Make Money Online: 2007-01-19

Friday, January 19, 2007

Why You Shouldn't Buy iPhone Now

iPhone is everybody's dream-gadget (including me) - it's cool, it's great, it's innovative, it's all-in-one, it's fantastic and it's just gorgeous. But it's abit pricey, compare with other smart-phone and it won't be available till June-2007.

According to Silicon Valley market research firm iSuppli (BusinessWeek), the estimated cost for 4GB iPhone (retailed at $499) is $230 while 8GB iPhone (retailed at $599) is only $265 giving aprofit margin of over 100% per unit. iSuppli specializes in tearing down popular electronic gadgets to figure out how much they cost to make.

The single most expensive part will be the 3.5-inch touch-sensitive display - costing $33.50. The costs of NAND-type flash memory chips supplied by Samsung will be in the region of $35 to $70.

Potential partners for iPhone:

Micron Technology Inc (NYSE: MU,stock) - to supply the CMOS imaging chip for the camera
Marvell Technology (Nasdaq: MRVL,stock) - to supply the Wi-Fi wireless networking chip
CSR Plc [formerly Cambridge Silicon Radio] (LON: CSR) - to supply the Bluetooth wireless chip
Samsung Corporation (SEO: 000830) - to supply the audio chip
Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq:BRCM, stock) - to supply video clip
Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN, stock) or Freescale Semiconductor Inc - to supply digital signal processor
Supplier of iPhone screen - not known yet!

As component prices come down and to help stimulate demand, there's good chance of Apple Inc(Nasdaq: AAPL, stock) in reducing the price over the time. With the wide gap of profit margin, it's only logical for Apple to drop price in order to capture new customers who would like to buy iPhone but are existing owner of smart-phone from other brands.

Competitors such as Motorola (NYSE: MOT, stock), Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK, stock) and Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE, stock) will definitely introduce new model with more functionality and features to narrow the gap with iPhone to both retain existing as well as capture new customers. Apple will have no choice but to bring price down to meet the 10 million unit sales target.

Another reason why you shouldn't buy at this moment is the instability, limitations or bugs which are common in any first version of gadgets or softwares. With newer version, you'll get more functions and features plus better system stability.

# TIP: If you can wait, end of 2007 should be a good time to get iPhone as the production will increase to cater for Europe and Asia market. With higher volume Apple can negotiate for a lower components' price.

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How To Call Directory Assistance For FREE?

Would you mind if you can make a FREE call for directory assistance but in return you need to listen to an short audio advertisement before that? Most of us won't as human has the perception of wanting everything free. If you call for pizza for example, you might get a 10-second sales pitch about Domino's Pizza Inc or 1-800-Flowers.com Inc if you make a request for a flower shop nearby during Valentine.

You can now do so with 1-800-FREE411 which was inspired by the business model of none other than, Google Inc

(Nasdaq: GOOG, stock). Just like Google which make billions of revenue from online advertisement, Free411 survives through audio advertisement.

George Garrick, the president and chief executive ofJingle Networks Inc., which runs the 1-800-FREE411 service says callers aren't turned off by the 10 to 12 seconds long ads as people have just come to accept that advertising is a way of getting free stuff. In the U.S. directory-assistance market which had revenue of $6.5 billion in 2006, caller from mobile phone is charged an average of $1.50 per 411 call while fixed-line phones costs an average of $1.15 per call.

Jingle, which is based in Menlo Park, Calif., announced it has raised $26 million recently from investors including IDG Ventures, Liberty Associated Partners and Comcast Interactive Capital, the venture-capital arm of cable giant Comcast Corp. This month, Jingle Networks Receives 2006 Award for Growth Strategy Leadership in the Rapidly Evolving North American Directory Assistance Market.

Other free 411-service-provider includes 1-800-411-SAVE and 1-800-411-METRO but you need to try all these out to see which one is more efficient. Google might have the plan to acquire one of these 411-providers since they share the same business model. Furthermore Google bought over dMarc back in january-2006 for $102 million in cash - signal that Google recognise the revenue potential from audio-advertisement. dMarc is a company that works with radio advertisers in the sales, scheduling, delivery and reporting of radio ads.

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Google Adding Adsense For Audio?

My Apple Trade And Why You Should Be Bearish On Tech

The nightmare started again with Apple Inc (Nasdaq: AAPL, stock) after the earning announcement on Wed, 17-Jan-2007 after the bell. It beats estimated earnings all right, just like what I predicted but as what I blogged earlier, my concern were related to the possible of not-so-nice figure that Apple might announce. True enough, the company posted blowout numbers for the most recent quarter but offered conservative guidance.

First the good news - For the final three months of 2006 profit surged 78 percent (sold a record 21 million iPod players and 1.6 million Macintosh computers)

and earned $1 billion, or $1.14 per share, compared with $565 million, or 65 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter hit a record, reaching $7.1 billion, up 24 percent from $5.7 billion the previous year. The stock was actually trading as high as 4% above the Wednesday's closing at the after-market trading.

Then the bad news - Apple announced second-quarter guidance that fell below the average forecast of Wall Street analysts. The company expects second-quarter earnings to be between 54 cents to 56 cents per share on revenue in a range of $4.8 billion to $4.9 billion. Analysts were expecting Apple to earn 60 cents per share on $5.22 billion in revenue. Apple stock lost $2.15 to close Wednesday at $94.95. And at the same time, the Murphy Law strike when Nasdaq Stock Market in general tumbled.

But Apple ALWAYS gives conservative guidance, just like what Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said. Thursday was another bad-day of Nasdaq's overall stocks. Shares of Apple slid $5.88, or 6.2%, to $89.07, despite numerous upgrades (by Prudential - target $100 from $90, UBS - target $124 from $118, Bear Sterns - target $130 from $125, Piper Jaffray boosted to $124 from $99, Goldman - upped $110 from $102).

Shares of chipmaker Marvell Technology (Nasdaq: MRVL, stock) fell 3.5%, or 69 cents, to $18.91. Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC, stock) declined 2.2%, or 47 cents, to $20.57. Wireless chipmaker Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM, stock) declined 3.7%, or $1.21, to $30.08. Shares of Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL, stock) declined 1.4%, or 25 cents to $17.27.

Fortunately I already Ring Register on Apple Option after 5 days trading though I'm still stuck with some Call Options (which I re-open) on the day before Apple earning announcement. Nevertheless if what I read and heard is correct, then the tech-stocks might have more sell-off on the coming session considering below factors:

"Stocks haven't had any major sell-off or correction since August of last year. The beginning of a sell-off would lead to a substantial correction, which is what's been keeping people on the sidelines." said Robert Pavlik, chief investment officer with Oaktree Asset Management.
Cautionary words from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. In testimony to Congress Thursday, Bernanke said that the current structure of the government's two major entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare, may soon pose serious problems to the economy.
Labor Department's consumer price index for December showed stronger-than-expected inflation. The CPI was up 0.5%, compared with expectations for an increase of 0.4%. Core inflation, is now up 2.6% over the past year. The core PPI (measures inflation at the wholesale level) was up 0.2%, also ahead of forecasts. These numbers, while not prompt Feds to increase rate, it will neither give the justification for Bernanke to cut rates.
Some attribute the widespread and sudden decline of tech stocks to Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC’s show “Mad Money." On Wednesday, he urged investors to avoid some of those companies, saying tech stocks are in a peak period.

# TIP: With the above factors, I would justify that you either HOLD or SHORT technology stocks because you simply cannot go against the overall market sentiment. You can either short the stocks or options or both. You might want to play Bear-Call Spread to make some fast but limited money.

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Thursday, January 18, 2007

NSTP And UTUSAN Merger Is OFF

So, the rumors about the possible hiccup is confirmed on the merger of Malaysia newspaper publishers The New Straits Times Press Berhad (KLSE: NSTP, stock-code 3999) and Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Berhad (UTUSAN : stock-code 5754) when NST announced both parties have scrapped a plan to merge.

Both companies had previously set a 60-day period from Nov. 30 for talks on a possible merger. "After a series of discussions, NST and Utusan were not able to reach a scheme of merger that would be beneficial to both parties and its stakeholders," NSTP said in a statement. "As such, the company wishes to announce that the proposed merger between NST and Utusan is now aborted."

The proposed merger has not been smooth from the beginning with much opposition surfaced and the fate of the proposed merger appeared to be hanging as reported by Star Publications (Malaysia) Berhad (STAR : stock-code 6084)here. Sources said several party supreme council members voiced their concern over the deal and also the long connection between the party and Utusan Malaysia. Umno president Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who is also the prime minister of Malaysia had sent the merger deal back to the drawing board in Dec-2006. The two publishers have slightly different editorial viewpoints - Utusan is more closely aligned with a Malay and Islamic agenda than the more mainstream NSTP.

NSTP, which publishes the top-selling Malay daily Harian Metro, has a market value of about 543 million ringgit ($155 million), more than three times the size of Utusan. NSTP also owns broadsheet daily Berita Harian and English-language daily the New Straits Times. The two publishers wanted to put their Malay dailies under one roof to cut costs and attract more advertisers.

I'm pretty sure the party who proposed this merger has already benefited from the earlier proposed merger when the stock rises.

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NSTP & UTUSAN - Another Merger Again?

First Case Of Bloggers Being Sued In Malaysia

The New Straits Times Press Berhad (KLSE: NSTP, stock-code 3999), the country's oldest newspaper group, had filed suits against two bloggers, Ahirudin Attan and Jeff Ooi, for defamation over numerous postings in their respective blogs attacking top company officials today - according to Reuters news.

"I am now looking for a lawyer to represent me," said Ahirudin, a former editor of Malay Mail, one of the newspapers in the NST stable. Opposition leader Lim Kit

Siang said the suits would have a "chilling effect" onfreedom of bloggers and citizen journalists. "It will have far-reaching consequences for the healthy, mature and democratic growth for free speech and expression, not only on the Internet but in the country as a whole," he said in a statement.

This is the first case of bloggers being sued for libel in Malaysia, where Internet chatrooms are mushrooming amid tight government controls on mainstream media.

Ahirudin Attan's whose blog is known as Rocky's Bru [blogger platform owned by Google (Nasdaq: GOOG, stock)] has indicated in his blog that the parties who are suing him comprises:

The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad
Kalimullah Bin Masheerul Hassan
Hishamuddin Bin Aun
Syed Faisal Albar Bin Syed A.R. Albar
Brenden John a/l John Pereira

Jeff Ooi's blog, Screenshots, is flushed with comments after the news broke. Jeff said in his blog that his lawyers are looking into the suit.

The fate of both bloggers in this law-suit will likely set the direction for the rests of the bloggers in Malaysia in future. Will freedom of speech and thinking prevail?

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Faster Way To Make Cheque Payment In Citibank Malaysia

Do you feel frustrated every time you want to make cheque payment for your credit-card, be it on monthly or ad-hoc basis? Either you have difficulty finding a free parking or you're being forced to park at places where you need to pay parking-fees when in fact the process of dropping the cheque takes less than 1 minute.

Now if you're Citibank credit card holder, you can do so at selected Shell stations in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor which opened today:

[1] Klang Valley:

Stesen Minyak Sentral Kiosk (opposite Eastin Hotel)
3.5km Arah KL-Lebuhraya Damansara Link - Petaling Jaya
Petromart Trading, Stesen Minyak Shell, Persiaran Kewajipan - Subang Jaya
RNZ Activity Enterprise, 5km Section 9/1, Jalan Cheras - Kuala LUmpur

[2] Penang: Stesen Minyak Desa Relau, Stesen Minyak Shell, Mukim 13, Jalan Paya Terubong

[3] Johor: Fook Heng Service Station Sdn Bhd, Jalan Johor Jaya, Taman Johor Jaya

Citibank, the banking arm of Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C, stock) is one of the largest financial services organisations in the world. In Malaysia, it has a 20% market share for credit card spending.

Can't Explain Oil Price Drop? Blame Speculators

When there're known reasons why oil price went up to above $70 per barrel not long ago, everyone understand. All the analysts, investors and even governments justify in their speeches that China consumed energy as if it was drinking mineral water, oil production was at its peak and will take months or years to pump more, the middle-east conflicts might affect the oil-producing countries nearby, terrorists attacked Saudi Arabia's oil tanks and so on. With the same excuse, Malaysian Government increased the fuel-price causing high inflation and citizen jump onto streets holding demonstration.

But now, the oil-price has dropped to below $52 per barrel(yesterday, 16-Jan-2007, the oil price dropped to $51.21 per barrel). What are the reasons for this price "U-Turn"? Everyone offers their own reason. Analysts blamed it on the warm winter weather and now they pointed to comments by Ali Naimi, the Saudi oil minister, who said that an emergency meeting by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut their oil production isn't necessary at this time.

Without anymore bullets to use, BusinessWeek has offers a new creative and innovative reason (or excuse) - blame it on "Speculators". "There's been a huge jump in speculation in oil markets, and it's exacerbating price volatility," says Peter Fusaro, founder of the Energy Hedge Fund Center.

The justification was that there has been an explosion in the number of financial players in

the energy markets. Fusaro reported that there are currently 530 energy hedge funds, up from just 180 in October, 2004. Of the total funds now, 177 are strictly energy commodity funds trading oil or oil futures and options, as opposed to the stocks of energy companies such as Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM, stock) and Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX, stock). Larger financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS, stock) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS, stock) have also stepped up their participation in the energy markets recently.

