Hotung

firm price in usd while financials is in twd some points i have - cash is only less than half of mkt cap now - firm had history of not paying dividends for 3-4 years in a go - investments held as AFS means looking at NAV may not be accurate since firm can buy at high cost and adjust it subsequently for profit or losses (we will not accurately know how much impairment will there be, example in 2003-05 which generates significant losses). Thats the reason why firm choses to invest in the mid maturity segments as it is safer than startups yet has higher potential than stalwarts. Market conditions will lower investment returns but only operational failures will lead to impairments - note the firm is a vc firm, cash will not be likely distributed vs a normal manufacturing firm with defined cost structure and surplus earnings and reinvestment costs - essentially a bet on management\'s ability to spot super investments

jinraidx: thank you for all the research. good points, except i wonder how u concluded that cash is less than half of market cap? I checked Q1 balance sheet: the cash is still S$1 billion (and no borrowings), so it\'s 5X the market cap of about S$190 m.

hey Harle cash 1Q2010 is 2333 mil TWD or 73.4 USD mil mkt cap is US 0.12* 1106.8 mil = US 132.82 mil so its slightly over half of mkt cap note that financials is in TWD and stock price quotes in USD, not SGD hope that helps

jinraidx: thank you. u r right. there was a miscalculation in conversion of the Taiwan cash pile into SGX > Shld be S$100 m, or US$70+ m. (Instead of S$1 billion)

Mixing up the m and b like the New York trader who cause the 1000 points drop?

Once in a while, to cheer myself up, I miscalculate my net worth to be a few trillion $. :laugh: