Lee Kim Tah Holdings

[pianist]

the news said ""This asset class has seen yield compression over the years from 6 to 7 per cent 10 years ago to sub 5 per cent now." said Jeremy Lake, Executive Director, Investment Properties."

it seems like compass point mall is faring not as well today compared to 10 years ago.

[dydx]

LKT is quietly going about its business without singing and dancing; the Lee's are buying stock (until 21 December that is) and it seems that others are now buying at prices at S$ 0.60 per share and above. I also believe this counter has further price upside, viz.: i) a potential G.O., ii) the current P.E its trading on and iii) its current discount to asset valuation.

May I add another potential catalyst event which, IMHO, will almost certainly lift LKT's share price. That is if and when LKT finally secures the approval from authorities in India to go ahead with the long-stalled (since 2005) development of a 421,318 sq.m. plot of freehold land (in which LKT holds a 74.51% stake) located at SIPCOT Information Technology Park, Siruseri, Tamilnadu, India, into 6,000 residential units and retail, commercial office space, under the "Southlands" project. The BV or total development cost todate for this property asset is understandably only less than $10.0m, but its corresponding fair CMV is many, many times more. As a rough estimate, assuming a CMV of only $30p.s.f., the plot of land would be worth as much as $136.6m now.

Based on LKT's 505.443m outstanding issued shares, we are talking about another minimum approx. $0.19 a share of hidden reserve for this plot of land in India alone, before counting any future development profit.

More info on the "Southlands" project.....
http://www.singaporerealty.net/southlands/

I think today's (23Mar12) announcement has to be a piece of great news to the benefit of LKT and its shareholders.....
http://info.sgx.com/webcoranncatth.nsf/V...A0032918F/$file/AnnouncementSRPLupdatecourthearing.pdf?openelement

Now that the Madras High Court has re-affirmed LKT Group's - through its 74.85%-owned subsidiary, Singapore Realty Private Ltd - legal ownership of the 104.71 acres (423,746 sq m) of development land in the Siruseri SIPCOT Information Technology Park in Chennai, I suppose LKT could soon proceed to develop the piece of land in stages, pursuant to the original MOU signed with the State Government of Tamil Nadu. Alternatively, LKT could even sell the land or a portion of the development rights to new investors?

Whatever route to take, I guess LKT is now able to realise the much enhanced market value of this huge piece of land. What's the potential economic impact? - $100m?, $200m?, or more?....

[valuenewb]

To give you an idea of what is at stake, here are some figures for your comparison:

423 746 sq meters = 4 561 164 sq feet
Vivocity site area = 936,000 sq ft
So this piece of land is almost 4.9x of Vivocity.

104.7 acres = 42.4 hectares
Singapore Botanic Gardens = 63 hectares
So this piece of land is about 2/3 of the SBG.

[camelking]

LKT is quietly going about its business without singing and dancing; the Lee's are buying stock (until 21 December that is) and it seems that others are now buying at prices at S$ 0.60 per share and above. I also believe this counter has further price upside, viz.: i) a potential G.O., ii) the current P.E its trading on and iii) its current discount to asset valuation.

May I add another potential catalyst event which, IMHO, will almost certainly lift LKT's share price. That is if and when LKT finally secures the approval from authorities in India to go ahead with the long-stalled (since 2005) development of a 421,318 sq.m. plot of freehold land (in which LKT holds a 74.51% stake) located at SIPCOT Information Technology Park, Siruseri, Tamilnadu, India, into 6,000 residential units and retail, commercial office space, under the "Southlands" project. The BV or total development cost todate for this property asset is understandably only less than $10.0m, but its corresponding fair CMV is many, many times more. As a rough estimate, assuming a CMV of only $30p.s.f., the plot of land would be worth as much as $136.6m now.

Based on LKT's 505.443m outstanding issued shares, we are talking about another minimum approx. $0.19 a share of hidden reserve for this plot of land in India alone, before counting any future development profit.

More info on the "Southlands" project.....
http://www.singaporerealty.net/southlands/

I think today's (23Mar12) announcement has to be a piece of great news to the benefit of LKT and its shareholders.....
http://info.sgx.com/webcoranncatth.nsf/V...A0032918F/$file/AnnouncementSRPLupdatecourthearing.pdf?openelement

Now that the Madras High Court has re-affirmed LKT Group's - through its 74.85%-owned subsidiary, Singapore Realty Private Ltd - legal ownership of the 104.71 acres (423,746 sq m) of development land in the Siruseri SIPCOT Information Technology Park in Chennai, I suppose LKT could soon proceed to develop the piece of land in stages, pursuant to the original MOU signed with the State Government of Tamil Nadu. Alternatively, LKT could even sell the land or a portion of the development rights to new investors?

Whatever route to take, I guess LKT is now able to realise the much enhanced market value of this huge piece of land. What's the potential economic impact? - $100m?, $200m?, or more?....

Let's not get happy too early
I am sure there will be appeal from the state government and the next hearing will be .....3 years later?
India legal system is "wonderful"

invested.