Market data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission shows that noncommercial

traders were net short on oil prices as of Jan. 9. So in the short-term, it seems the energy price will keep heading south. However if the speculators play a major role in the current oil-price slide, can the same be said when the oil-price was heading north to as high as $78 at one time ago? If yes, then the actual consumption by nations' industrial sector is not that significant after all. Maybe the world should ban oil-speculators who have cause hardship to low-income citizen - to borrow the statement from former Malaysia premier, Mahathir Mohamad who once blame the 1997 Asia Economy Crisis on speculators in general and George Soros in particular.

Do you think the Malaysian Government will reduce the fuel price now that it's way below $60 per barrel? Your bet is the same as mine.

Ring Register On APPLE Option After 5 Days Trading

I gave up. Nope, I didn't mean investing stocks or option trading. I meant the excitement and the volatility of Apple Inc (Nasdaq : AAPL, stock) stock since its' launching of iPhone. Remember when I mentioned I invested 5 contracts of April 2007 85.0 Call Option in my previous blog iPhone Definitely Make Me Money? Well, I have closed my position yesterday leveraging the benefits of the uptrend of Apple a day before the earning announcement scheduled today (after the bell).

Looking at the chart, I can hear people (including myself) screaming "You should have sell it the next day ... itreached $97 plus ... you shouldn't be greedy ... etc". There're some reasons why I hold to my position (Nobody including me know how high can this guy goes). First, the uptrend looked sustainable as it went above the highest price of the first 45 minutes trading with good volume. Second, the earning season started and traditionally Apple demonstrates sustainable uptrend days before the actual earning right up to the last minute.

As you can see in the chart, it consolidated twice, challenged my emotional of greed & fear. First being Cisco (Nasdaq : CSCO, stock) announced law-suit against Apple on the iPhone trademark. Was I worried about this? Nope, because I think it's a small issue - worst case scenario will probably see Apple rename it to Apple Phone or something like that. People will buy not just because of the name but because of Apple and the cool-looking user interface (I love it).

Then came the second bomb-shellwhen the Government authority started investigating the back-dated options of which Apple's board gave Jobs 7.5 million stock options in 2001 without the approval of the company's board. Was I worried about this news? Nope, because this case was highlighted earlier and Steve did not benefits from it and and independent investigators "found no misconduct by any member of Apple's current management team."

Furthermore, other well-known tech firms including Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM,stock), Novell Inc (Nasdaq: NOVL, stock), McAfee Inc (NYSE: MFE, stock) and CNET Networks Inc (Nasdaq: CNET, stock), have been caught up in options backdating woes as well as non-tech companies such as insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc (NYSE: UNH, stock). In fact it was said that options backdating is a widespread and commonplace problem in the Fortune 500 affecting as many as 30% of the companies. So most of the analysts do not think SEC will target only Steve Jobs.

Although I'm pretty sure Apple will definitely beat the estimated earning, I'm not sure if Apple will announce some not so-sexy figures such as profit-margin, forward earning etc which might send the stock price down post-announcement today. So I decided to ring the register, just like what Jim Cramer always says "Bull & Bear makes money, Pig get slaughtered".

# TIP: Takes profit whenever you have one, you can never buy the lowest and sell the highest - just like what happened to me. Stock market always test your emotion. Trust your feeling and research.

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SIME Won RM15 Billion Cable Project

That's the headline from Business Times today, when Sime Darby Bhd (KLSE: SIME, stock-code 4197) is said to have won the contract worth USD 4.3 billion to erect undersea submarine power cables linking Sarawak's Bakun hydroelectric dam to Peninsular Malaysia. The cables would take power from the 2,400-megawatt Bakun hydroelectric dam, which is nearing completion in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island, and plug it into the power grid on the peninsula.

Sime will partner a unit of Swiss engineer ABB group

(NYSE: ABB), the world's biggest maker of power transformers, to carry out the project. Besides listed in New York Stocks Exchange, ABB also listed inZürich Stock Exchange(VTX: ABBN), Stockholm Stock Exchange andBombay Stock Exchange (BOM: 500002). ABB Asea Brown Boveri, was the result of a merger between Asea AB of Sweden and BBC Brown Boveri Ltd. of Baden, Switzerland in 1988 and has presence in more than 140 countries with about 180,000 employees.

The daily quoted unnamed sources involved in the contract talks as saying: "A decision to award the contract was made very recently and that Sime will be informed officially soon." Malaysia's monopoly power distributor, state-controlled Tenaga Nasional Bhd (KLSE : TENAGA, stock-code 5347), is likely to pay between 15 and 18 Malaysian cents per kilowatt hour for the Bakun power.

Earlier, it was reported that Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (KLSE : MRCB, stock-code 1651) and Eden Enterprises (M) Bhd (KLSE : EDEN) partnered with ABB for the bidding.

I doubt Peninsular Malaysia requires such a huge 2,400-megawatt (since existingly TENAGA has excess capacity of about 40%) but it'll be interesting to see if the "volts" will go to wastage or re-channel to some other means of good use. If the Government does not have a proper plan, then the same process of TENAGA incurring losses again will happen, the same way it was forced to swallow all the megawatts generated by IPP (Independent Power Provider) such as Malakoff Berhad (KLSE: MALAKOF, stock-code 2496), YTL Power International Berhad (KLSE: YTLPOWR, stock-code 6742) and Ranhill Power Berhad (KLSE: RPOWER, stock-code 9067).

On the other hand, should there be demands for power-hungry industry such as the rumoredaluminium smelter in Sarawak, then TENAGA will benefits from the pure-demand which should comes from the foreign companies such as Rio Tinto (NYSE : RTP, stock), Alcoa (NYSE : AA,stock), BHP Billiton (NYSE, ASX : BHP, stock) and Smelter Asia-China Aluminium International Engineering.

# TIP: As the commander of the world's largest plantation Synergy Drive and now this multi-billion project, SIME is indeed moving into the direction in becoming one of the largest GLC (Government-Link-Companies) in Malaysia. I'm bullish on the stock in long-term.

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Does Malaysia Needs Bakun Project?

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Option Trading - Will APPLE Make Me Money Again?

The earning season is here again and it's time to make money investing stocks or trading option (depending on your trading strategy). Apple Inc. (Nasdaq : AAPL, stock) will be releasing its’ earning tomorrow, Wednesday 17-Jan-2007, after the bell. I don't think this stock need any more introduction. This is a great stock with innovative products such as the famous iPod and the released of iPhone and TV set top box last week. Who doesn't know Steve Jobs? He's the lifeblood of Apple - his leadership is undisputable.

December is usually the strongest month when it comes to consumer electronics sales, and Apple saw strong demand for its iPod during the quarter. Apple said in December it is restating financial statements for 2004-2006 due to its stock-options investigation, and that an internal probe found no misconduct by current management.

Some of the analysis indicators for AAPL:

Wall Street consensus: 0.78
StockScouter rating: 10 out of 10
Whisper Number for this stock: 0.86
Smart-Estimate for this stock: 0.81
Schaeffer rating for this stock: 5 out of 10
Power Rating: 5 out of 10
Insider Trading (last 52 weeks): ($174.61M)
Option Trading: Apr 2007 90 Call
IV for Feb 2007 $90 Strike: 40.48%

Analysts, on average, are looking for earnings of 78 cents on sales of $6.42 billion, according to a ThomsonFinancial poll. Merrill Lynch analyst Richard Farmer sees Apple to posting higher results than what Wall Street is expecting - raised his outlook to earnings of 81 cents per share on sales of $6.5 billion. Based on data from the NPD Group, December is the best selling month for iPods, typically making up about 36 percent of the year's business.

In summary I'm optimistic Apple will beat its' earning again this time and hopefully it'll gap-up and make some money for me. I'm still holding some calls which I invested prior to the Apple iPhone announcement. I think I need to ring the register today (I know I've said that before but the stock was simply too bullish and volatile that I was thinking of maximizing the profit).

# TIP: Consider trading option instead of stocks but remember to balance it with sufficient time-value, just in case, as the expectation for Apple to beat by huge margin is too high. Nevertheless with the buzz of iPhone, this fundamental stock should perform in medium to long-term.

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GOOGLE Remains Champion, Yahoo and Microsoft follows behind

comScore today released its monthly qSearch analysis of activity across competitive search engines. In December 2006, Google Sites (Nasdaq : GOOG, stock) captured 47.4 percent of the U.S. search market, gaining 0.4 share points from the previous month. Yahoo! Sites (Nasdaq :YHOO, stock) on the other hand grew 0.3 share points, maintaining its second place ranking with 28.5 percent of U.S. searches. Third place is Microsoft Sites (Nasdaq : MSFT, stock) with reduction of 0.5 percent capturing 10.5 percent. Others includes Ask Network (5.4 percent) and

Time Warner Network (4.9 percent).

Americans conducted 6.7 billion searches online in December, up 1 percent versus November. Annual growth rates in search query volume remained strong with a 30-percent increase since the same month a year ago.

With the statistic, Google Sites led the pack with 3.2 billion search queries performed, followed by Yahoo Sites (1.9 billion), MSN-Microsoft (713 million), Ask Network (363 million), and Time Warner Network (335 million).

# TIP: This info shows Google still commands the leadership of internet search market. The continuous growth means the revenue of Google will definitely increase for the quarter earning reporting which has started.

Finally RHB SOLD To KFH

In a financial breaking news today, Malaysian Utama Banking Group Berhad (KLSE : UBG, stock-code 6831) agreed to sell its' 32.5% stake in Rashid Hussain Berhad (KLSE : RHB, stock-code 1309) to Kuwait Finance House ( KFH ) - confirming my suspicious when I blogged "Consider RHB SOLD to KFH".

Meanwhile TheEdge reported the stake involved in the sale comprises 238.12 million shares, eight million RHB warrants 2001/2007, 92.46 million call warrants 2003/2007, 449.2 million RHB irredeemable convertible unsecured

loan stocks (ICULS) A and 403.47 million ICULS-B.

The stocks of RHB and UTAMA were suspended, but I'm surprise that RHB Capital (KLSE : RHBCAP, stock-code 1066) and its' related call-warrants were allowed to be tradethereafter. With this uncertainties cleared, RHB should start shifting its' gear towards a better future (RHB was like a ship without a capable captain who can set a clear direction since the departure of Tan Sri Rashid Hussain) both for its' employees (most of the best employees have since left when their perks were slashed due to poor performance) as well as shareholders (shouldn't you pity those minority shareholders who bought into RHB shares during its' peak when the stock price was more than RM 16.00 per share?).

However Utama indicated the agreement with the Kuwaiti investment bank was not exclusive, saying it still wanted to talk to a rival suitor for the stake, financial group Primus Pacific Partners- a consortium consists of Fubon Financial Holding (TPE : 2881), Qatar Investment Authorityand Kuwait Investment Authority.

It's yet to be seen the price agreed by both parties and what are the long-term plans set by KFH for the ailing RHB. To be favored by investors, it can't only survive purely on Islamic Banking - it need to think globally in order to compete with giants such as CitiGroup Inc (NYSE : C). Talk about karma, the name RHB will soon disappear from the banking map forever the same way RHB erased its' previous prey such as Kwong Yik Bank, DCB Bank and Sime Bank.

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Wish To Turn Your Windows Mobile Phone Into iPhone?

Since Apple Computer’s (Nasdaq : AAPL, stock) unveiled the much-awaited iPhone last week, Apple's fans have been attacked by the phenomenal of the great and cool looking icons. Bloggers all over the world have been blogging about this great product (I bet President Bush was himself envy with the huge publicity garnered by Apple). For example, Engadget which provide live reporting during the iPhone launching enjoyed 10 million page views alone.

But Apple (reasons or strategies known to Steve Jobs) iPhone will only be

available in June-2007 (Europe and Asia will get theirs in 2008), that's 6 months away. And can you blame Apple crazy-fans for crying aloud waiting that long? So what would you do if you're one of them? I bet you would be crazy enough to create the skin which looks similar to the iPhone user interface and upload it into your Windows Mobile Phone fantasizing you already own one such as this. So, most of these people already own iPhone (sort of) days after the launching.

However Apple is not happy with such creativity, shortly after Paul O'Brian posted a link on anxda-developer forum to the interface, he got acease and desist letter from Apple's lawyers warning "The icons and screenshot displayed on your website are copyrighted by Apple, and copyright law explicitly prohibits unauthorized display and distribution of copyrighted works. Apple therefore demands that you remove this screenshot from your website."

While Apple claimed Cisco System Inc (Nasdaq : CSCO, stock) to be "silly" with the law-suit on the trademark "iPhone", it seems Apple is extremely defensive when bloggers / publishers / Apple-fans who can't wait to get their hand on the gadget create something so minor to satisfy one's need. I'm wondering should the thousands of publishers on the net chose not to bend over to Apple's lawyers demand, will Apple sue all of them? Apple should instead thank these publishers for doing the free marketing for the iPhone (and did I say each of these publishers should be rewarded with a free iPhone instead?) So can you call Apple's warning letter equally "Big Silly"?

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Macau Casino Tycoon To Buy Into STAR CRUISES

In a latest breaking financial news reported by Straits Times Singapore, Macau casino mogulStanley Ho is in the process to buy a stake in Star Cruises, a cruise and gaming company controlled by Malaysia's Genting Group (KLSE : GENTING, stock-code 3182).

It was reported that Stanley is invited to buy up to 10 percent of Singapore-listed Star Cruise Ltd(SIN : S21), which in turn is expected to secure rights from the gaming magnate to build and operate a casino in Macau. Pricing details of the investment into Star Cruises are not available.

Shares in Star Cruises have been suspended since Friday. The stock had surged by a third to 38.5 US cents late on Thursday before the suspension. The deal is part of a plan by Star Cruise Ltd (SIN : S21) and Genting International (SIN : G13), both part of Malaysia's gaming mogul Lim Goh Tong's empire, to raise funds to develop a $3.4 billion casino resort on Singapore's Sentosa island.

If the above plan goes accordingly, it'll be a win-win business proposal for both Stanley and Genting Group. After the liberalization of casino business in Macau with the entry of foreign players such as Las VegasSands (NYSE : LVS, stock), MGM Mirage (NYSE : MGM,stock) and Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq : WYNN, stock) Stanley no longer monopolize the lucrative"sure-win" business. With tons of cash, Stanley has been looking for expansion routes for quite some time. As for Genting Group, it still has not establish a footing at it's rival land in Macau but with this swapping of business interest, Genting has sure put another dot into its' casino map globally.

# TIP: I'm bullish on Genting & Resort stock with this piece of development together with the proposal by Genting and Resort for a 5-for-1 share split which I blogged yesterday.

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Monday, January 15, 2007

GENTING & RESORTS WORLD Propose Share Split

Genting Berhad (KLSE : GENTING, stock-code 3182) and its subsidiary Resorts World Berhad(KLSE : RESORTS, stock-code 4715), whose share prices have gained in recent months, have proposed a share split of their 50 sen shares into five 10 sen shares each. Genting and Resorts World said today, 15-Jan-2007, that the share split would not have a direct impact on the companies’ market capitalization but would accordingly reduce their market price to one-fifthof that before the share split.

This is a good news as more investors would be able to trade/own these two heavyweights since theoretically the stocks price will be reduced to 20% of what it were trading now.

As of 31-Dec-2006, Genting has 738.7 million shares

while Resort World's has 1.09 billion shares floated in Bursa Malaysia (KLSE). Upon completion of this share-split, Genting will have 3.69 billion shares whereas Resort World's will have 5.47 billion shares trading in Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.

In United States, a share-split normally shows a particular stock is doing well and normally the stock price will be on uptrend towards the date of share-splits take effect. I believe both stocks will have the same uptrend pattern.

# TIP: These two stocks are amongst the best performing companies for long-term investment. Besides, the management is proven with its' strong casino business growth (recently won the Singapore Sentosa project) and strong fundamental.

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Is GM Really Interested In Proton?

Stock price of Malaysian auto maker Proton Holdings Bhd (KLSE : PROTON, stock-code : 5304) jumped 10 percent to a 13-month high today, Monday 15-Jan-2007, after a newspaper reported U.S. car giant General Motors Corp. (NYSE : GM, stock) planned to bid for Proton at a 56 percent premium to its market value.

The stock rose as much as 0.65 ringgit to 7.05 ringgit, its highest since Nov. 30, 2005. The Business Times said on Saturday GM was prepared to offer as much as 10 ringgit ($2.85) for each Proton share, valuing the Malaysian firm at $1.6 billion, provided the U.S. firm is given control of the

finances of Proton and manages its vendor system.

The Malaysian daily, quoting sources familiar with GM's operations in Malaysia, said the U.S. car maker planned to submit a bid for state-controlled Proton this week.

Malaysia's Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop said on Friday initial discussions with various local and foreign suitors -- including Germany's Volkswagen (FRA : VOW) and France's PSA Peugeot-Citroen (EPA : UG) -- for a strategic stake in Proton have ended and the government was now evaluating the proposals and would make a decision soon.

Today however, Yakcop said though GM has shown interest in Malaysian auto firm Proton Holdings he did not say whether GM was keen on forging an alliance with Proton or taking a stake in the Malaysian firm.

Other local companies that have expressed interest in Proton includes Mofaz Sdn Bhd, Naza Group and DRB-HICOM Berhad (KLSE : DRBHCOM, stock-code : 1619). But most analysts believe local companies do not have any value-add which Proton is urgently seeking. And I believe the government will choose Volkswagen as the best available partner for Proton but why GM came into the picture the very last minute during which the government is finalizing the candidate? Is GM's interest genuine considering it's throwing a 10 ringgit offer? That's 56% premium of the closing stock price of Proton last Friday. Maybe, just maybe, GM is trying to make Volkswagen's life difficult by creating price uncertainties. I'm sure someone would have made some money with the jump in stock-price this morning.

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Laser Weapon onboard Boeing to ward off Missiles

Major ground testing has wrapped up for the Airborne Laser, the Pentagon's long-in-development antimissile weapon that will enable a jumbo jet packed with gear designed to shoot down enemy missiles half a world away, at the speed of light. Next phase: Testing the lasers in flight. "Today we are taking a major step to give the American people their first light saber," Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, said at an official coming-out party for the heavily modified 747-400F at a Boeing facility in Wichita, Kan.

Later this year, the ABL project will begin firing the plane's two illuminator lasers in flight at a missile-shaped target painted on a test aircraft. The 747's crew will use those low-power, solid-state lasers to track the target and to assess the atmospheric conditions. The high-energy chemical laser that will serve as the actual weapon won't be installed until 2007, according toBoeing (NYSE : BA, stock).

"While the low-power system may not be as sexy as the high-power engagement laser, it's the heart of the system. It's what turns an interesting engineering project into a lethal weapon system,"Obering said.

Donald Trump - A Billionaire or Just A Millionaire?

Donald Trump might be one of the tycoons who have appeared in dozens of TV shows – The Today Show, The O'Reilly Factor, Access Hollywood, Larry King Live, David Letterman. But most of us know him through the Apprentice – so successful that the show enter its' sixth season which was launched on NBC [General Electric Company (NYSE : GE, stock)] on 7-Jan-2007.

The question everyone is asking is whether Donald’s fortune is indeed in the billions or merely millions in figure after author Tim O'Brien, in his book Trump Nation, claimed Donald’s net worth isas low as $150 million only. While Trump is suing Tim O'Brien claiming he’s losing deals because of that, O'Brien’s lawyers say the suit is without merit.

While Forbes estimated Donald’s empire is worth $2.9 billion, Trump produces his chief financial officer (CFO), Allen Weisselberg to show documents which put his net worth at roughly $4.1 billion as of June, 2006, with assets totaling $4.8 billion and liabilities of around $700 million. This figure includes $370 million for Trump Tower which has $25 million mortgage and $900 million for “club facilities and related real-estates”. Through The Trump Organization, Donald owns Trump International Hotel & Tower, Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, Trump Entertainment Resorts (Nasdaq : TRMP, stock), Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza, and Trump Marina

But Donald claims the “hottest brand on the planet” is the value of his name. While the name is not comparable to Coca-Cola (NYSE : KO, stock) or Starbucks (Nasdaq : SBUX, stock), his name indeed sells.

Donald is one of those rich-guys who loves the attention of being famous, the celebrity feeling and he always make sure he’s as famous as before. The most recent news being the press conference in Dec-2006 announcing he’s letting Miss USA Tara Conner keep her title, despite her hard-partying ways. But after that, Katie Ress, the 22-year old former Miss Nevada USA who was stripped of her crown when party pictures of her hit the internet of which she was stripping off her jeans to show her thong said she hope Donald will give her the second chance the same way Tara Conner was forgiven. Nothing has change on Katie Ress case since.

Nevertheless, Donald is someone who will never have to worry about food or clothes as he’ll always find a way to get the money to enjoy the life as the rich and famous.

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Friday, January 12, 2007

Where To Get Free Real-Time Stock Quote?

Are you frustrated because after years since Internet was created, the basic information such as real-time stocks quote are still a rare animal in this kingdom? Today, if you wish to have real-time quotes, chances are you need to subscribe to their service(s) which will impose some sort of charges. The next best option you have is delayed data, but in the world of finance, a delay of even 5 minutes (most free sites will give you a 20 minutes delay) might make the difference between a profit and a loss.

If you're an existing investor trading options or stocks, you might already have an account with a brokerage house which should provide you with free real-time stock quotes and charts. But if you're not, then I don't think you can find any generous web-site out there which will fulfill your needs.

The good news might be around the corner. Google (Nasdaq : GOOG, stock) has announced that it's working with SEC and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to find a way to provide this precious commodity free of charge to Google users. It was reported that NYSE has submitted aproposal to SEC, of which if approved will set a new milestone to all the investors worldwide as you can enjoy free, real-time, last stocks' sale-price across Google Finance, Personalized Google and Mobile.

So, stay tune for the next announcement ...

Investing Which Telco Stock - MAXIS or DIGI?

Telecommunications landscape in Malaysia is pretty stagnant, both in terms of subscribers' growth as well as technology changes (or rather innovation). Telekom Malaysia (TM : stock-code 4863), Time DotCom Berhad (TIMECOM : stock-code 5031), Maxis Communications (MAXIS: stock-code 5051) and the black-sheep, unlisted MITV all have secured their 3G license but it looks like a non-event. Nothing much has move that the subscribers can shout about - the excuse is the companies need time to roll-out.

DIGI.com Berhad (DIGI : stock-code 6947) surprised everyone when it failed to secure a 3G license despite being one of the fastest and profitable mobile phone company - losing to the loss-making Time DotCom and new unlisted pay-TV operator MiTV Corp.

Telecommunications growth in Malaysia has reached saturation considering nearly four out of five Malaysians now own mobile/cellular phone. It's now depending on these players to increase the value per-user in terms of new applications or services to generate additional revenue.

DIGI.com Berhad - is the clear winner if the stock price is used as comparison amongst the players (stock price jump from RM 7.80 to RM 15.20 in 2006). Based on the estimated 2007 earnings of 106.4 cents per share (EPS), this stock is now trading (based on today's price of $ 15.90 per-share) at 15 times it's earning or P/E. But DIGI.com is reported to have the biggest cash pile with lowest CAPEX (capital expenditure) amongst the players.

Maxis Communications - commands the largest domestic mobile market's pie with a comfortable cash flow from its' local operations. Trading at P/E of 12 times its' earning, Maxis provide the cheapest exposure for investors who wish to diversify their portfolio to include a telecommunication company. Unlike DIGI.com which depends solely on its' parent company, Telenor Asia Pte Ltd to make decision on regional expansion, Maxis needs to worry and ensure any of its' foreign diversification will create values to the shareholders. It's investment in Aircel India is already making profits while the Indonesian' division is still in red.

In terms of dividend, DIGI.com has previously announced a minimum 50% dividend payout policy while Maxis targets distribution of up to 60-65%. Should DIGI.com secured a 3G license, I believe the scenario will be such that all other players will follows what DIGI has to offer - furthermore DIGI.com is the leader in pre-paid market with its' excellent innovative marketing plan.

Summary of P/E Ratio:

Telekom : P/E - 16.1
DIGI : P/E - 15.0
Maxis : P/E - 10.2

# TIP: Considering the already high price run-up of DIGI, I would be more comfortable with Maxis which has the cheapest P/E and aggressive overseas expansion - not to mentioned its' status as the largest local mobile company with well political-connection boss. Re-consider DIGI if the stock-price pull-back.

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Thursday, January 11, 2007

Top Reasons Apple So Successful

It’s a known-fact in the industry that Apple is legendary when come to safeguards new product announcements. It sure isn’t an easy task to keep secret about iPhone for 30 months from friends and close family members but Apple has its’ own proprietary cultures and policies to the envy of Pentagon or CIA and at the same time innovate to the highest degree never seen before.

If you’re an employee of Apple Inc (Nasdaq : AAPL, stock), you need to live up to the super-high standard set by Steve if you do not wish to be booted out. There was a story where Jobs once demanded that a designer of a new Mac not allow a single visible screw. When the designer built a prototype that had one screw, tucked out of sight under a handle, Jobs fired him. Ray Riley, a former Apple designer who now runs Nike's (NYSE : NKE, stock) Advanced Innovation Div. used to say "Apple is the most design-savvy company in the world, and it's because of Steve Jobs,"

But besides a strong design team which is rumored to command starting salary of around $200,000, some 50% above the industry average, Apple has been very successful in guarding their next generation design from outsiders.

Amongst others:

Apple’s tight privacy policy whereby many Apple employees aren't allowed into the large open studio where designers are located, for fear they'd catch a glimpse of some upcoming product.
Steve Jobs’ trust on his low-profile, Senior Vice-President for Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive.
Apple makes it clear to employees and business partners that they will be dismissed and possibly prosecutedfor leaking company secrets.
Apple will sue bloggers and other independent journalists for posting purported advance information about unannounced Apple products.
Supply business-partners [ including Cingular Wireless, Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq : YHOO,stock) and Google Inc. (Nasdaq : GOOG, stock) ] with a fake-out user-interface design that bore no resemblance to the final one, so that its programmers wouldn’t know what they were working on.
Apple crafted bogus handset prototypes to show not just to Cingular executives, but also to Apple's own workers.

It was reported that at one point, when Cingular executives pointed out that the phone lacked a certain button, Apple reported response - “Don’t worry, we can always add that after the phone ships.” It was a reference to the fact that on a touch-screen phone, adding a button is just a software upgrade but that reply indeed kept Cingular executives cracking their heads in disbelief until the official launch of iPhone.

