Malaysia Stock Picks 2015 by Maybank

Maybank Research Top Buys for 2015

Stock Name	Ref Date	Ref Price	Price Diff	Last	Range	Open	Change	Volume
TENAGA	31/12/2014	13.78	+0.02	13.80	13.70 - 13.82	13.70	0.00	5,198,400
AXIATA	31/12/2014	7.00	+0.02	7.02	6.97 - 7.04	7.04	-0.03	4,561,500
SIME	31/12/2014	9.40	-0.33	9.07	9.03 - 9.19	9.19	-0.12	2,085,400
GENM	31/12/2014	4.02	+0.03	4.05	4.02 - 4.07	4.07	-0.02	1,130,400
GAMUDA	31/12/2014	5.02	-0.01	5.01	4.99 - 5.02	5.00	0.00	561,500
WPRTS	31/12/2014	3.28	+0.22	3.50	3.31 - 3.52	3.31	+0.14	1,416,800
SPSETIA	31/12/2014	3.35	-0.07	3.28	3.28 - 3.30	3.28	-0.02	1,024,700
AFG	31/12/2014	4.80	-0.07	4.73	4.70 - 4.73	4.71	+0.03	614,800
HARTA	31/12/2014	7.00	0.00	7.00	6.99 - 7.01	7.00	-0.03	589,200

Source: i3investor.com

Lessons from Corporate Malaysia in 2014

Mercedes Benz Malaysia Sdn Bhd president and chief executive officer Roland Folger.

THE year 2014 had been a tough one for many of us.

As I have done in previous years, I penned down my lessons learnt from various corporate organisations in Malaysia. Surprisingly, as I looked back at my Evernote digital note-pad, I realised there were tons of lessons learnt from different Malaysian companies. These below made my Top 10 list:

1. ECM Libra – Grow or decay

In November, Datuk Seri Kalimullah Hassan invited me to a talk ECM Libra hosted featuring Dr Jack Ende from Penn Medical. Ende began his speech by comparing people to wine – both age. The only difference is that wine gets better with age, while we decay. There is a saying that goes “in life, you either grow or decay. If you are not growing, you are in decay.”

Ende explained that most of us reach our physical peak by age 30 while our intellectual peak is in our 40s. After which we start to decay. As I was speaking to a number of corporate leaders during the dinner, we agreed the same principle applies in business. When you are not growing, you are in decay. And at some point in time, decay rears itself externally. Great leaders drive growth. When things are in status quo or stagnant, great leaders push their organisations towards a growth path. Otherwise, decay is a guaranteed consequence.

Lesson for 2015: Are you growing or decaying? Make 2015 your year for growth. Make growth intentional instead of waiting for it to happen. Remember, when you are not growing you are decaying.

2. Johor Port – Speed is overrated

During a leadership programme at Johor Port Bhd last year, a participant raised a question on speed. We had a lively discussion on the importance and downside of speed in a business. Then a wise participant brought up this point – “What is the use of speeding in the wrong direction? You may actually end up worse off than the person who is focused on the right direction yet makes slower, steady progress.”

I could not agree more. Speed is critical in this day and age. Yet, we should only speed once we are clear where we want to go and how we want to go there. Once that is clear, speed is useful. If not, speeding all the time may well be a waste of time.

Lesson for 2015: Speed only when you are clear where you are going. If not, slow down and figure out your bearings.

3. Suria Group (Sabah) – Leadership is moulded through fire

Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Datuk Dr Fowzi Razi, group managing director of Suria Group and having some amazing conversations with him. Fowzi is very clear in his mind that leadership is a process of being moulded through fire.

As we spoke about leadership experiences, we agreed that times of crisis, adversity, change, and great difficulty bring out the best in our leadership. These difficult times mould our leadership perspectives and define our leadership point of view. In fact, we don’t generally grow as leaders when we are maintaining the status quo or in our comfort zone.

Situations that challenge us bring out our best. Leadership is fully internalised when we face adversity, uncertainty, suffering, disruption, alterations and other significant challenges. Leadership and pain are synonymous. So, in light of this, if we truly seek to be great leaders, we need to go through significant pain and challenges.

Lesson for 2015: Are we up for the pains of leadership in 2015? See adversity and crisis through the lenses of opportunity. You will be surprised what you start seeing

4. RHB Bank – Sweat the small stuff

The past few years has seen lots of changes at RHB. Yet, recently, at the MIHRM Malaysia HR Awards 2014, RHB bagged the Grand Award. I had the privilege to hear RHB’s Azaharin Abdul Latiff share the RHB story and one lesson I learnt from RHB is that they “sweat the small stuff”.

To RHB, the little things matter. It takes much effort and dedication to ensure the small little pieces are not forgotten in the pursuit of the bigger goals. Every little person, detail and transaction matters.

This relentless focus on the little stuff enables many of the bigger pieces, including the Grand Award to fall in place. And in spite of the leadership changes, their troops continue to chug along and get small stuff done well. Sometimes, our continued focus on the “big picture” causes us to forget that achieving the big picture requires millions of small dots to be joined together and drawn.

Lesson for 2015: What are the “small” stuff at your organisation? They matter. Ensuring the little pieces are done right will result in big results. Sweat the small stuff.

5. Exact Asia – Leadership commitment counts

This year I attend the graduation ceremony of Exact Asia’s talent in its accelerator programme. As I heard the various testimonials and senior leaders share, I heard one clear message – senior leaders MUST be engaged and committed fully to any change initiative or programme for it to be successful.

Steve Jobs’ personal commitment ensured success of various initiatives at Apple. Richard Branson gets involved in all Virgin’s key initiatives from day one. When I was at GE, Jack Welch’s role-model teaching resulted in other leaders emulating him.

At Exact Asia, their leader Srinivas Sampathkumar together with Nenad Borota were personally involved in their talent programme resulting in a huge transformation across the organisation.

Without your leaders’ championing the cause, you are just wasting your time. Many leaders mouth words of change, but are never committed to the change themselves. Lip service from your leaders, when they call for behaviour change but don’t walk the talk, is a sure way to fail.

Lesson for 2015: Are you driving an initiative or a major change in your organisation? Make sure your leaders believe in the change and are committed to it first before pushing the change down.

6. Mercedes-Benz – Do it right the first time

This past year, my team and I have had the privilege of interacting with Roland S. Folger (pic), president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Malaysia. One thing that impressed me about Folger and his team at Mercedes was their deep focus on quality and execution. During one of our interactions, the phrase “do it right the first time” was mentioned.

I immediately jotted it down and pondered what it meant.

Doing it right the first time means ensuring that every possible process and transaction is accurate and done right. The key to “doing it right the first time” is having the right processes and structures in place which enable employees to have clear expectations. Every organisation that is trying to scale needs to embrace the “do it right the first time” mantra.

Doing it right the first time is a culture that seems to be lacking in businesses today. This results in huge delays, losses and quality issues including rework and recall. A number of years ago, when I was working in an aviation organisation, we had to get it right the first time. Anything less than perfection in our first time attempt could have resulted in deaths.

Imagine if you could build “doing it right the first time” into the DNA of your organisation. It could spell the end for your competitor and it could mean significant profit margins. Yet, not many of us are prepared to build our organisations in this manner.

Lesson for 2015: Does your organisation really care about its quality? If so, are you ensuring you “do it right the first time?” If not, make 2015 the year of quality for your organisation where you embed world-class processes and structure to get things done right the first time.

7. MMC Corp Bhd – Opportunities are everywhere, yet most never see them

This year I heard MMC Corp group MD Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Nor explain that leaders must always look beyond the obvious and open their eyes to unseen opportunities. He reiterated that there are opportunities everywhere but it requires a different set of eyes. Growth companies always look for opportunities and have an eye for the future.

Many organisations grow complacent when they grow big and soon their “eyes” only see today. They don’t open themselves to future possibilities and thus stagnate. Che Khalib went on to remind us that everyone falls into this trap from time to time. When we do fall into this snare, we need to relook the situation and be opportunities-focused rather than be defensive. Even in times of crisis, there are tons of opportunities.

Lesson for 2015: Have you grown complacent with “today” vision? It is time to re-examine our “eyes” and replace our “status quo” lenses with lenses of opportunities.

8. Paramount Corp Bhd – Always go against the grain

Datuk Teo Chiang Quan, executive deputy chairman of Paramount is a humble yet intuitive leader. He recently vacated the CEO role and I managed to catch up with him for lunch. As we spoke about different issues and challenges facing Paramount and himself, his stories reminded me of what made him a successful leader. He seemed to always go against the norm. He is very proud of Sri KDU, one of the premier international schools. When he first set it up, people questioned the huge investments it required. It was unheard off at that time. Today, there is a profusion of such schools mushrooming everywhere.

At times, Teo had to make hard decisions which were not the norm. As I heard some of his stories, it became clear in my mind that to succeed, you had to be a heretic at times and tear up the traditional script book. Jobs, Andrew Groove and Howard Schultz did it. So have most of the great Malaysian CEOs. Sometimes you just have to go against the norm and do things that other companies aren’t doing. It may be risky, but in the long run, it may just be the reason for your organisation’s long-term sustainability.

Lesson for 2015: Don’t be afraid to play the role of a heretic. Be different. Don’t be afraid to stand out of the pack. You may not please people today but in the long term, you may reap huge benefits.

9. MIDF – Execution means everything

I had the pleasure recently to sit through a business project review session that Datuk Mohd Najib Abdullah, group MD of MIDF conducted with his high potential leaders. At the review, Mohd Najib explained the importance of execution and following through. I started jotting down notes and I heard four key aspects of execution:

> Clear goals that compliment overall business strategy;

> Ownership for those goals;

> Clear measurement of progress regularly; and

> Clear accountability of progress.

Ram Charan and Larry Bossidy in their book Execution state that execution requires having a “systematic way of exposing reality and acting on it.”

I have worked in numerous organisation and the ones that have thrived are the ones with a clear sense of execution. Many young entrepreneurs feel that having a great idea and good timing is what will make their business thrive. I know personally that timing and great ideas are completely useless if you don’t know how to execute. The ability to execute is what separates the greats from people with good ideas. Everyone has ideas. It is the person that takes the idea and makes it a reality that will win.

Lesson for 2015: Are you executing the great ideas you have? Don’t regret when others execute your ideas and you then lament and claim that you had that idea first. Ideas are meaningful only if you can execute them.

10. Leaderonomics: Love your customers and don’t sell products

I usually refrain from internal lessons learnt but this lesson learnt from Ian Lee, our head of Growth and Diagnostics, was just yelling out to be shared. Lee shared that we must all learn to really love our customers.

In reality, not many people really love their customers. Most will claim to do so. In fact, during an interview, you find that most shy away from customer-fronting roles. Why is that so? Because dealing with the customer is not easy. Customer reject, negotiate, make harsh demands, expect crazy needs to be filled and are fickle. Working internally in back-end functions is easier and safer.

Yet, at Leaderonomics, there is joy in partnering with customers. Part of this joy is because customers provide ideas and insights for new products, new avenues of application of your offerings and also early warning signals on your quality and expectation fulfilment.

Another key part of loving your customers is not to sell products but to solve their problems. Providing customers with possibilities rather than products usually results in sustainable relationships and revenue.

Lesson for 2015: Customers are the lifeblood of your organisation. Everyone knows this but not many internalise this. Knowing your customer is knowing your future. And remember, don’t just sell products. Solve their problems instead.

Final thoughts

2014 was indeed a very tough year for me personally with many amazing lessons learnt. But the most important thing about lessons is to internalise them and leverage these lessons. Make 2015 a great year by learning from everyone and everything. Thank you again for partnering with me and my team at Leaderonomics in so many ways in 2014.

Roshan Thiran is CEO of Leaderonomics, a social enterprise passionate about transforming the nation through leadership development. Roshan and his team at Leaderonomics wish everyone a blessed New Year ahead. Check out Leaderonomics’ new leadership content site at www.leaderonomics.com for more great tid-bits of wisdom for 2015.

Happy New Year 2015

May the New Year fill up days

with all things that are nice

and bright – here is

wishing you a lovely 2015

Why Your Investments Fail

 

IN the world of investment, it is not uncommon to hear cases of investors suffering the loss of their entire capital, in what is perceived as a blink of an eye.

In reality, this is rarely the case. More often than not, adequate warning signals have foreshadowed such outcomes – it boils down to whether or not investors choose to recognise these signs.

I recall a client of mine, Jake (not his real name) whom I met a few years ago. Jake had a large sum of money invested in a unit trust fund, which after some research, I discovered was not doing very well.

In the four years since he had invested a capital of RM200,000, Jake had already lost 30% of his investment, which totalled around RM60,000. At the same time, I discovered there was another fund in the same category that had gained 24% in the same period. Between the two funds, there was a gap of 54% in the return difference.

In the field of financial advisory, this represents a huge red flag. The client had already lost a third of his money in a fund that had proved from Day One to be nothing but a sinking ship.

My advice to Jake was this: Withdraw what was currently remaining of his unit trust fund at a loss, and invest it into a comparable fund that was performing better.

However, even after presenting the facts and figures, Jake refused to take any action. His decision was to wait for the fund to rebound or improve before selling his unit trust investment.

Another three years passed, his unit trust performance didn’t get worse but is at around 30% loss after seven years of investing. Another performing fund has continued to do well, giving a gain of 60% of return over the seven years.

Why investments fail

Jake’s case is not unique. There are many others out there like him, who make the same decisions, only to end up suffering more losses with time.

The problem lies in the popular misconception that the act of investing is all about driving your capital to maximise your monetary gains. While this may be your ultimate goal, it only describes one half of the art involved when it comes to investing.

To invest successfully, you will need to drive your money to achieve the best gains possible while minimising your risk. This means, one must not only focus on investing money for gain, but also focus on cutting or minimising losses when your investment starts to fail.

To quote world-famous real-estate investor, Donald Trump: “Part of being a winner is knowing when enough is enough. Sometimes you have to give up the fight and walk away, and move on to something that’s more productive.”

Many are savvy and knowledgeable when it comes to buying, but few know when to sell or are in denial to do so. There are several reasons for this:

• Lack of monitoring: Buying into an investment is just the beginning of the money optimisation journey. Many fail to regularly monitor and review how their unit trust or shares are doing, thus leaving them unaware as to when the investments start underperforming.

l Paper loss: The reality of the losses incurred is taken lightly. Many fail to cut their loss and move on because they feel that paper loss is not an actual loss. As long as they do not perform the transaction to realise their losses, it is not final that it is a failed investment. They can still take comfort in the hope that the investment will eventually profit over time. Investors focus primarily on the capital they would lose if they sell, instead of focusing on the cost of not moving on.

lTheir hope for a turnaround: Chance is a vital ingredient in the investing game. Many think they have figured the market out, and refuse to accept the warning signs that prevail. They believe that if the market has dropped, it can and will rebound eventually.

Knowing when to make the cut

“Rule #1: Don’t lose money. Rule #2: Don’t forget Rule #1.” – Warren Buffett

Easier said than done for sure, knowing when to cut your losses is a crucial part of investment.

In Jake’s case, selling his unit trust fund at a 30% loss may have seemed painful at the time. However, maintaining his irrational decision even after a four-year downward trend cost him not only RM60,000, but also the chance of capitalising on another better-performing fund with returns of 60%.

And so, the first step to minimising your losses is to monitor your investments, and recognise the warning signals when you see them. Here are some ways for you to know if it is time to cut the cord to your current investments:

1 Monitor your gains and losses. Perhaps one of the most obvious and straightforward pointers is to monitor the results of your investments at least annually. Get information on the performance of your investments from newspapers, financial magazines, and other reliable sources. If you find that your investments are making losses continuously for two to three years, it is time to gather your funds and leave, even if you have to sell them at cost or below cost value.

2 Apple to apple comparisons. Even if you determine that you are making gains, it is wise to compare your current investment to peers in the market. If you had invested in a China Equity fund, make comparisons to other China Equity funds too. If you find that yours is less profitable, then it is time to make the cut and choose the better alternative.

3 Be rational, not emotional. There is one rule I’d like you to remember here: Past performance of your investment does not guarantee future performance of your investment. If your investment begins to drop in value, waiting further will not guarantee a comeback. At the same time, if your investment begins to grow, this still does not ensure that it would continue growing. So, make your decision to cut your losses wisely based on your objective and rational assessment of the situation.

Final words

Succeeding in money optimisation is not just defined by increasing one’s investment gain, but also by reducing one’s investment losses. When you fail to cut your losses and move on to the next sailing ship, you then miss out on the opportunity you may have had to optimise your money further.

Remember, making losses does not define your failure – everyone makes losses once in a while. What’s important is that you keep them to a minimum, move on, and learn from it. Do not allow your emotions to take over and cling on to any false hope. Big losses start from small losses, and as long as you are able to identify a sinking ship when you see one, you are equipped for the long and fruitful journey of investment.

Author: Yap Ming Hui

3 Biggest Retirement Regrets by Singaporean

Most Singaporeans wearily envision their lives as a never ending period of working, working, working from the cradle to the grave. Yippee. But people often lose sight of the fact that there are actually people in our midst who have retired and lived to tell the tale.

However, not all the retirees in Singapore are living off generous nest eggs and spending their days having high tea or playing mahjong with fellow retirees. In fact, quite the opposite.

We quizzed some retirees on their biggest retirement regrets in hopes that we might learn from them when reaching for that seemingly unattainable goal of retirement before death in Singapore.

1. Not saving and investing in their twenties

Amongst retirees not just in Singapore but all over the world, there seems to be a general consensus that their twenties offered the greatest chances to save and invest, and many regret not having realised it until it was too late.

Most people overlook the fact that saving $10,000 in your twenties goes a much longer way than saving $10,000 twenty or thirty years later. Because of the power of compounding interest, the longer your keep money invested, the more you’ll get out of it.

In addition, when you grow up, life has a habit of catching up with you. While in your twenties your most pressing financial obligations might be “entertainment”, things change if/when you start a family, purchase property or start to get health problems. Saving money gets a lot harder.

Mr Yeo, 62, who has been retired for almost 5 years and partially financed his retirement by selling his landed property and moving his family into a 4 room HDB flat, recalls his twenties, which were spent at actual discos (not clubs, discos!), consulting fortune tellers and playing mahjong.

2. Making lousy investments

Back in the day, obtaining finance-related information was a lot harder. Without the Internet, people relied on books, newspapers and word of mouth. And of the three, word of mouth has proven to be one of the most dangerous places to get your investment information.

Dr Tan, 65, started dabbling in the stock market in his 30s, and lost a significant amount of money because he didn’t fully understand how to choose and handle stocks. These days, he still invests in stocks but takes a risk-averse approach, holding blue chip stocks long-term.

Mrs Loh, a 60-year-old semi-retired accountant, used her son’s education fund to experiment with stock investing and ended up losing it all. “I came clean and told my son that I had lost all his education money. Fortunately, my husband and I were able to make it up in other areas like real estate.”

While lots of older Singaporeans cite the stock market as one of the key culprits of big losses, some retirees I know have sunk their savings in even more bizarre “investment schemes”, like buying a plot of land in the middle of the Indonesian jungle or contributing to dodgy religious organisations (true stories).

3. Spending too much on the kids

Many parents these days swear by the credo of sparing no expense when it comes to their kids. That’s why you see kids going to preschools that charge more than local universities do.

But surprise, surprise—many old folks cite spending too much on their kids as one of their more stinging regrets.

Mdm Ang, who is in her sixties and has two daughters and a son aged 32, 29 and 26 respectively, is often heard complaining about her children and wishes she hadn’t “spent so much on their university education”.

“I didn’t want them to have to take loans to pay for their education, so my husband and I paid for them out of our own pockets. Now they are working, but they waste so much money. My younger daughter pays $150 every month for a gym even though I always tell her the one near my place only costs a few dollars. They have taken everything for granted. I should have used the money for my own retirement. My children don’t even appreciate the sacrifices we made for them,” she laments.

This is a sentiment Mrs Tan, 60, shares. She and her husband went a little overboard and spent a lot of money on their daughter, now 23, when she was a child, sending her to all types of classes, from ballet to abacus to piano. Today, the family doesn’t even have a piano anymore, and their daughter’s ballet training is a distant memory.

