Let's Take A Walk With The New "Apek" On The Block

I will go through the entire exercise of reading the prospectus and noting the important points of this China-company listing on Bursa, K-Star Sports. This way, we all can discuss on how we should be evaluating the whole thing.

Yes, you guessed it correctly, its another shoe maker. Why is it that shoe making industry is the only industry being keen to list on Bursa? That's another question for another time.

K-Star will offer 15.32 million new shares at an issue price of RM2.15 per share with 3.4 million shares allocated for the Malaysian public and the rest of 11.92m for selected investors. OK, the size of the offering is not too big at all. The thing to watch out for is the placement to selected investors - if its a huge allocation to selected investors compared to the public, then maybe the promoters and lead underwriters are NOT THAT CONFIDENT on the issue at all. A large sized placement to selected investors may be negative as well, remember MultiSports and Mr. Quek.

Some may think that its a good thing that its all new shares issued. I think if its an ACE company, then that is OK, but for an established company churning decent profits, that is myopic and naive. You should have some sort of moratorium but you should also be upfront with shares that owners might want to sell. I would rather that they sell 20% of their shares to the public and 5% to selected investors - and then the rest of the shares be placed on a moratorium for 6 months, and only sell another 10% from 7-24 months. That way, they can go and concentrate on running the business but with some sort of buffer on being listed. You cannot and should not deny entrepreneurs from some cashing out after having growing the company to a listing.

The IPO exercise is expected to raise RM32.94mil out of which RM9mil will be used for raising the company's production capacity, RM5mil for sales and marketing network expansion, RM4.5mil to enhance product design and development capabilities, RM3mil on branding and advertising efforts and the rest for working capital and listing expenses.

The company, scheduled for listing this May 31, recorded a revenue of RM294.4mil and a pre-tax profit of RM45.54mil last year (StarBiz made an error in taking the RMB figures for RM). Here is the key, it makes RM45.54m a year, and yet it is only raising RM32.94m??? There is absolutely no need to get listed, is there? Generally, a company should be making much less than what it is trying to raise - that way, it is to channel additional capital to fund growth. When you already make more than what you are trying to raise, you MUST HAVE OTHER BIGGER OBJECTIVES on your agenda.

Hence, the bullshit about increasing capacity, marketing network expansion, enhancing product design, branding and working capital are all plain bullshit (and it smells too).

I am not saying you cannot list when the amount you are raising is a lot less than your annual profit but you got to be more upfront-la, not so many idiots running around. I would be a lot happier if the company says that its also to allow for some early investors to cash out - there is nothing wrong with that at all, but don't try to pull a fast one. We all need entry and exit strategies, and its an accepted process for capital to invest and divest, so that the process can be repeated, its the whole mantra of investing and capitalism.ol

K-Star has been in the apparel industry for twenty years and its product range include athletic footwear and leisure wear. They are also the original design manufacturer (ODM) and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for international brands including Umbro, Diadora, Kappa, Le Coq Sportif, Die Wilden Kerle, Canguro Cosby and Bridgestones, as well as PRC footwear brand, Double Star. This is good stuff, proven deliverables across a wide section of reputable clients. It has four production lines and produces four million pairs of shoes in-house annually.

Back to valuations, RM45.54m based on 89m shares is a net EPS of 51 sen. At IPO price of RM2.15 thats a remarkably cheap PER of 4.2x. However, we should do a comparison: Xinquan, for year ending June 2010 should be making 35.7 sen, at RM1.17 it is trading at 3.27x PER. Why do you want to list on Bursa when you get PER valuations between 2x-5x???

Look at the 2010 PER valuations for similar China sports apparel companies: Anta in HKSE 17x; Dongxiang in HKSE 15x; Li Ning in HKSE 19x; Hongxing in Singapore at 8x. The key difference besides the different exchanges is the size of the companies. Anta, Dongxiang and Li Ning all have a market cap of above $3bn. Even Hongxing in Singapore has a credible market cap of $338m. Xinquan's market cap is just $103m. As for K-Sports, its market cap on listing 89m x 2.15 =RM191.4m / 3.2 = $60m.

Realistically, I think Xinquan is more interesting because if you ascribe an 8x PER (like in Singapore) for Xinquan, its market cap would be close to Hongxing. But even at 3.2x PER Xinquan only paid out 5.3 sen in dividend, presenting a yield of just 4.7%. If you are really generating so much cash flow and you are concerned on your share price, then maintain a strong dividend policy. Xinquan should make RM109m for year ending June 2010 and is only likely to pay out 5.3 sen gross dividend. They have 307.3m shares but they are paying only RM16.3m in dividends. Do this, declare that you will pay 50% of net profits as annual dividends. RM109m x 0.5 = RM54.5m = 17.7 sen. At RM1.17, thats a gross dividend yield of 15%. Once you declare a firm dividend policy, watch your share fly. I am sure using 50% of net profits is more than sufficient to grow the business.

K-Star directors said in the prospectus that they intend to pay 10%-20% of profits in dividend. At RM45.54, assume 20% = RM9.1m / 89m = 10.2 sen. At RM2.15 thats a yield of 4.7%. So tell me what K-Star is doing that is any different from Xinquan??? The controlling shareholder will retain 58.4% of shares upon listing, the key again is who holds the rest?

One hint, the conversion of a S$6.105m loan into 13.32m K-Star shares. This amount may be fluid and could be early sellers, maybe.

Sales to two major customers, namely Xiamen-Waitu Import Export and Qingdao Double Star Celebrity Industrial accounts for 40% of sales. I need not tell you that that is a significant risk, but still acceptable. Other financial metrics such as inventory turnover period of 13 days and receivables turnover period of 80 days are quite positive.



Overall, its valuations are attractive but will suffer the same fate as the rest. Initially you probably have to clear 15.32m + 13.32m shares = 28.64m shares. After that, maybe the share price can find some traction.

I would strongly advise that these companies come out and declare 50% profits payout as dividends; and Bursa put in my recommended moratorium on the owners and promoters. Only then will confidence be back in these shares, and you need confidence to be back if we are to be a viable alternative. You can have hundreds of meetings and brain storming sessions - these will be your best weapons.

Let's be honest here, even if we do all the right things, these shares will probably get between 7x-10x PER valuation max because:
- they will always be benchmarked to those listed in Singapore and HK
- the discounts for smaller China companies listed overseas are justified judging from the "shenanigans" concocted by some of the red chips in Singapore
- they list in Malaysia usually because someone had the bright idea of either cleaning up the books and/or inject fresh capital to dress up the company and/or hammering together a few smaller companies to make it listable and/or ... you get the drift ... when that's the case, usually the ideas man would want to cash out quick