savoy078

Since I have nothing bullish or non-depressing to post, I shall post about my all time fav albums. When we were younger, the list would change every few months, but the list kinda stop when you turn 35. See if you have similar taste in music, or else you can post your fav in the comments section and reasons why. A better headline would be the top albums that I would take with me if I was LOST on an island with a CD player. While redoing the list, I found that I could not keep it to ten, it had to be twelve, hence Countdown from number twelve: 12) Tanto Tempo by Bebel Gilberto - Daughter of the brilliant Joao Gilberto. This is Brazilian music jazzed up and highly seductive and hypnotic. Best album from Latin America for the last 10 years, if not longer. 11) Tapestry by Carole King - If I did not have balls, this would have easily rated higher. So many songs from this album became timeless classics, such as You've Got A Friend and Will You Still Love ...

This weekend’s The Edge has a special destination guide to almost all n sundry in Ipoh. The lavish and ambitious 112 pager was read with much skepticism by yours truly.  But as an out and out Ipoh person, the publication is the best I have seen as a travel guide. There are plenty of nuanced references n insights that only the locals would know. The art works were spectacular n nostalgic. Photos the same.  Too important not to buy and keep. This piece of artwork was so good in the details. The watercolour depictions of Blue Mosque, HoYanHor bldg and Concubine Lane were exceptional. Unfortunately, there was one mistake, a pretty big mistake ... they put Cowan Street ayam tauge shop under "kaiseehorfun".  Once and for all, kshf is made using prawn head stock as soup, has prawn slices, chicken, horfun/meen and kauchoy.  Ngachoykai has ngachoy and chicken with soy mix. You can have ngachoykai with any kind of noodles of rice even. Below, a delectable snap of most of the p...

One of the funnier stories I heard was a politician who was asked what was the first thing he would do if elected. The politician replied, "I will hire a one-armed economist." I have always taken the piss out of economists. I did study the subject for two miserable years and if you take away the charts from economists, they would not have anything to talk about. Think about it!!! They always need to draw a chart. A normal economist prediction would go something like this: " I think the US equity markets may have more upside in store as the prospects of lower rates by the Federal Reserve is still intact, though it looks more like 4Q rather than 3Q. On the other hand, the whole lowering rates scenario will be blown out of the water if future housing starts figures continue to surprise on the upside". Doesn't that piss  you off, that's why we need only "one-armed economists" so that they cannot say "on the other hand..." I mean, if you are g...

This has been well documented. The RM1.37bn purchase by Top Glove was completed only on April 4th this year. Secondly, the purchase was completed within 4 months. Posted on 9 July 2018 - 11:49pm Last updated on 10 July 2018 - 12:06am Lee Weng Khuen sunbiz@thesundaily.com Print PETALING JAYA:  Top Glove Corp Bhd, whose shares tumbled as much as RM3.63 or 30% on Monday, said an investigation by an independent accounting firm showed that it overpaid RM640.5 million for the acquisition of Aspion Sdn Bhd. Irregularities were discovered in certain balance sheet items of Aspion after it was taken over by Top Glove on April 4. Top Glove paid a whopping RM1.37 billion for Aspion. "From the interim report given by the independent accounting firm, there is currently an overstatement of inventory, plant and machinery in Aspion's accounts amounting to RM74.4 million. Further, the interim report also states that the acquisition price of Aspion was overstated by RM640.5 million. Therefore, ...

Encik Shahril of Sapura Energy had to defend his total take-home package of around RM70m a year for the past few years. Specifically since FY 2014. His defense was that there was a covenant. If he won't sell his shares, the company would get better interest rates on loans. Seemingly to imply that some major lenders will only lend to Sapura Energy only if he stayed. Errr, that's not the way a share market works. The remuneration committee cannot and should not take into account whatever "covenant" with lenders intimated with the CEO. It is like saying I am the CEO and I had to sell my mother's house so that I don't have to sell my shares in the company, so that share price doesn't collapse and the lenders only wanted to deal with me as CEO. That's not the way a share market works... I think. Are you telling me that all 1,000 banks in Asia would not lend to you unless you stay as CEO and do not sell your shares? Even if that was the case, was the RM5...

The brilliant snapshot of asset class returns compiled by Blackrock makes for interesting analysis. See if you can deduce any pointers from the table. 100 persons could be looking at the same table and arrive at differing conclusions.  To develop a keen inter est in investing is the continue to develop your ability to link and see cause-and-effects from seemingly disparate factors.  a) Look at 2008 when the financial crisis impacted. When all hell breaks loose, does it matter what kind of stocks you were in? Well, long and short answer, NO. Large caps core -37%, Large caps growth -38.4%, Large caps value -36.9%, Small caps -33.8%. There's no place to hide apparently. But when big boss sneezes, the rest of the world catches a worse cold, EVEN THOUGH IT WASN'T BLOODY OUR FAULT!!! International stocks were down -43.4%. Where is the justification? b) The following years till 2017 were all UP years, thanks to the relentless printing of money by the Federal Reserve and E...

The Leakers - Helmed by the often brilliant Herman Yau Nai Hoi (whom I believe was from Malaysia who became a great success in HK films). 70% of the movie was shot in Georgetown.  Good story, good plot twists galore, non-stop action, even the two car chases in Penang were pretty well done. Good acting from the top 4 cast members: Julian Cheung, Charmaine Sheh, Francis Ng and Kent Cheng.  Two sons of a Malaysian pharmaceutical owner went against their father's business practices. Reliving SARs all over again somewhat. Part Mission Impossible, put in two cops - one straight as an arrow, the other to solve crimes at all cost. Non stop action. 90/100 Brother of The Year - The Thais continue to win more Asian viewers with their non-horror genre such as Bad Genius and this comedy feature. Kind of simple story but good storyline and acting, in particular towards the last 1/3 of the movie, managed to dissect many dysfunctional brother-sister relationships. 88/100

The local bourse has been drifting down for weeks now with no respite in sight. As written a few weeks back, Malaysia's problems were not largely associated with the USA-China trade wars: The Problems :  We are in the midst of "house-cleaning", while we are quite prepared to be patient, a few things are noteworthy.  a)  Removing of GLC CEOs and other BN appointees from important government positions  - While I wholeheartedly support this, it also hampers all these affected GLCs to "move" or carry out projects. Nobody dares to negotiate contracts as the situation at the top is still fluid. This has to be managed FAST and QUICK. The longer we carry out this bloodletting, the longer the downtrend of the market will be. There is a very low-velocity number in the current velocity of money. b)  Tainted Companies  - Those not in the GLCs bracket but 'tainted' listed companies are affected as well. Quite a number of these company owners are currently hiding in ...

Besides supporting my good friend from Belgium ... read Lukaku's story (blood, sweat, tears and some more): ...He was like, “How old is this kid? Where is his I.D.? Where is he from?” I thought, Where am I from? What? I was born in Antwerp. I’m from Belgium. I knew we were struggling. But when she was mixing in water with the milk, I realized it was over, you know what I mean? This was our life. If you don’t like the way I play, that’s fine. But I was born here. I grew up in Antwerp, and Liège and Brussels. I dreamed of playing for Anderlecht. I dreamed of being Vincent Kompany. I’ll start a sentence in French and finish it in Dutch, and I’ll throw in some Spanish or Portuguese or Lingala, depending on what neighborhood we’re in. I’m Belgian. https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/romelu-lukaku-ive-got-some-things-to-say?utm_source=media&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=worldcup18&utm_term=Lukaku I've Got Some Things to Say Romelu Lukaku BELGIUM JUN 18 2018 I r...