Nevertheless the success of Apple is largely due to Jobs' capabilities in setting the direction and provides the inspiration for the company. But the great and innovative design and culture plus policies which was much needed gel very well resulting in an excellent business model.

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Have You Grab Your FREE SEATS?

AirAsia reported that more than 12% of its' 1,000,000 FREE SEATS have been snapped up within 12 hours the promotion started. AirAsia Berhad executive vice-president of commercial Kathleen Tan described the response as “massive” with the website’s network usage capacity jumped to 90% from normal 30%.

The most popular destination is Macau, if the seats availability chart status is any indicator to goes by. The chart shows there're only limited seats available for this hot destination. I'm not surprise considering Macau is the nearest anyone can get to before continue his/her next destination to Hong Kong (good foods, nice & innovative buildings, great cultures, cheap sea-foods and tons of shopping outlets).

I've been to Hong Kong (I believe most of us too) and frankly the only thing I did the most is to eat my head off with all the great foods available there. I believe should AirAsia Berhad (KLSE :AIRASIA, 5099) starts the long-haul from Kuala Lumpur to London/Manchester, there'll be long queues wishing to spend their holidays/shopping/sight-seeing in Europe - same goes with Australia & Japan. So start saving or rather investing in stocks or option trading to make some profits for your next holiday destination.

# TIP: Check FREE SEATS availability here

# TIP: As indicated earlier in my blog, I'm bullish on AirAsia stock and would accumulate on stages on any pullback as part of long-term investment strategy. At the same time I'm bearish on Malaysia Airline System (MAS).

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Mr Apple You're Sued

A day after Steve Jobs received thunderous applause for releasing the much-hype iPhone at MacWorld, Cisco smile at the face of Steve and said "Steve, your iPhone is very excisting but Steve, your Apple is SUED".

My previous blog mentioned how I thought Apple Computer’s (Nasdaq : AAPL, stock) should have talked and come to some sort of agreement behind the curtain with Cisco (which obtained the iPhone trademark in 2000 after acquiring Infogear which owned and had sold iPhones for several years) in using the trademark iPhone, or else Apple would

have use another name. But with this new development, it seems Apple lawyers had not signed and returned the final contract (according to Cisco), if it's true both parties have been at negotiation table for years and agreed in principal. So I think the lawyers should get fired first before settle out-of-court withCisco System Inc (Nasdaq : CSCO, stock) with a cup ofStarbucks Corporation (Nasdaq : SBUX, stock) coffee.

Talk about my investment on Apple Call Option, I mentioned iPhone Definitely Make Me Moneyand I might take-profit yesterday but I didn't. Reason being the behavior of the stock during the first 45 minutes - sellers were well absorbed when the stock price went higher than the highest of the 45-minuts. This is how I gauge the emotion of the stock market. It was very bullish the whole day with profit-taking emerge along the line every now and then. Since the stock went so wild, the sentiment from the market-place is the $100 level. So I set my limit-order to something between $98 and $100 but it never get triggered. We'll see how it goes when the market open today.

What will be this new law-suit affect Apple stock price? If the chart of Apple share after yesterday closing were to take into consideration, I would say it's non-issue as investors seems to ignore this news completely. After trading hours shows the stock price is down about 40 cents (at the time of this writing) only.

# TIP: The first 45-minutes is crucial and can be a good indicator to the market emotion. Always apply limit-oder instead of market-price to maximize your profit.

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Wednesday, January 10, 2007

iPhone Definitely Make Me Money

I believe there’s problem with Google’s blogger site today when I couldn’t get connected to it almost the whole day. So it took me hours before I can blog about the most exciting event which happened last night at San Francisco.

At last, Apple (or rather Steve Jobs) reveals the rumored iPhone and Apple TV (instead of iTV) together with a name-change to Apple Inc (from Apple Computer Inc) – a great moves which bring applause to Wall Street, and me of course. I actually bought April 2007 85.0 Call Option about 2 hours into the trading yesterday. Out of fear (I’m just another human-being), I didn’t buy a lot as there’re equal chance of Jobs not unveiling anything so revolutionary.

Captain Steve looks like a God to many – with this iPhone introduction, an estimated USD6 billion was created instantly when Apple Computer’s (Nasdaq : AAPL, stock) shares jumped $7.10 to close at $92.57 on the Nasdaq Stock Market with 4 times the average volume. I was taken by surprise that the phone is called iPhone (despite Cisco (Nasdaq : CSCO, stock) own the trademark name under Linksys since 2000) so I guess Steve has already talked and almost agreed to some sort of agreement with Cisco on the name.

Steve estimates the new iPhone would take away about 1% of the current cellular phone pie of about 960 millions – meaning 10 millions iPhone sales to Apple in 2008 which I think is pretty good and achievable after I saw the iPhone and the functionalities (virtually). iPhone will operate exclusively on AT&T Inc.'s (NYSE : T) Cingular Wireless network for the time being. The costof $499 on 4-GB model and $599 on 8-GB model is rather on the high-side but if you happen to carry a smart-phone and an iPod, it makes great sense to only carry one iPhone. Anyway since it’ll only available in June-2007, you have lots of time to consider it.

I’m impressed with the graphic and the cool animation of how the iPhone functions. Instead of stylus, what you need is your little finger to touch a name or number to make a call – conference calls is easily done as well. Visual Voicemail allows you to go directly to any of your messages without any particular order. The SMS application with the nice-looking QWERTY soft keyboard makes this baby more reliable than the small plastic mechanical keyboard. Built-in 2-megapixel camera and photo management software makes you want to own this iPhone immediately – of course you can sync it with your Mac or PC. Take a virtual demo at here. You need QuickTime to view though.

The phone supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technology and can detect location from Global Positioning System satellites. Apple is partnering with Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq : YHOO) on Web-based e-mail and Google Inc. (Nasdaq : GOOG, stock) on maps. I like the wide-screen design (3.5 inches diagonally) with the body of 4.5 inches high, 2.4 inches wide and less than a half-inch thick – embedded with slimmed-down of Mac OS X operating system.

While Apple emerge hero, its competitors such as Research in Motion (Nasdaq : RIMM, stock) and Palm (Nasdaq : PALM, stock) suffered when the stocks price dropped by $11 (7%) and 84 cents (5%) respectively. Motorola (NYSE : MOT, stock) and Nokia (NYSE : NOK, stock) also suffered the same fate when dropped by about 1%.

If you are residing outside of United States, then the iPhone will available to you in 2008 only (Europe & Asia). Anyway I think I need to lock-in profit with my Call Option today - but somehow the internet is so slow. Some of the photos captured by engadget who has been keeping realtime-update of the whole session during the period Steve Jobs took to the stage:

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Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Mahathir Admitted Malaysian Cabinet's Stupidity

Finally Mahathir Mohamad, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia admitted the government (during his time) have erred in signing the toll concession agreements and urged the present administration to be more careful before agreeing to toll hikes. He also urged the toll concession companies to be open to the idea of re-negotiating the terms, especially if they are doing well financially.

"This is one of thing that we need to correct. What you have is a cabinet which is not very knowledgeable all the time because it is not made up of experts but politicians (and) some politicians like myself can sometimes be stupid," he said when told by reporters that all the five tolled expressways were constructed during his 22-year tenure as prime minister.

Mahathir said the agreements were drafted by officers and submitted to the cabinet and usually the small prints are not there - "The cabinet merely gave approvals in principle and never really studied the implications in some parts of the agreements."

The concessionaires of Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong (LDP), Kesas, Guthrie Corridor Highway, Cheras-Kajang highway and Kuala Lumpur-Karak highways have been granted toll hike of up to 60% which started 1-Jan-2007. Gamuda Berhad (KLSE : GAMUDA, stock-code 5398) and its 38%-owned Lingkaran Trans Kota Holdings Berhad (KLSE : LITRAK) are the concession holders for the 40km Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong (LDP). Gamuda also has a stake in the consortium that holds the concession for the Kesas Shah Alam Highway. MTD Infraperdana Berhad (KLSE : MTDInfra, stock-code 9768) is the concessionaire for the Karak Highway and East Coast Highway while unlisted Grand Saga Sdn Bhd is the concessionaire for the Cheras-Kajang Highway.

Funny Mahathir only spoke out now that he's no longer with the government. I'm sure he's aware of the public outcry even before he passed the baton to current Badawi. As the most powerful figure who walked the corridor of power, he should have correct the mistake which he can and not wait until now to claim credit as if he's the champion of the citizen. What is he trying to do? Trying to become the robin-hood with the intention of leaving a "good name" of himself (he's 81 now)? There were about 1,000 people who staged a peaceful demonstration at Sunway Pyramid last Sunday against the toll hike.

However, now that Badawi has warm the premier seat for the last 3 years will he do something about it with the latest public demonstration or will he leave it as it is under the excuse the contract has been signed? Or maybe he would like to keep this as another bullet to be used for the coming general election.

# TIP: The sad thing is you're paying the toll to get trapped especially at the LDP highway. Avoid this highway (if possible) during peak-hour - if you do not know yet.

Anti-Toll Demonstation on 7-Jan-2007 At Sunway Pyramid
Photos During The Demonstration Captured by Paul Choo
Demonstration reported by theSun

Fly With 1 Million FREE SEATS

Low-fare airline AirAsia Berhad (KLSE : AIRASIA, 5099) is kicking off its biggest regional marketing campaign which offers one million FREE seats since the previous campaign back in 2005. The free seats, available for online booking, are for all its six hubs, mainly in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching and Johor), Thailand (Bangkok) and Indonesia (Jakarta). The free seats offer excludes airport taxes and fees, fuel surcharges, and is applicable for travelone way only.

The campaign will be launched to the public online at www.airasia.com for the booking period between Jan 10 and 19 and for travel between April 1 and Oct 27, 2007.

"This is the second major regional free seats campaign we are launching and the timing is perfect to coincide with Visit Malaysia Year 2007," said executive vice president-commercial, Kathleen Tan. One of the success factor is the highly popular e-commerce online booking which generate interest from over 180 countries.

Earlier, AirAsia signed contracts to buy 50 medium range Airbus A320 airliners with a catalogue price of USD 3.3 billion (before discount) and took an option for another 50.

# TIP: Check FREE SEATS availability here

# TIP: As indicated earlier in my blog, I'm bullish on AirAsia stock and would accumulate on stages on any pullback as part of long-term investment strategy.

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Consider RHB SOLD to KFH

If today's financial reported by TheStar on "More FDIs from Gulf countries" is any indicator to goes by, this piece of news will definitely a "strong hint" that Kuwait Finance House ( KFH ) is very close in signing the agreement to buy over the 32.8% stake in financial supermarket, Rashid Hussain Bhd (KLSE : RHB, stock-code 1309), from the empire of Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud whose family controls Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd which controls Rashid's parent,Utama Banking Group (KLSE : UBG, stock-code 6831).

How often do you see such a photo of a confident person posing in front of his

company together with such a headline? The fact is RHB is ailing with cancer as bad as Proton and the only way to save it is toSELL it. Given a choice, based on Government of Malaysia's policy of close protectionism, it wouldn't want to part of any of its' assets if not desperate. As far asProton Holdings Bhd (KLSE : PROTON, stock-code : 5304) is concern, there's no Islamic country which has a strong automobile industry which can roped in to save it, so Volkswagen Aktiengessellschaft (FRA : VOW) is the only option. But for financial sector, the story is different as almost all the countries in the globe has its' own financial companies.

After the 1997 Asia Economy Crisis, Malaysian Government has spent billions of ringgit bailing out GLC (Government-Link Companies) from bankrupt due to over-exposure in U.S. dollars, though some couldn't be saved such as RENONG and United Engineering. Another round of bail-out is not feasible and would be disastrous to the country's coffer. Malaysia, being (or rather declared by Mahathir) an Islamic country would prefer another country of the same religion if the need for partnership surface. So KFH, which is the world's second largest Islamic bank in terms of asset size and net profit after Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Bank becomes the perfect candidate for marriage with RHB. Furthermore, KFH is on the expansion mode and there's no heavyweight Islamic financial house yet in Malaysia (by heavyweight I mean a real cash-rich globally recognized brand).

Most importantly, Malaysia needs FDI urgently (foreign direct investments) but the close protectionism policy does not amuse western investors. Out of desperation, it was the hope of finance ministry of Malaysian government to attract FDI from Gulf Cooperation Council members instead.

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BattleStar Gates-Jobstica Continues

This week will see tech-giants flexing their muscles to gain attention after a week of New-Year celebration. Two technology conferences, each in Las Vegas and San Francisco will be the battle locations. CEOs of Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq : MSFT, stock), Motorola (NYSE : MOT,stock), Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE : HPQ, stock), The Walt Disney Company (NYSE : DIS, stock), CBS Corporation (NYSE : CBS, stock) and others are delivering the keynote speeches and each of them will be watch very closely by thousands of industry analysts and journalists. Coincidently (or maybe it was pre-planned) these two conference were being scheduled in such a way that it clashes, so the poor journalists have no choice but to cut short their visit at Las Vegas to attend Captain Steve Jobs' opening keynote at Macworld.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that started on Sunday's night, Microsoft’s Bill Gates announced Windows Home Server software, to be made available in the second half of 2007, will serve as the center of a home's computer network, from photo and video storage to television to accessing computers files at the office away from home. Microsoft also mentioned the Xbox 360 gaming console would be acting as a set-top box for high-quality, interactive Internet protocol television (IPTV) by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Jobs is preparing for the Apple Computer’s (Nasdaq :AAPL, stock) MacWorld in San Francisco today where he is expected to provide details on the rumored iTV set-top box. But this is just the appetizer - the main menu will be the highly talk-about Apple phone or iPhone (unlikely to be called that due to

the brand name is property of Cisco (Nasdaq : CSCO, stock)). There was abundance of Apple phone designs circulating on the net, such as this one. “Apple is about to touch off a nuclear war,” said Paul Mercer, a software designer and president of Iventor, a designer of software for hand-helds based in Palo Alto, Calif. “The Nokias and theMotorolas will have to respond.”

Well, if Apple indeed were to launch the iPhone today, it's more thanNokia (NYSE : NOK, stock) and Motorola (NYSE : MOT, stock) - other giants to be awaken will be Sony Corporation (NYSE : SNE,stock), Ericsson (Nasdaq : ERIC, stock), Palm (Nasdaq : PALM,stock), Research in Motion (Nasdaq : RIMM, stock) and guess who ... Google (Nasdaq : GOOG, stock), who reportedly has held talks with Orange, the telecommunications operator, about a multi-billion dollar tie-up back in Dec-2006 (another GooglePhone or G-phone?).

But there's a concern on Apple phone competing with iPod if the new phone has the functionality of a phone and the highly successful iPod. Maybe the Apple phone will just be another standalone phone after all. Or maybe there will be NO Apple phone at all since it is known to spread misinformation in order to find leaks in their organization and also to confuse the competition. Apple die-hard fans however believe there is no smoke without fire - Apple Phone will be OUT. This possibility is made almost a reality when The Wall Street Journal confirmed that Apple and Cingular Wirelesswill be bringing out a mobile phone when Apple's CEO Steve Jobs take the stage at MacWorld Expo today at 9AM PST.

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Monday, January 08, 2007

The Cheapest Bank To Clear Your Foreign Check In Malaysia

Supposing you're trading option online (meaning you trade via internet) in the U.S. market from your comfort home in Malaysia, have made profits and would like to transfer some of your money back to your account in Malaysia. Either it's for living expenses, luxury spending, re-invest into Malaysia stock market / real-estate or just for the sake of seeing how much the notes will stack after the U.S. dollars to RM ringgit conversion, you'll definitely try to search for a bank which give you the best conversion rate.

You would normally choose wire-transfer but what if you prefer check(ignore the issue of why you want to choose the snail-slow check approach at the first place)? Supposing your check was being issue by Citibank (NYSE : C) New York (maybe due to the global presence, your trading account with most brokerages in U.S. somehow ended up with Citibank) - once you received it, you might want to know which banks in Malaysia charge you the cheapest fees so that you can maximize the value from the check.

Once, I tried to shop around with some banks in Malaysia - the first one I approached was Hong Leong Bank (KLSE : HLBANK, stock-code 5819). I've to say the customer service sucks big-time (extremely slow and rude), not to mention almost none of the bank officers know what to do when I ask the clearing-charges for an oversea check from Citibank New York. The officers somehow have little or no experience with such scenario - they were searching for old files filled with dust trying their luck to find if there're historical transaction sample, while I was waiting for the answer. In the end, the officer just gives me a figure which I think was plucked from the sky - it is RM 10.00 (the actual figure is much higher, I believe).

The second bank I tried was Public Bank (KLSE : PBBANK, stock-code 1295), the customer service is much better than Hong Leong Bank but when come to the process of clearing overseas check, the officer still need to make some calls to get clarification but at least they serve with a smile. The processing charges - RM 25.15 (RM 20 for commission, RM 5.00 for postage and RM 0.15 for stamp-duty).

I decided to call-off my attempts with other local banks (since Public Bank was voted as Best Bank of some sort) so I tried the Citibank Malaysia itself. The answer from Citibank - RM 2.15 to clear the check (the customer service is excellent, mind you). Though I've read & heard numerous complaints about Citibank in U.S. but if this comparison were to be taken, I doubt any of the local banks in Malaysia can survive should they be put on level-playing field under Globalization. But on the other hand, they might just make it if the Government of Malaysia starts letting some of the banks to survive on their own - to learn to stand on their own feat instead of assistance.

# TIP: Always scout around to find the best rate of any banking/financial transaction - you'll never know how much you can save.

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Cheaper Way To Send Money Back Home

Sunday, January 07, 2007

From Korea To Google Doodles

If you've been using Google (Nasdaq : GOOG, quote) as your preferred search engine, you can't miss the different artistic design of the Google logo every now and then in celebration of certain festival such as Christmas, Independence Day or even Chinese Lunar New Year. And if you got the chance to visit Google building (or campus), don't be surprise to see different Google Doodles (that's what those creative logos are called) all along the walls.

Do you know the designer of the constantly-changing Google logo:

Officially calls his drawings "doodles" (oh yeah, I mentioned it above)?
Has created doodles on holidays, events & celebrations across the world since 2000?
Favorite doodles are those that celebrate artist's birthdays?
Created a logo to celebrate the Mars Rover landing in less than 24 hours?

The Google Doodles creator is a 27-year-old Webmaster, Dennis Hwang (Hwang Jung-moak),whose work is seen by millions every time he publish on the Google homepage. He said: "Before I joined Google, the founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were already thinking about holiday logos. ... and when I joined, one of my managers knew I was studying art, and they said I should give it a shot. Since then, I've been doing it solo and my career has gone from strength to strength!"

Dennis was born in Knoxville, Tenn., but moved to Gwacheon, Korea when he was about five years old. He spent six years at Gwacheon Elementary School and two years at Munwon Middle School and his childhood life in Korea was the seeds which will be transformed into valuable ideas at later stage. Hwang went back to United States in 1992 when his father received a Fulbright Scholarship to do research.

In terms of letter manipulation, Dennis thinks the "O" and the "L" are the easiest and the first "G" being the most difficult to deal with. The letter "E" somehow couldn't utilize to its' max potential due to its' location. The "O" has become a Halloween pumpkin, a Nobel Prize medal, the Korean flag symbol and the planet earth while The "L" has been used as a flagpole, the Olympic flame cauldron or a snow ski.

# TIP: If you're of age from 4 to 18 and staying in U.K. you might want to enter the Google's Doodle Design competition (2007 has yet to be open) here. View the 2006 Winners here.

Plan To Protect Malaysian Minority Shareholders

Business Times reported that Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) is proposing measures that will allow minority shareholders to take action against directors who were previously"untouchable" because they controlled the company.

One of the proposals is to allow statutory derivative action which enables minority shareholders to bring action on behalf of the company in situations where the company does not take any action because the person who is to be sued controls the company, and prevents, or is able to prevent the company from suing him.

This is a long overdue measure to protect the interest of minority shareholders which

should be in place even before the 1997 Asia Economy Crisis. I don't see any CEOs or directors who blatantly making huge fortunes for himself/herself leaving the companies to rot being prosecuted in Malaysia business history. On contrary these untouchable individuals were being rewarded with golden hand-shake when the crisis hit causing the companies unable to survive - some companies were being forced to de-listed due to huge losses with minority shareholders left with the only shirt on their bodies.

Some classic example of companies where the former directors were flushing companys' money as if they own a money-printing machines are United Engineering Malaysia (UEM), Renong Berhad (defunct), Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (KLSE : MRCB, stock-code 1651), Rashid Hussan Berhad (KLSE : RHB, stock-code 1309), Technology Resources Industries Berhad (defunct), Malaysia Airline System Berhad (KLSE : MAS, stock-code 3786) and many more.

What is interesting with this new proposal is the section where the legal costs would be borne by the company, and not individual shareholders who have initiated such an action. The proposal also defines the category of people who can sue the directors amongst other inclusive offormer members and beneficial owners of shares of the company.

But as with any other proposal that does not benefit the rich and powerful, this initiative is still at a very preliminary stage and I won't count the chicken before it hatch - it might take ages for it to come into full implementation. Also there're too many grey areas such as:

What if the director(s) the minority shareholder(s) is suing counter-sue instead? Just like the case of Tajudin Ramli who counter sues Danaharta, the Malaysian Government and several other companies for RM13.46 billion. What other protection does a whistle-blower has in Malaysia business scene? None, I'm afraid.
What if the director(s) the minority shareholder(s) is suing has strong political connection or influence? Try to sue the previous director of Malaysia Airline System Berhad whose position is now being taken by Idris Jala for mismanagement and you'll know what I mean.
Can the minority shareholder(s) sue a former director of the company which created the mess previously?

# TIP: According to the CEO, CCM welcomes feedback at http://www.ssm.com.my/. You might want to send email on any suggestion - the website does not have English-version though.

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Tajudin Ramli counter-sue Malaysian Government

Saturday, January 06, 2007

From London-Eye To Malaysia-Eye At $43 Million?

Today, 6-Jan-2007, mark the official Visit Malaysia 2007 with the grand launching of "The Eye" by Prime Minister of Malaysia at Lake Titiwangsa (8:30pm), Kuala Lumpur. The new festival and celebration of a breathtaking 360 degree panorama over 20 kilometers of Kuala Lumpur will be an unforgettable experience should you have the opportunity to try the ride of a 12 minutes to a height of 60 meters.

There are 40 air-conditioned gondolas with a capacity of eight passengers for each gondola. There will also be one VIP gondola, which will be equipped with leather seats, DVD player, a mini fridge, plasma TV and a phone facility. The ride will be open to the public at RM15 for adults and RM8 for childrenwith operation period from 10am to 10pm daily.

The wheel is also the first in Malaysia to be built with the latest

German-Swiss observation wheel technology. But the "Malaysia Eye", similar to the "London Eye" invited criticism over the viability against the huge costs when Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan said it would cost RM30million (according to Oriental Daily dated 3rd January 2007, the cost is RM43 million) to set-up the wheel. If the figure reported by Oriental is correct, then the estimated two million tourists to tour the Ferris will result in a loss of RM 13 million based on RM15 entry ticket per person. Current plan is to have the wheel for a year before dismantling it.

Some background info on "The London Eye"- it is the largest observational wheel in the world and since it officially opened in 1999 it has quickly established itself as a celebrated landmark on the south bank of the River Thames and has flourished as a tourist attraction -- 3.5 million people took a "flight" in 2006. Designed by Marks Barfield Architects, "The London Eye" weighs in at 1,900 tones, 135 meters tall and has 32 passenger capsules which complete a full rotation in 30 minutes.

# TIP: Get a group of 5 (five) to get a 20% discount if you're interested

What's Your Bet Now Oil Is At $55?

Yesterday, oil prices plunged more than $2 per-barrel mainly due to the warm winter in United States (U.S.). Today, the oil prices follow through when it dived to below $55 per barrel (lowest at $ 54.90) at midday in Europe (as of writing, the NYMEX Crude Oil is trading at $55.70 per-barrel) on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Associated Press reported that Ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries(OPEC) are monitoring whether the lower price trend will continues before taking any further action. As a yardstick, a warm winter and a mild hurricane season last year had put pressure on oil prices. It's pretty normal or routine that weather remains the most important factor in determining oil prices during winter season every year.

Warmer winter weather also means the distillate inventories record surplusfigure as reported Wednesday - diesel fuel and heating oil increased by 2 million barrels to 135.6 million barrels due to lower demand. Analyst such as Oliver Stevens at IG Markets maintain that price could rise again but should the $55 per barrel support level be broken oil may well trade lower to find support at the $50 level.

However, I believe the current low price is only a temporary phenomenon, just like the previous years. Furthermore, OPEC will not just sit there chewing gum enjoying the price plunge - it will definitely cut production to raise the price to their preferred price of $60 and above as previously stated. In addition commodities normally would do well during weaker dollar situation such as now.

Some of my favorite energy-related stocks are:

Schlumberger (NYSE : SLB, quote)
Transocean Inc. (NYSE : RIG, quote)
Halliburton Company (NYSE : HAL, quote)
Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE : VLO, quote)
EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE : EOG, quote)
EnCana Corporation (NYSE : ECA, quote)
GlobalSantaFe Corporation (NYSE : GSF, quote)
Marathon Oil (NYSE : MRO, quote)

It'll be interesting to see if the Malaysia Government will reduce the fuel (petrol) price since it previously mentioned the government will only consider lower the price if the oil pull-back to below $ 60 per-barrel. I won't be surprise if the government cook-up the same old boring story on how the government actually still subsidizing fuel and the citizen should continue to help share the burden. What is your bet on this?

# TIP: I'm bullish on the oil prices in the medium term so I would leverage on oil-related stocks with option trading. My favorites are SLB, RIG, HAL and VLO - remember to have at least 6-months of time-value to your advantage.

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Friday, January 05, 2007

Fly To London At Less Than 3 Dollars

Tony Fernandes, the founder of Malaysia's budget carrier AirAsia, unveiled a new no-frills airline that will fly long haul flights to Britain and China from July. Fernandes holds a 50 percent stake in AirAsia X which is owned by Fly Asian Express (FAX). To start the ball-rolling, AirAsia X will fly to Tianjin and Hangzhou in China follows by either to Manchester or London in Britain.With this FAX will be the latest airline in Asia to operate budget long-haul flights after Oasis Hong Kong Airlines began flights to London from Hong Kong in October.

