of the storied history of the young English entrepreneur, Edward Boustead, who founded the company in 1828. At one time or another it was involved in tin, rubber, palm oil and shipping. It was an agent for insurance giant Lloyd's, as well as one of the first importers of such brands as Tide detergent, Nestlé condensed milk and Moët & Chandon champagne.

But by the 1970s the company was split into three groups, Boustead Plc. in the U.K., Boustead Holdings Bhd. in Malaysia and Boustead Singapore Ltd. The Singapore group got whatever was in Singapore, like shipping and insurance. In the next two decades manufacturing and engineering businesses were added but not much was doing well.

By the time Wong came in, the company was left with "dribs and drabs." The most valuable part, he says, was a group that had the rights in Australia and parts of Asia to distribute ESRI mapping and spatial analysis software. Even that was making less than half a million Singapore dollars a year, one third of the company's profits.

Wong gambled that the storied Boustead name was still worth something. His first thought was to develop Boustead into a food company much as he did QAF. He tried to buy a related food business, Australia's Defiance, 18 months after buying Boustead, but failed. The company got into the bread business under the Bonjour brand, a costly venture that helped push the company into the red.

Wong was forced to concede that his plans had failed, calling it "a difficult learning curve." So he started getting rid of noncore assets, a tough decision as it shrank the size of the group considerably. He closed the marketing and distribution businesses, which had been associated with Boustead for decades. He divested food, insurance and power generation groups.

He shifted Boustead into industrial engineering and infrastructure, establishing new businesses, including one in industrial heater engineering. He also bought existing outfits, such as Salcon, a water treatment company.

Boustead now has projects in 75 countries. One-third of its revenue comes from energy-related engineering, such as solid waste energy recovery, and another third from its division that builds industrial warehouses. Its ESRI distribution business makes up 15%.

Notable deals won in the past 13 months include a $212 million joint venture to construct a 1,164-home township in Libya, a $124 million contract to build a water infrastructure system in Libya and a $42 million bid to build Singapore FreePort, a high-security storage area.

Now that the turnaround is nearly complete, is Wong getting ready to retire or to move on again? He insists no, saying that he plans to finish his career at Boustead, where his two sons also work. Though he is an avid golfer, he says he is enjoying himself too much to give it up. "It isn't the money. I always thought I had a fair share," he says. "It is the fun of being able to do what I do, and to contribute to society."
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Age is catching up with him and i understand he is guiding his sons probably taking over his helm when he retired. I know both his sons are in early 40s or younger but holds quite high management positions. Will his son (i assume his successor) able to manuver the company when Wong FF resign? Anyone knows whether his sons are capable?
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If you google "supply chan city boustead", you will get this:link

Guess, who was there in the photo?
But then again, maybe the involvement is not significant?
Hence the order amount is not big enough to announce?
Erh but then maybe Mr. Wong does not always = Boustead?
It's anybody guess.
And my guess is as good (or bad) as yours.

(Vested and of course biased - although trying hard not to)
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(16-02-2013, 01:11 AM)valuestalker Wrote: If you google "supply chan city boustead", you will get this:link

Guess, who was there in the photo?
But then again, maybe the involvement is not significant?
Hence the order amount is not big enough to announce?
Erh but then maybe Mr. Wong does not always = Boustead?
It's anybody guess.
And my guess is as good (or bad) as yours.

(Vested and of course biased - although trying hard not to)

looks hopeful Smile
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(16-02-2013, 01:11 AM)valuestalker Wrote: If you google "supply chan city boustead", you will get this:link

Guess, who was there in the photo?

Big Grin nice one!
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(16-02-2013, 12:55 PM)jim_city Wrote:
(16-02-2013, 01:11 AM)valuestalker Wrote: If you google "supply chan city boustead", you will get this:link

Guess, who was there in the photo?

Big Grin nice one!

"With an investment of S$200 million, YCH’s Supply Chain City will redefine benchmarks in technology, innovation and productivity in the supply chain management industry"

IdeaEven a 10% share of the project will be a decent S$20m contract - probably will have some SGX announcement down the road if any part of the Boustead Group is involved.Wink
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