“She was my first daughter, and at the time I just wanted the best for her. We used to spend almost $1,000 every month on various types of lessons for her,” says Mrs Tan. “But on hindsight there was no need to have spent so much. We might have gotten a bit carried away. If we had invested the money instead, we would be able to give her more financial support today.”

Do you have any nuggets of retirement wisdom for us? Let us know in the comments!

Adapted: http://theindependent.sg/

4 Lessons for Share Investor

Let me tell you that the purpose of this article is to warn investors about the perils of investing in the stock market. I wanted to share this article with you, in an effort to gain insight into some of my decision making process that went horribly wrong!

I bought these stocks despite Mr Market warning me by providing Red Flags all over the place that I should proceed with caution or at best, these stocks should be avoided at all costs!

But nevertheless I bought into them … I guess I was a sucker ..

1) PN17 stocks

PN17 stocks are companies in financial distress in Malaysia. They are usually very near to closing shop. When the stock exchange categorize a stock as PN17, that action by itself should be a Big Red Flag to current and potential investors. Hello, are you listening?

Well No, I shut my ears to all these “noise” because I thought the turnaround story on this Pn17 stock were genuine. Boy, was I wrong!

Later my own analysis told me that 80% of all PN17 stocks went bust, got delisted and never came back into the stock exchange.

2) Long Term Loss Making Stocks

These are another category of stocks I love to buy early on in my investing life. They are loss making companies which were raking losses for many years – the main attraction of these stocks are they were cheap, speculative and usually have juicy turnaround stories which I bought into. Bad move!

I thought these were good signs of a stock, but in reality, they were Red Flags all over the place which Mr Market put up to inform investors to “Please stay away at all costs “.

3) Buying Overvalued Stocks

Buying stocks which were overvalued were not as bad as the two reasons I’ve listed above, but it was still a big mistake. Have you heard those veteran investors saying to “Buy low sell high” ? They are right.

I bought a lot of overvalued stocks and this is one of the main reasons I did not have much success to show during the early years of investing. 

4) Buying Cyclical Stocks (At The Top Of The Cycle)

I bought cyclical stocks at the top of their cycle. They are stocks that are sensitive to the state of the economy – when the economy is booming these stocks will be priced at the top but when the economy shrinks they tend to drop very quickly. 

The trick to catch these stocks is to buy when the economy is bad and sell them when the economy is booming. Unfortunately for me, I did the exact opposite. Lesson learned, oops ..

Conclusion

These 4 investing mistakes lead me to large losses during the early years of my investing life. Hopeful with this insight, new investors will not make this type of investing blunders over and over again. Lesson learned : I was a sucker. 

Source: http://shareinvestormalaysia.com/

How Rich People Make Their Money Totally Differently From Everyone Else

Last night, Justin Wolfers Tweeted a chart from Visualizing Economics' Catherine Mulbrandon showing Lorenz curves — distribution breakdowns — by income source: labor, capital, business and capital gains.

It reveals how different parts of the population get their income way differently than others — but that the rich enjoy a minimum 50% share of each source of income, and practically the entire share of one category.

Here's the breakdown:

First, labor income, defined as wages, salaries, employer-paid health insurance premiums and employer payments to entitlement programs :

• The top 20% of the population owns 50% of all income generated through labor
• The middle 20% gets a slice of about 25% of  labor income
• The bottom 60% only have access to about 25% of all income generated through labor 

Next up is business and capital, which have about the same curve shape. Business income is net income from owner-operated businesses and farms, partnership income, and income from S corporations. Capital income, excluding capital gains, comprises taxable and tax-exempt interest, dividends paid by corporations (but not dividends from S corporations, which are considered part of business income), positive rental income, and corporate income taxes.

• The top 20% of the population enjoys 80% of business and capital income
• The bottom 80% of the population has to fight over 20% of income generated through business and capital

Finally, for capital gains, or profits from the sales of assets that have increased in value:

• The top 20% of the population boasts about 95% of capital gains income
• So, 80% of the population has negligible access to capital gains. 

Here's the chart:

Visualizing Economics

What's even scarier is that this data is from 2007 CBO data. The Great Recession is likely to have made these curves even steeper. 

We are living in a highly unequal society.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com