[dydx]

I am so pleased to see my "Lee Golden Pagoda" - what "Lee Kim Tah" literally means in Chinese - now being built upon beyond 70 levels (i.e. above $0.70)! Will this golden pagoda ever reach the 100th level? Based on the solid and undervalued property assets within it, and the likelihood that the assets are ripe for realization and/or monetisation, I am both hopeful and optimistic!

It is also nice to see that LKT has managed to out-perform both the STI and CapitaLand in the last 12 months by a big margin .....
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=1y&s=L25...%2C+%5Esti

[dydx]

With their latest purchase of 82 lots at $0.70/share on 4Apr12 (last Wed).....
http://info.sgx.com/webcorannc.nsf/Annou...endocument
the Lee Family is now willing to pay a new record high price of $0.70 to buy more LKT shares from the open market - and this indeed is good news!

[valuehunter]

Is Lee Kim Tah fairly priced or is Mr Market being overly optimistic in the valuation of Lee Kim Tah shares? I suppose this is what many value investors are keen to find out. As dydx and RBM have painstakingly pointed out in previous posts, my opinion is also that its intrinsic value (based solely on its assets alone) is already worth much more than current market valuation. The Lee family's willingness to fork out 70c/share has also demonstrated that they do see much more value in the counter even if the price paid is their highest thus far. My guess is that they will continue to mop up more shares from the market and they would to pay more per share to convince existing shareholders to sell their stake.

[RBM]

Thank you valuehunter and dydx,

My own personal view is that at current levels, Lee Kim Tah is still a good buy - and I must admit to a wee nibble at S$ 0.69 per share in the market this morning. But more important than my feeble and meek expression of "putting my money where my mouth is" are the sustained and affirmative actions of the Lee's who, as dydx points out in his VB posting of earlier this evening, continue to put their own money into the company that no one knows better than them, by buying shares last Wednesday at S$ 0.70 per unit. The Lee's must believe LKT shares are a good buy.

I have not received a LKT 2011 Annual Report yet. I do note an SGX disclosure of 27th March 2012 in which LKT's BoD transparently and commendeably drew shareholders attention to a specific Auditor "matter of emphasis" (not a qualification) in their 2011 Annual Report - so it must be darn near ready. When it is finally distributed I suggest it would be worthwhile to compare notes on how much of LKT we calculate the Lee's and their chums own, taking into account their share purchases after the date of the Substantial Shareholders compilation, which will be sometime in mid March.

[RBM]

As a postscript to my VB posting on this Lee Kim Tah thread of three days ago, I note that Lee Kim Tah's 2011 Annual Report has just been posted on their web-site.

Under "Shareholdings in hands of public" on page 114, it contains the following statement...........

QUOTE: The percentage of shareholdings in the hand of public was approximately 19.32% as at 9 March 2012 and hence the Company has complied with Rule 723 of the SGX-ST Listing Manual. UNQUOTE

I also note that the combined holdings of the top eleven (11) shareholders already exceed 90% of the total shares ........... and most of these eleven are Lee's!!

I'll do some sums this evening.
Vested,

Thank you valuehunter and dydx,

My own personal view is that at current levels, Lee Kim Tah is still a good buy - and I must admit to a wee nibble at S$ 0.69 per share in the market this morning. But more important than my feeble and meek expression of "putting my money where my mouth is" are the sustained and affirmative actions of the Lee's who, as dydx points out in his VB posting of earlier this evening, continue to put their own money into the company that no one knows better than them, by buying shares last Wednesday at S$ 0.70 per unit. The Lee's must believe LKT shares are a good buy.

I have not received a LKT 2011 Annual Report yet. I do note an SGX disclosure of 27th March 2012 in which LKT's BoD transparently and commendeably drew shareholders attention to a specific Auditor "matter of emphasis" (not a qualification) in their 2011 Annual Report - so it must be darn near ready. When it is finally distributed I suggest it would be worthwhile to compare notes on how much of LKT we calculate the Lee's and their chums own, taking into account their share purchases after the date of the Substantial Shareholders compilation, which will be sometime in mid March.

[dydx]

Under "Shareholdings in hands of public" on page 114, it contains the following statement...........

QUOTE: The percentage of shareholdings in the hand of public was approximately 19.32% as at 9 March 2012 and hence the Company has complied with Rule 723 of the SGX-ST Listing Manual. UNQUOTE

I also note that the combined holdings of the top eleven (11) shareholders already exceed 90% of the total shares ........... and most of these eleven are Lee's!!

The actual free-float held by public minority shareholders may well be much less than 19.32%. The very illiquid nature of this counter over a long period of time supports this notion.

I would venture to speculate that a preamble to a privatisation GO by the Lee Family may well be the Lee's buying the 3.84% (19.41m shares) held by India International Insurance P/L likely at a fair price taking into account the higher RNAV of LKT's key property assets.

Meanwhile, the just released FY11 AR makes interesting reading....
http://info.sgx.com/listprosp.nsf/07aed3...e000aa1b5/$FILE/LKT_AR2011.pdf