SMRT

[brattzz]

waos! MRT BAIL OUT TOO! :O

[Temperament]

After selling my lots of SMRT@1.745, i try to buy back @$1.735, $1.73 for the sake of coming dividends. i did not get any for i refused to pay higher than these the recent lows or the price i sold ( price Anchoring Effect again ?) Actually there are no good news about SMRT at all, only bad news. Yet the price shoots up to > $1.8. It's a surprise to me. Let's see what's the price going to be after dividend announcement. Not going to buy this counter for sometime to come.

[shanrui_91]

After selling my lots of SMRT@1.745, i try to buy back @$1.735, $1.73 for the sake of coming dividends. i did not get any for i refused to pay higher than these the recent lows or the price i sold ( price Anchoring Effect again ?) Actually there are no good news about SMRT at all, only bad news. Yet the price shoots up to > $1.8. It's a surprise to me. Let's see what's the price going to be after dividend announcement. Not going to buy this counter for sometime to come.

got frightened by the $900 million sum? I was when I heard it on the news and was thinking how on earth are they going to come out with $900m.

I think the actual cost will be much lower though LTA has limited space to maneuver after funding for 500 buses.

[sgd]

I already said earlier they have to throw huge money to solve the problem, it is not only signalling but also problem with the station design each train cannot scale more than 6 cars if it cannot do that it cannot cater to population growth demands. I think a lot of shares and debt going to be issued.

In Tokyo the population is 12 million vs our 5 million+ they have many more rail operators there vs only 1 operator here. Except for suicide cases that cause disruption there's hardly any mechanical breakdown and here already so many breakdowns. They have it good but they don't know how good they have it. Frankly I think we should allow other rail operators to come in to manage maybe even the Japanese.


source: motoring.asisone.com
----- $900m to upgrade SMRT network

Rail operator SMRT will spend about $900 million on upgrading and maintenance works to overhaul its ageing train network.

Speaking at a media conference yesterday, SMRT's interim chief executive, Mr Tan Ek Kia, said the works are aimed at making the network more robust.

The works will be implemented in phases starting from this year, and are expected to take until 2019.

He apologised for the "unacceptable" spate of disruptions on April 8 and 13, and last Tuesday and Wednesday.

Last Wednesday's breakdown on the Circle Line affected 18,000 commuters during the morning rush hour.

"On behalf of SMRT, I want to apologise for this. People who were affected were very frustrated, and we can understand their feelings," said Mr Tan.

The upgrading will see a complete overhaul of the signalling system on the North-South and East-West lines. This will make the system more reliable and allow trains to run at a higher frequency.

Older trains, which have been running on the rail network for the last 25 years, will have their propulsion systems replaced.

Existing sleepers - wooden planks that hold the tracks together - on the two lines will also be replaced. This will be done in phases to minimise any inconvenience to passengers.

Mr Tan said the $900-million price tag is an indicative figure and may increase, pending any recommendations from the ongoing Committee of Inquiry hearing into last December's major train breakdowns.

SMRT will also discuss cost-sharing arrangements with the Land Transport Authority for the project.

Yesterday, Mr Tan also pinpointed the cause of last Wednesday's Circle Line disruption: a defective power cable, which led to a power failure in the line's communication network. This meant trains could not communicate with one another.

Mr Tan added that electrical and mechanical failures were contributing factors in the three breakdowns on the East-West Line this month.

Investigations into these are ongoing and he said that SMRT will continue to look into its response plans to make them more comprehensive in dealing with any future breakdowns.

He added that the company has learnt from past disruptions, and that there is "a lot of work ahead of us".

"We have to improve our performance. In fact, we must."

[KopiKat]

After selling my lots of SMRT@1.745, i try to buy back @$1.735, $1.73 for the sake of coming dividends. i did not get any for i refused to pay higher than these the recent lows or the price i sold ( price Anchoring Effect again ?) Actually there are no good news about SMRT at all, only bad news. Yet the price shoots up to > $1.8. It's a surprise to me. Let's see what's the price going to be after dividend announcement. Not going to buy this counter for sometime to come.

I was also monitoring and waiting...

I think the reason it shot up to $1.8x was their defence during the Official Inquiry. They threw the ball back to LTA by claiming all the failures were due to Aging Infrastructure and perhaps even casted some doubts on the selection process of critical components. As that was donkey years ago and under the charge of LTA's predecessor, it'd resulted in LTA scrambling to find / dig their records...

Another chance now with their hefty close to a $1Bil proposal spooking the market?

[shanrui_91]

why smrt drops a bit only? should not there be mass panic about this sum that is 6,7 times their net profits?

[CityFarmer]

why smrt drops a bit only? should not there be mass panic about this sum that is 6,7 times their net profits?

Still waiting for the announcement of LTA share on the 900 Mils?

[camelking]

why smrt drops a bit only? should not there be mass panic about this sum that is 6,7 times their net profits?

What if the majority of the spending come from their routine maintenance budget which would have spent anyway?
Numbers can be deceiving too.

[corydorus]

Is a kind of "Monopoly". If cost increase so will ticket price go up accordingly in the long run.

[ken]

Well, last year maintenence expenses is about $77 mil. The latest $900 mil for about 9 years is about $100 mil per year. That will be a $23 mil increase, which will be shared with LTA.

Later years, fares have to be increased to be in line with expenses, particularly oil prices.

I believe dividend of 8.5 cents will remain, but do not expect any increase.

This work out to be about 4.8%. Better than puting it into fixed deposits.