Tickets can be purchased online beginning February on AirAsia's website. The company is offering unbelievable promotional fares of9.99 ringgit (about $2.85) one-way on the Kuala Lumpur-Britain route.AirAsia X plans to fly to India, Australia and other parts of Europe at a later stage. Fernandes targets the new airline to carry 500,000 passengers in its first year.

Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy, who officiated the launching ceremony of the new airline, gave assurances that AirAsia X would not have any impact on state-owned carrier Malaysia Airlines, of which I doubt very much.

"Within the next 7 years, I am convinced we (AirAsia) will be the largest airline in the world with 50 million passengers a year," Fernandes said. He further commented that AirAsia X plans to tie-up with other low-cost carriers to boost connectivity but talks of an alliance with either U.K.-based Virgin Atlantic and EasyJet PLC are premature.

"We are looking at a maximum 200 planes, including the 100 firm orders of Airbus A320," AirAsia's executive director Kamarudin Meranun said on the fleets expansion.

Even though currently Malaysia Airline System (MAS) does not operate KL-Manchester route which will be served by FAX, it'll be a matter of time before both FAX and MAS operate and fight for the same long-haul route. Simple question: which one would you choose assuming you can only afford economy seat? I still can't believe I can fly to U.K. from K.L. at below US$ 3.00.

# TIP: I'm bullish on AirAsia stock on long-term - will wait for further pullback before start investing the stock. And I bet AirAsia will team-up with either Virgin Atlantic or EasyJet PLC or both at a later stage.

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Investing Stocks - Latest 4 Call-Warrants You Should Know

There're 4 (four) new call-warrants being listed today in Bursa Malaysia (KLSE) which attached toAirAsia Berhad (KLSE : AIRASIA, stock-code 5099), Astro All Asia Networks (KLSE :ASTRO, stock-code 5076), Telekom Malaysia Berhad (KLSE : TM, stock-code 4863) and YTL Corporation Berhad (KLSE : YTL, stock-code 4677) issued by CIMB (Commerce International Merchant Bankers), an investment bank of Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings Berhad (KLSE : COMMERZ, stock-code 1023)

The four call-warrants are being listed as AIRASIA-CB (stock-code 5099CB),ASTRO-CB (stock-code 5076CB),TM-CC (stock-code 4863CC) andYTL-CA (stock-code 4677CA). Are you confused with all those acronym of CA, CB and CC? Well, don't take it too seriously as it's just another way to distinguish one call-warrant from another but with different Exercise-Price or Strike-Price and Exercise-Price or Conversion-Price. In fact the codes here are pretty straight-forward compare to Options Trading in U.S. (call-warrant is to some extend similar to Call-Options)

In U.S. an option-able stock might have very short expiry-cycle with 4-month interval from one another. Add this to the different strike-price available and you have a massive complex but flexible option system at your trading disposal. For example, Google's Jan-2007 480 Call's code is "GOPAI" and Jan-2007 490 Call is "GOPAK" whereas different month such as Mar-2007 480 Call's code is "GOPCI" and so on.

If you noticed the opening price of AirAsia-CB (for example), it gap-up or jump from its' issue price of 0.225 ringgit. Let's take a snap-shot of the price:

When the share price of AirAsia = 1.58, AirAsia-CA = 0.35 and AirAsia-CB = 0.585.
The Exercise/Strike price of AirAsia-CA = 1.96, so stock price for AirAsia-CA of 0.35 is entirely consists of time-value (expired on 19-Oct-2007) since its' already out-of-money.
The Exercise/Strike price of AirAsia-CB = 1.45, the intrinsic-value is 0.13 (1.58 minus 1.45) leaving the 0.455 (0.585 minus 0.13) as the time-value. Hence, AirAsia-CB trading share-price of 0.585 consists of both intrinsic and time-value.

But why AirAsia-CA which has a longer expiry-date commands a lower time-value than the newly launched "CB"? It could be due to other factors such as IV (Implied Volatility) and other Greek's language that might scare the head out of you such as Delta, Gamma and Theta etc. Such is the exciting world of option trading - or rather call-warrants.

# TIP: For more detail-data related to Bursa Malaysia (KLSE) call-warrants, you can visit OSK188 at Warrants Pricing Table

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After 8-Days Investing GOOG - Take Profit Today

My limit-order to close position on Google (Nasdaq : GOOG, quote) was triggered today after failed yesterday to execute it at my preferred price. The reason I entered the limit-order was due to my analysis of resistance $ 475 after opened the position on 21-Dec-2006 when the price hit the support at about $ 461.

As a matter of fact, immediately after I opened the position on that day, Google seems to having fun playing with my emotion when it

decided to settle below $461 level for the next 3-days before gap-up a little to trade above $461 thereafter, to my relieve.

$475 used to be the strong support-level for Google during the period when it breached the $500 level for the first-time, which was short-lived. When it collapsed below this level ($475) on 18-Dec-2006 and never recover for the subsequent 3-days, I decided that $475 became the resistance level with $ 461 as the new support level. Hence, the decision to open new position with Mar-2007 460.0 Strike Call.

Yesterday, Google tried to re-establish the $475 level as the support but failed. Today it tried again and my limit-order which was still active got triggered. I hope Global Payments Inc. (NYSE : GPN,quote) which I think will beat the estimated earning again for the 18th consecutive time tomorrow will materialize.

# TIP: Never open or close position using market value, use limit-order instead to get the better price. Take profit when your stock investment reaches your target - don't be greedy. Option trading can be lucrative compare to stocks investment.

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Global Payments Should Beat Earning Again

Thursday, January 04, 2007

IronPort Should Fit Into Cisco Stable Well

Cisco announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately held IronPort System, a leading email and Web security company, for $830 million. IronPort, whose customers include Cisco and 38 of the top 100 companies in the US, provides a full suite of industry-leading messaging security applications focusing on enterprise spam and spyware protection.

Cisco System Inc (Nasdaq : CSCO, quote) currently commands a 38% share

of the security market, followed by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd (Nasdaq : CHKP, quote) andJuniper Networks Inc (Nasdaq : JNPR, quote) at less than ten percent each. The addition of IronPort will enhance Cisco's total security solution offerings in achieving a unified IP network for email, voice messaging, instant-messaging, and security. The deal will enable Cisco to compete directly with Symantec Corporation (Nasdaq : SYMC, quote), the world's largest maker of security software especially in the anti-spam market, which according to Gartner Research is growing at 42% annually. In April, Cisco purchased SyPixx Networks Inc for $51 million that enabled it to deliver video surveillance as part of an Intelligent Converged Environment.

IronPort Systems, a company which posted $25 million in Q2 billings, specializes in anti-spam solution which has proven to be effective with the wide deployment especially in the internet service provider (ISP) sector. I once evaluated this product when I was in the consulting services to an ISP and the customer just loves it - the only setback: it's rather expensive as it's an enterprise-level appliance tailored for niche markets.

# TIP: Despite numerous purchases (2006 saw the network giant completed nine deals, each less than $100 million in value) to enhance its' range of security solutions offerings, the stock performance of CSCO is rather boring. I would give it a pass.

Fernandes To Fly LongHaul With FlyAsianXpress

The Government of Malaysia has given approval to FlyAsianXpress (FAX), a domestic airline controlled by the major owners of low-cost carrier AirAsia Bhd, to run a long-haul budget service to Asia, Australia and Europe - Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy said today, 4-Jan-2007, according to state agency Bernama.

The report comes a day before a media briefing which AirAsia has scheduled in the Malaysian capital, during which it is expected to announce a new service. Fernandes has scheduled a press conference on Jan 5 to announce "a revolutionary service that will change the face of aviation travel forever". Sir Richard Branson, the owner of the Virgin Group is expected to attend the event.

Earlier it was reported that AirAsia (KLSE : AIRASIA, stock-code 5099) had agreed to double an existing order of 100 Airbus SAS A320 planes to meet the low-cost carrier's expansion plans. Existing, AirAsia has a fleet of 50 aircraft, comprising 15 A320s and 35 Boeing 737-300s.

Bernama said FAX is 50 percent owned by AirAsia chief and co-founder Tony Fernandes, while Kamarudin Meranun, another co-founder and AirAsia director, owns 30 percent. Raja Mohd Azmi, a former AirAsia chief financial officer and FAX chief, owns the remaining 20 percent.

AirAsia reportedly has conducted a study to launch the long-haul and found it to be viable and will offer premium and economy class with a maximum of up to 400 passengers on each flight. But Raymond Yap, CIMB Research's analyst said AirAsia should remain on its short-haul routesstating operation complexity, regulatory issues and slow turnaround in long-haul business.

But AirAsia cannot remains within its current network flight map - it need to expand to continue create value and profit to the bottom-line. And with the in-efficiency of Malaysia Airline System, it's the right timing to wrest some of the routes to AirAsia's new destination with the lower fare advantage. With Branson's attendance tomorrow, Fernandes could announce the partnership with Virgin Group on the long-haul routes.

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Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Does Fernandes Has Silver Bullet For AirAsia?

EasyJet (LON : EZJ) and Virgin Group have denied the report of a teaming with AirAsia (KLSE :AIRASIA, stock-code 5099) today, according to Reuters. "We are not joining any alliance,"EasyJet spokesman Toby Nicol said. "The whole low-cost airline business model is based on simplicity," he added, noting alliances with other airlines involve costs and complications. Virgin Atlantic spokesman Paul Charles said: "It's nothing to do with us. AirAsia clearly have their own plans and it is up to them to announce them."

AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes, however was not immediately available for comment. AirAsia has said it will make an announcement on Friday in Kuala Lumpur with the Malaysian transport minister set to attend. AirAsia stock rised about 7.28% today to 1.62 ringgit while the call-warrant was up 50% to 0.36 ringgit on the speculation.

On Saturday Fernandes said there was a potential for a budget long-haul air service model. He further commented that it's a matter of time before a better business model for a low-cost carrier be innovate. So, just what is up the sleeve of this young and innovative Fernandes? With the denial from EasyJet & Virgin Atlantic, does Tony has other silver-bullet(s) to spring a surprise for everyone? There could be three possibilities:

An announcement of a team-up with other players other than EasyJet and Virgin Atlantic but there're not many quality players left to partner with.
An announcement of a new service (cargo and long-haul) of which AirAsia is going lone-ranger for the time being - most likely since the Friday's announcement involves Malaysia transport minister.
An announcement of a team-up with either EasyJet or Virgin Atlantic but not both - a phase partner rather than a big-bang.

Whatever the announcement, it has to be positive knowing Tony Fernandes who's not short of great and innovative ideas in creating values for AirAsia.

# TIP: With this denial, AirAsia stock price should correct itself tomorrow, Thursday 4-Jan-2007, but for risk-taker this will be the opportunity to buy in anticipation of an optimistic announcement by Tony on Friday.

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Global Payments Should Beat Earning Again

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE : GPN, quote), a leader in payment processing services will release its' earning this Friday, 5-Jan-2007 BMO (before market open). Global Payments has beaten Wall Street earning estimate for the last 17 quarters continuously. Financially, Global Payments recorded $944 millions in annual sales with $136 million in profit.

Fundamentally, Global Payments does not have debts, gross margin of 61.5 percent and net profit margin of 14.4 percent. The earnings per-share is about 1.66 with current P/E of 27.90 with analysts' consensus of "Moderate Buy".

Global Payments has a rating of 5 out of 10:

Wall Street consensus: 0.42
Whisper Number: NA
Smart-Estimate: 0.45
Schaeffer Rating: 6
Power Ratings: 6
Insider Trading (last 52 weeks): $0
Option: May 2007 45.0 Call
Implied Volatility for Feb 2007 $45 Strike: 32.37 %

I'm optimistic Global Payments will beat the coming estimate earning again tomorrow and I think another gap-up might occurs thereafter. In early Dec-2006, Citigroup reiterated a "Buy" rating on Global Payments, Efunds Corp., Checkfree Corp. and Heartland Payment Systems Inc. Citigroup estimate electronic purchasing volume will probably grow 12.8 percent in 2006 and expect the growth to slow a little to 11.9 percent in 2007.

# TIP: How to make money on this company? Consider option as alternative to stock due to the leverage power. Since I'm bullish on this stock, I'll consider option trading on GPN with 45.0 Strike Call - with sufficient time-value.

Tech Giants Boosting Real-Estate Value

In 1954, a 52-year-old milk-shake machine salesman saw a hamburger stand in San Bernardino, California and envisioned immediately a massive new industry: fast food. Raymond Kroc, the founder of McDonald's Corporation (NYSE : MCD, quote) revolutionized the American restaurant industry by re-create a new way in production of hamburgers, french-fries and milk shakes.

By developing a sophisticated yet consistent operating and delivery system, he ensure that the french fries

customers bought in New York city would be the same as the ones purchased in California, London, Seoul or Kuala Lumpur. By the time Kroc passed away from old age in January 1984 at the age of 81, McDonald almost sell its' 50-billionth hamburger. But when he was asked what the business of McDonald was, guess what the answer? Nope, it's not hamburger – its’ real-estate.

Now, it seems companies such as Google is following the history by slowly gobbling up lands and buildings with its't

huge war-chest. Mercury News reported that Google(Nasdaq : GOOG, quote) has bought up real-estates in Mountain View's Shoreline Technology Park for $319 million. Not to be left out, Apple (Nasdaq : AAPL, quote) announced plans to buy 50 acres in Cupertino for more than $160 million while Yahoo (Nasdaq : YHOO, quote) is working to buy 46 acres in Santa Clara for about $50 million.

