Qingmei

I'm not Mac bit let me relate my exposures (n many losses) in de last 30 yrs. Better b safe. If no one comes to refute, better believe than otherwise. De former, ie refute, has a criminal intent, while keeping quiet is ok. One can hv many mitigations later in court! I'm NOT vested! Stay safe my frens, n good luck to all!

There are a lot of armchair investors around in Singapore.
What I like to propose --- Walk the talk. Just take a flight down to Jinjiang and see the factory for yourself.
 
Take Silkair to Xiamen -- Costs you less than SGD 1.5k for 2-way trip.
Take a taxi from Xiamen airport to Qingmei factory at Jinjiang -- Costs around RMB 500
View the factory, pretend to be a customer and walk around the factory. See if there is any production going around. Take photos.
If you cannot take the same flight back, just stay for a night. Hotels in Jinjiang are cheap. Powerlong Hotel (宝龙酒店) a five-star hotel costs around RMB 500 per night.
Take taxi back to Xiamen airport tomorrow morning.
 
I flew up to visit Synear (思念) plant myself in late 2010 and talked to the locals to see if they are eating the dumplings. Then I visited Guangdong province and Hong Kong to check the supermarkets to see if they are selling well.
What I saw convinced me that Synear cannot be doing so badly as reported. That's why I went in big-time in 2011, confident that the share price will recover.
Thanks to the management privatisation, I made more than 7-digits from Synear which i have sold in open market to the management and Greenwood Asset.
 
 

One thing that I am very sure --- the sportswear industry is going through a very long winter.
Only the biggest, most financially stable companies in this industry will survive. Companies like Li Ning, Anta, Xtep and Dongxiang who have strong financials will ride out the winter.
Take a look at smaller players like Meike in Hong Kong. They are reporting huge losses and writedowns.
 
 

Dear Forummers,
BTW, I chanced upon a ANTA store in Singapore. It is at the basement of Sembawang Shopping Centre.
Tomorrow is a Sunday, you can drive over to SSC and examine Anta products. Anta is listed as a customer in Qingmei prospectus.
Anta products are selling at 30% discount.
 
Cheers!
 

The major shareholder, High Crown (own by CEO) has placed out some 17% of the shares in Feb this year reducing his stakes from 64% to 47%.
Based on the latest Annual Report 2012, out of these 47% shares held, 17% are held by the nominee company, UOB Kay Hian Pte Ltd instead of under High Crown directly as in 2011. I would find it strange why he would transfer the shares to UOB Kay Hian and the probable reason that I can think of is that he margined the shares to UOB Kay Hian.
So effectively, his direct stake is left only 30%. If the company is really doing well and has all the cash as stated on the balance sheet, I do not see the reason why the major shareholder/CEO is divesting his stakes because if he needs the cash for other purposes, as a major shareholder, he can just declare higher dividend or capital reduction with the huge amount of cash available...
So given the depressed share price and the article below, there seems to be a serious problem with this company.

Interesting point, Joshua. 30% is still a big stake and I am not too concerned about whether he pledged the other 17% for margin. If he did, it shows he has a big appetite for stock investing.... The real matter I would be interested to know is whether Qingmei's manufacturing business is in reasonably good shape in this economic downturn and whether it is able to recover in the months ahead.

As for the cash being real or not, it's something tht is hard for us to know for sure. You can trust the balance sheet or you can choose to be suspicious. In this downturn, it's difficult for any management to pay out a big portion of the cash as they would want to be have as big a cushion as possible.