While the old saying was you should buy property based on location, Google, Apple and Yahoo are "setting" the market for locations by boosting its' value.The giant search engine's acquisitions plus negotiations with the city of Mountain View to build another 310,000 square feet and talks with NASA/Ames Research Center to build a 1-million-square-foot campus at Moffett Field has been dubbed the Google Effect.

Yahoo's decision to expand from its home base in Sunnyvale by acquiring 50 acres along Tasman Drive for a 2-million-square-foot campus is tightening the market in Santa Clara. Apple's decision in buying 50 acres is equally drying up the availability in Cupertino.

Although Google, Apple and Yahoo might not have the franchising business model such as McDonalds' in creating the real-estate-chain value worldwide, the three-musketeers definitely give the value surrounding their property a market-boost as well as squeezing other tenants elsewhere.

# TIP: Stocks and Real-Estate are always the top two best investments known. Remember to spread your investment on these two instruments.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Cheaper Way To Send Money Back Home

If you are an immigrant, chances are you are paying huge fees in the process of wire-transfer your hard-earned money back to your home country.

In the worldwide remittance industry worth about $ 268 billion, the major player is none other than Western Union which made almost $ 1 billion on sales. It is estimated that about 12.6 million Latin American immigrants in U.S. will send home $45 billion in remittances in 2006.

But companies such as Western Union (NYSE : WU, quote) and Moneygram International Inc. (NYSE : MGI, quote) which profit margins are estimated at 30% are being criticized for charging exorbitant fees and not having customer's best interests at heart.

Now, you have another alternative with Washington (D.C.)-basedMicrofinance which can helps the sender and receiver avoid the traditionally high costs of sending money overseas. As comparison MFIC charges $7 for up to $200 and $10 for $200 to $1,500 in remittances while Western Union charges $50 if you wish to send $1,000 from Colorado to Mexico.

MFIC's ARIAS, a licensable platform to process remittances directly through a network of microfinance institutions, requires the institution to have a simple computer and an Internet connection to operate. MFIC partners with UAE Exchange, a powerful finance company headquartered in the United Arab Emirates with real-time remittance transfer capabilities in 75 countries.

MFIC, started by Atsumasa Tochisako, a 53-year-old former Japanese banker is determined to prove to the world that a financial services company can benefit poor people and make money by adapting traditional microfinance models to serve immigrant populations in the U.S.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Globalization Of Low-Cost Air Giant?

Running into the New-Year-Eve, three of the world’s main low-cost airline share their dreams and initiative to start a long-haul budget airline company based in Malaysia that will offer airfares as low as RM100 for flights between China and Malaysia. "The government and the carriers concerned are expected to make an official announcement soon after the New Year," the source familiar with the ambitious program told AFP.

Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group, Sir Stelios Haji-loannou of EasyGroup, the parent of EasyJet (LON : EZJ), and Datuk Tony Fernandes of AirAsia (KLSE :AIRASIA, stock-code 5099) are in discussions to form an alliance to realize a deal that will see the formation of the world’s first low-cost global network.

The joint venture, according to industry sources, will first fly between Kuala Lumpur and destinations like Manchester in Britain, Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and Amritsar in India. As for China, the new team will aim for Hangzhou, near Shanghai, and Tianjin, near Beijing.

For flights between the low-cost carrier terminal (LCCT) and London, the partners are thinking offares between RM300 and RM2,500 while for destinations in China the tag is as low as RM100. Malaysia national carrier Malaysia Airline System Berhad (KLSE : MAS,stock-code 3786) currently operates 18 times weekly to London and charges up to 5,000 ringgit (1,420 dollars) for economy class and 18,000 ringgit for business class.

Branson's Virgin group includes budget carriers Virgin Express and Virgin Blue. Stelios founded EasyJet, one of the world's most successful budget carriers. Fernandes is the brains behind AirAsia, the first no-frills airline and easily the most successful in Asia. Industry sources said the combination of the three personalities; their companies and contacts would be “lethal.”

The link-up with Virgin and Easyjet will give AirAsia access to London's Stanstead airport. Gatwick, which has become a hub for

several European low-cost carriers might be an option to AirAsia as the hub but AirAsia is said to prefer Manchester as it has build the brand there.

For Virgin and EasyJet, the link-up will grant access to KLIA's LCCT, a dream Asian hub for their Europe to Australia via Asia routes.

If this teaming succeed (most likely to, considering Tony Fernandes' way of managing AirAsia in a humble but continue to increase the value of the company working hard to achieve his dream), it would likely give Malaysia Airline System a run for the money in the long-haul market considering the national carrier was highly in-efficient with multiple quarters of red till the new CEO took over recently.

# TIP: Would you pay a mountain if you have the option of flying to Britain for a fraction of the cost? I wouldn't buy MAS stocks for the time being - I never invest it previously anyway due to its' management in-efficiency. But AirAsia stocks is a different story altogether - it's getting more attractive.

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Friday, December 29, 2006

StockTube Wishing All Readers A Happy 2007 New Year

It's those time of the year again, the time when everyone is looking forward to another new year hoping for the better (than the previous year - I mean this year, 2006). It's human nature to hope, pray and hope again that everything will start afresh with - a healthier life, better fortune, greater wealth, a promotion, best bonus ever, a new job with fantastic package and cool boss, more romantic relationship with your love one and a joyful new year.

Everyone was and still is in holiday mood from pre-Christmas, post-Christmas and pre-NewYear busy planning for their trips or shopping schedules. It's just a period of happy moments where you suddenly forgot all the sad and frustrating things happened during the soon-to-be-end 2006. You want to forget the time when your idiot boss went berserk and raised his/her voice on you for no apparent reason. You want to forget the time when your boy-friend or girl-friend declared cold-war with you. You want to forget the period when the Murphy-Law strike and somehow whatever you did doesn't seem to solve the problem(s). You want to forget the time when your colleagues back-stab you till you almost transformed into the Incredible Hulk. You want to forget the people who got promoted not through of his/her capabilities but because these jokers play dirty-politics - the best part is now you've to report to him/her. You want to forget the time when your financial problems kept following your shadow.You want to forget the time when the stock immediately made the u-turn right after you long or short the position - you swear you heard the stock was laughing at you.

So, here you are - enjoying yourself to the fullest for the remaining days left before you step into the new year with new resolutions (which you continuously made ever since). Whatever your plan is for the rest of the holidays remaining, enjoy it to the fullest. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation for your fantastic support to StockTube despite my 3 months-old blog in the blogging communities and to wish all the readers a very Happy 2007 New Year.

Bloggers Bribed By Microsoft With Free Ferrari?

Blogging communities are buzzing with news that Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq : MSFT)together with Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NYSE : AMD) gave out some Acer Incorporated(TPE : 2353) laptops (Ferrari 1000 and 5000 series) to selected bloggers this year just before Christmas. Some called it early Christmas present, some called it a bribery and some even accused these bloggers who received the laptops of being bought over easily with the laptops.

Brandon LeBlanc reported got one, so do Scott Beale , Mauricio Freitas, Mitch Denny, Long Zheng and Zen.Heavengames, plus many other bloggers who are believed to have yet to receive it due to the Christmas rush.

Acer Ferrari 5000 which comes loaded with Windows Vista has the specification as follows:

AMD Turion 64 X2 (dual-core 64-bit) running at 2GHz, with 512KB L2 cache per core
2GB RAM 667MHz DDR 2 memory configured in dual-channel mode
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics processor with 256MB
15.4" WSXGA or WXGA, 16 ms, widescreen
160GB SATA HDD;- HD-DVD R/W
Bluetooth 2.0;- carbon fiber casing
802.11 a/b/g wireless LAN
5-in-1 media card reader built-in
1.3 megapixel digital camera built-in

So, is there a conspiracy theory that Microsoft is buying over bloggers to write nice and good review about Windows Vista? But according to Microsoft manager responsible for the promotion, Aaron Coldiron, technically these are "review" laptops. He quoted the statement made to each of the bloggers: "you are welcome to send the machine back to us after you are done playing with it, or you can give it away on your site, or you can keep it."

But Microsoft doesn't make laptops, does it? It didn't send out a loan laptop with a free copy of its operating system, it sent out a laptop to keep. That's the problem being argued by readers. Blogger Scott Beale said Microsoft's PR company, Edelman, had contacted him and offered him a "present" of a free laptop with "no strings attached".

Apcmag however argued that the laws of reciprocity make humans want to do something nice in return for gifts given. I agreed that professionals should be cautious about accepting gifts or freebies, whichever you call it. Furthermore this gift is worth at least $US2156. - so somehow the credibility of bloggers who received it could be at stake.

A blogger, Brandon LeBlanc, mentioned on his blog that he'd 'traded up to' a new Acer Ferrari notebook from his old Dell XPS 1710, but neglected to mention it was a gift from Microsoft. Hours later, after being savaged by reader comments accusing him of being a sell-out to Microsoft, he added a note to the end of the story disclosing the gift. But the damage has already been done -criticism spread of Bloggers kissing up to Microsoft, Blogger didn't disclose the expensive gifts, Microsoft buying good reviews etc.

I'm just wondering if all the criticisms will spread like wildfire should Microsoft decided to give everyone a Acer Ferrari. Nevertheless do you think these bloggers will write an honest and transparent review about Vista now that the Santa Clause has given them a present they couldn't believe?

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Get Yourself One Of These Present In Christmas 2007

Internet Tsunami - Which EMail Is Still Running?

There's a saying "only during disaster will you be able to judge a system" - in this case the telecommunications across Asia after earthquakes off Taiwan damaged cables and knocked thousands offline. While most of Asia's telephone traffic and Internet access in many countries had improved it is still far from the acceptable performance - the web is still crawling as of the writing.

For those whose web or blog servers are hosted outside of the disaster area (mostly U.S.), including StockTube, it was a truly frustrating days as it was nearly to impossible to blog. Even if you managed to open the session, it's not possible to upload to the servers. From the day the internet tsunami hit on Tuesday, 26-Dec-2006 till Thursday,28-Dec-2006 it took hours and tons of lucks to be able to surf, blog, email or upload to these servers hosted in U.S.

However today, Friday 29-Dec-2006, while it gets better for Google's (Nasdaq : GOOG) blog and email, things arestill patchy for Yahoo (Nasdaq : YHOO) when its' main page and email are crawling like the 200-years-old turtle. A basic testing by "pinging"www.yahoo.com and www.google.com or www.blogger.com demonstrates which service is up and running - lost traffic packets are so obvious with Yahoo (even with Yahoo Finance).

Another test was done with email servicebetween both Yahoo and Google. Trying to attach a 2.5 MB Microsoft document file took ages (in fact, the operation was terminated manually after 45 minutes) with Yahoo email but with Google's mail, it took less than a minute to send.

This does not mean that Yahoo Mail sucks - it could be due to routing or infrastructure not properly designed or configured for optimum performance during such disaster. Yahoo Messenger however works fine. But a failure to satisfy users is still a failure no matter what's the reason(s) or excuse(s). So in time of disaster, I would say Google performs better than Yahoo in terms of service availability.

# TIP: It pays to have redundant e-mail accounts as you've more option during disaster. In addition you won't be held ransom should your email provider try to be funny. Competition is GOOD.

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Quake Blackout The Net

Get Yourself One Of These Present In Christmas 2007

We witnessed the latest in next-generation gaming console this year, 2006. We saw the launching of Sony PlayStation-3, Nintendo and Microsoft's latest Xbox out in late '05. I'm still happy with my PS2 (PlayStation-2) and I'm not going to fall into the high-price due to the craze of people rushing to get the PS3, so I'll wait. But I hope to get one of the hot and cool items below for my 2007 Christmas present, or at least nag someone to buy it for me.

(1) Vista - the long-awaited operating system upgrade fromMicrosoft (Nasdaq : MSFT) is expected to spur a boom in PC buying. Features likely to appeal to consumers include a quicker wake from sleep mode and Windows SideShow, a minidisplay that will let users check e-mail and instant messages even when the PC is off. It was said that Vista's AERO delivers a new graphics engine to produce stunning new icon, menu and desktop visuals.

Expected availability: Jan. 30 2007
Expected Costs: A basic home version of Vista will retail for $199.

(2) Apple (Nasdaq : AAPL) is due to release a new system, code-named Leopard. It, too, is expected to generate demand for computers—and a whole lot of switching from Windows-centric PCs to Mac machines. Leopard's Time Machine will help users search for deleted or lost files, and a feature called Spaces will help organize on-screen windows into categories such as work and play.

Expected availability: Spring 2007

(3) Code-named Santa Rosa after the city in Northern California's wine country, this version of Intel (Nasdaq : INTC) Centrino mobile technology chips will allow greater power savings and faster access to memory. A feature called Robson, designed to take advantage of Vista, will help systems load applications up to two times faster. Santa Rosa will also feature an IEEE* 802.11n latest Wi–Fi adapter, codenamed Kedron for fast video streaming. It is also expected to include an improved graphics chipset, codenamed Crestline.

Expected availability: First half of 2007

(4) Rumors have circulated for years that Apple would release a cell phone-iPod combo. Analysts are confident the elusive gadget is finally on the way. According to recent UBS reports, the iPhone will feature 4GB to 8GB of flash memory and a 2-megapixel camera. The most recent news being Foxconn (registered trade name for Hon Hai Precision Industry Co in Taiwan) will begin delivering the phones to Apple out of its Fushikang manufacturing facility at run rate of 500,000 to 600,000 per month beginning in February-2007.

Intel (Nasdaq : INTC), Sharp, Tripod Technology, Broadcom (nasdaq : BRCM) and Sunrex are also said to be part of the mix, supplying the memory, LCM display, circuit board, baseband chip and keypad, respectively. The iPhone could help Apple turn up pressure on cell-phone makers such as Nokia and Motorola.

Expected availability: Early 2007

(5) Seagate (NYSE : STX) Momentus Hybrid Disk Drives storage (a concept initiated ever since Microsoft introduced the concept at the 2004 Windows Hardware Engineering Conference) which are designed to reduce a computer's power consumption and extend its battery life. How? When the PC is booting up, data is first loaded from a cache of flash memory, rather than the hard drive. That reduces the amount of power needed to get the machine up and running.

Expected availability: Sometime in 2007

(6) Samsung (SEO : 005930) SPH-P9000 Deluxe MITs is a cross between a laptop and a mobile device, boasting a normal-size QWERTY keyboard that folds down when not in use. The device lets users make calls, surf the Web, watch TV, and listen to music. It also weighs in at a little over a pound, features a 30GB hard drive, and is compatible with WiMAX and EV-DO wireless technologies. It's available in South Korea and for now only runs on Microsoft's Window XP operating system.

Expected availability: First half of 2007

(7) Apple will extend its push into consumers' living rooms in '07 with iTV, a small box designed to send video from a computer or iPod to a user's TV. Due to be announced in January, iTV will run on 802.11n Wi-Fi technology - though Apple is so far mum on the details.

Expected availability: Sometime in 2007
Expected Costs: about $299

(8) The newest iteration of Sony's (NYSE : SNE)PlayStation Portable is expected to turn up the heat on rival handheld gaming consoles from Nintendo. Published reports say the new gadget will come with a camera, feature larger memory (rumor to be 8GB), and be slimmer than its predecessor, pictured here. There could be a possibility of build-in hard-disk as well as GPS based on the rumor on the net.

Expected availability: Spring 2007

# TIP : Buy Apple stocks in anticipation of the release of its' iPhone - the new Mac OS should generate interests as well, iTV would be bonus should it be released. Despite the option issue with the authorities, buy on pullbacks - alternatively consider options as another trading instrument (remember to buy time-value).

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Thursday, December 28, 2006

Quake Blackout The Net

Internet and phone services were disrupted across much of Asia, and may take weeks to be fully restored due to an 7.1-magnitude earthquake in Taiwan on Tuesday, 26-Dec-2006, night which damaged undersea cables, leaving one of the world's most tech-savvy regions in a virtual blackout.

The earthquake damaged submarine cables that form part of the region-wide Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN 2), disrupting voice and Internet communications over much of Asia. APCN 2 is

a 19,000km-long fibre-optic cable network linking Japan, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Singapore, the United States, Europe and Australia and jointly operated by 26 Asian telecommunications carriers.

The damaged links are between Shantou (China) and Tanshui (Taiwan), and, Lantau (Hong Kong) and Chongming (China). Taiwan's largest telephone company, Chunghwa Telecom Co, estimates that 98% of the island state's communications with Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hongkong were hit. "Their submarines will have to go down and fix the problem. And, because of the earthquake, there was also a fear of tsunami. So, we believe it will take some time," Telekom Malaysia Bhd's (KLSE : TM, stock-code 4863) internet service public relations manager said.

From frustrated traders seeking in vain for stock quotes to anxious newshounds accustomed to round-the-clock updates on world events, millions of people from China to Japan to Australia were believed to be affected. Bloggers were equally affected as mostly rely on the internet to post their daily updates.

China's biggest telecoms provider, China Telecommunications Group, said that communications cables to the US and to Europe had been damaged.

In South Korea, broadband provider KT Corp (NYSE : KTC) said six submarine cables had been affected, interrupting services to customers including banks. Some foreign exchange trading was reportedly affected.

Also knocked out was internet service for some Hongkong customers, who were unable to access websites in parts of Asia and the US. Telephone company PCCW Ltd (NYSE : PCW) warned customers that they may experience congestion for several days on the internet because of an upsurge in use as people surf the Web for more information about the quakes. "It's a nightmare, basically, because we have no idea what is going on in the markets today," said Steve Rowles, an analyst with CFC Seymour in Hongkong, who echoed others in saying that damage was limited due to year's end.

In a statement, Maxis Communications Bhd (KLSE : MAXIS, stock-code 5051) admitted that customers

faced problems while attempting to call the US, Canada, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan following the earthquake. Berjaya Hotels and Resorts’ E-business (KLSE : BJCORP, stock-code 3395) director Chris Cheong said the disruption in e-booking service affected overall speed on Internet access and the congestion resulted in a much longer time for its Internet reservations web pages to load.

DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (KLSE : DIGI, stock-code 6947) said the earthquake in Taiwan disrupting Internet traffic, roaming services and international calls to Taiwan, South Korea, China and the US. FedEx (NYSE : FDX) spokesperson in Singapore confirms that there has been a major network outage at our vendor end, which has affected all our network communications in the Asia Pacific.

# TIP: In time of such disaster, choosing the fastest platform for online stock or option trading will makes the difference. Avoid web-based platform if possible. Choose client-based option.

Tony Fernandes - The Truly Air Asia Hero (Part 2)

In 2004, AirAsia formed successful joint ventures in Thailand and Indonesia where AirAsia holds 49% stake in both companies. Thai AirAsia, a joint venture with Shin Corporation, Thailand’s largest telecommunication conglomerate, took to the skies in Feb 2004.

Ernst & Young in a statement said AirAsia was the first airline in the world to introduce SMS booking. It also introduced ticket-less travelling.

Fernandes' biggest achievement has been to turn Air Asia into an international carrier. Before he arrived on the scene, countries in the region never had any kind of open-skies agreement. In mid-2003, Fernandes' lobbying pushed Mahathir to raise the idea with the leaders of neighboring Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore. As a result, those nations have granted landing rights to Air Asia and other discount carriers. "Fernandes has had remarkable influence in shaping government and airline thinking in Southeast Asia and beyond," says Peter Harbison, managing director of the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, a Sydney consultancy. "The Asia Pacific airline industry will never be the same again."

Now, Southeast Asia is buzzing with successful, low-price carriers such as Thai Air Asia, Australia's Qantas

Airways' (ASX : QAN) JetStar, Singapore-based Valuair and Singapore Airlines' (SIN : S55) Tiger Airways. Even though this means more competition, Fernandes is proud of what he set in motion. "It was the popularity of low-cost carriers like Air Asia," he says, "that forced them to move toward more open skies."

When asked about his phenomenal success during an interview by CNN, Tony stressed that it's the culture of the company to remain humble as it's crucial to remember the roots of their beginning. Air Asia operates in a family-like environment without hierarchy where marketing, finance, engineers, cabin crew and pilots are all in one office which guarantee effective communication. There was an incident whereby a flight needed a couple of pilots but the pilots were stuck in a traffic jam - the Chief Pilot offered himself to fly in jeans which got the OK from Fernandes. The spirit of great camaraderie was the key succes factors which pull everyone together.

Imagine the pilots suddenly saw their CEO pushing the ladder and sometime having a cup of coffee with the guys who carry bags. People are allowed to think and staff are not afraid to send Tony an email on feedback on improvement ideas. No one thinks they are more important than the other. How many organizations allow such culture to flourish?

AirAsia, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, 2007, has ordered 100 A320s with an option for 30 more. AirAsia, currently in the process of phasing out its B737-300s, would become the largest Airbus A320 operator in the Asia Pacific region by 2012.

On his next plan, Fernandes said the company was optimistic of securing rights to fly the lucrative Singapore-Kuala Lumpur route by year 2007. “I think we could have something next year. I think the only reason in not giving us Singapore is to protect Malaysia Airlines and it is about time that ends,” he said, adding that the carrier was confident of “taking a lot of hard traffic” from Singapore over to Kuala Lumpur. Meanwhile, AirAsia is engaged in talks with prospective companies to jumpstart the airline’s maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities.

Fernandes said AirAsia's goal over the next five years was to “keep increasing frequency as we connect more dots.'' He further added - “Going forward, we will continue to build our brand and hope we will become a global brand of the size of Coca-Cola (NYSE : KO) and Nike(NYSE : NKE). I believe it is achievable.''

One of the reason I admire Tony is his passion and his humble character though he's a multi-millionaire now. He successfully created a giant not because of his political connection (compare to some other tycoons) but because he really put in his own sweat on it, and that's truly amazing.And now everyone can fly. If only Malaysia Airline System Berhad (KLSE : MAS, stock-code 3786) understand what it takes to run an airline company.

Go Back To Read: Tony Fernandes - The Truly Air Asia Hero (Part 1)

# TIP: If Tony were to leave AirAsia one of this day, reconsider your stock portfolio if you have AirAsia shares as not everyone has the "click" to run an airline.

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Tony Fernandes - The Truly Air Asia Hero (Part 1)

AirAsia Bhd (KLSE : AIRASIA, stock-code 5099) group chief executive officer Datuk Tony Fernandes has been named "Malaysia's Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2006", for his efforts in revolutionizing the air travel industry in the region. He also won the "Master Entrepreneur of the Year" award. Fernandes learned to think like an entrepreneur from a master. After graduating from the London School of Economics in 1987, he worked as an accountant for Richard Branson's Virgin Records from 1987 to 1989. At the age of 28, Tony became the youngest person in recording industry’s history to head Warner Music Group (from 1992-2001) as the vice-president. Instead of imitate his mentor Branson by branching out into many businesses, Fernandes stays focused on just one thing - Air Asia.

Looking back, when Tony Fernandes wanted to start Malaysia's first discount airline a few years ago, he couldn't get a license. Then he heard bankrupt government-linked conglomerate DRB-Hicom's (KLSE :DRBHCOM, stock-code 1619) Air Asia, with two Boeing jets and $37 million in debt, was desperately trying to unload the company for nearly two years. All he had to do was to sell then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, airplane leasing partner General Electric (NYSE : GE) andDRB-Hicom on his idea for the ailing Air Asia.

With a vision to make air travel more affordable to Malaysians and to remodel AirAsia into a low fare no frills carrier after successful low fare airlines such as U.S.-based Southwest Airlines (NYSE : LUV) and Dublin-based Ryanair (ISE : RYA), Fernandes believes Air Asia will be the next giant. Fernandes set to meet then-Prime Minister Mahathir in October-2001 after managed to get the appointment with the help of a person who was about to retire working in the ministry of domestic trade (who used to help Fernandes in fighting piracy during the early day). Mahathir didn't say much nor gave any indication during the presentation but the comfort words of "I like the idea, I like the passion and the drive even though you do not seem to have any experience, you have my blessing, but you have to buy an existing airline" set the tone to the vision of a discount carrier which will revolutionize Southeast Asian air travel and boost tourism.

Fernandes who founded Tune Air Sdn Bhd in 2001, together with three other partners, only had to pay a token of 1 ringgit (26 cents) and assume $12 million of Air Asia debts - but airline analysts were skeptical as the airlines worldwide were struggling from the impact of the September 11 terrorist attacks. "When we started, they said it wouldn't work, most people thought I was crazy" recalls Fernandes. "They said we would die." And so, the young and ambitious Fernandes started his journey after quitting his job which provide him a company Jaguar and a $10,000 stereo system, mortgaged his home and sank his savings.

But the brave man thinked otherwise:

Since September-11, aircraft leasing costs are down by 40% which means Air Asia can get newer Boeing models than the airline had before at the same price.
Airline layoffs mean experienced staff are readily available
Malaysian travelers will choose and prefer a cut-rate air service that will save them time and money, especially in a tight economy

Furthermore, Conor McCarthy, a former Ryanair chief operating officer, will be a part-owner in the new Air Asia and chief advisor to Fernandes.

The new Air Asia business model amongst other:

slash fares on heavily traveled routes
turn around planes much faster than before
stop serving complimentary food and drinks
cut cabin crews from six to three as a result of eliminating meals
flights to spend only 25 minutes on the ground at any one time

Under Tony’s leadership, not only Air Asia repaid all the RM40 million debts but has been in a profitable position from the first day of operation besides revolutionize the air travel industry in Malaysia and pioneered the low cost phenomenon in Asia. He also makes money with a lucrative cargo service, sales of drinks on board, and marketing tie-ups with other companies. In less than 5 years, AirAsia grew from 2 modest Boeing (NYSE : BA) 737-300 to 46 and is now operating over 100 domestic and international daily flights from hubs in KLIA, Johor Bahru , Bangkok and Jakarta. Air Asia's planes are flying 80% full on average to destination such as Thailand, Indonesia, Macau, China, the Philippines, Brunei, Cambodia and Vietnam. It had carried over 23 million passengers in less than five years.

Continue To Read: Tony Fernandes - The Truly Air Asia Hero (Part 2)

# TIP: If Tony were to leave AirAsia one of this day, reconsider your stock portfolio if you have AirAsia shares as not everyone has the "click" to run an airline.

Friday, March 6, 2009

2007-01-19

Friday, January 19, 2007

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Monday, January 15, 2007

Friday, January 12, 2007

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Monday, January 08, 2007

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Friday, January 05, 2007

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Monday, January 01, 2007

Friday, December 29, 2006

Thursday, December 28, 2006

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