You certainly are a very optimistic guy. Good for you to look on the bright side of things. However, you should also apply due diligence when you are putting in good money into TTI at the moment. If you are already stuck with the stock for some time already, then it is a different thing. After hanging in there for so long, there seems to be nothing to lose as. after all, how much further can it go down in value any more. Or so it seems. That was what a lot of shareholders who got caught in this counter thought many months ago when the share was holding on at around the 0.17 range. But look at what it is today, around 0.07 a share. That is another drop of more than 50 %. This happened despite the opening of business at Big Box.
There are reasons why shareholders' confidence have eroded even further. (1) The nostalgia of a quick lift had already been built into the price which was previously hovering around the 0.02 range before the Big Box Project was announced, and which shot up to above 0.17 before receding and maintaining at that level (following some share re-structuring exercises, etc) 2-3 years ago.. (2) The accumulated losses of the group are huge, and with debt capitalisation where a large part of the debt was converted into capital, even though reduced thereof, is still very high at around $110m. It is going to be a long haul process to write back this amount based on present set of scenerio. This is noteworthy because in the previous financial year (31 Mar 2014) the nett loss was $26m but had shot up to $57m for Y/E 31 Mar 2015. Ironically, the financial position of the group is presently worse than before the Big Box development. (3) As far as the Big Box is concerned, the business potential of this warehouse/retail megastore does not seem to be very promising. Honestly, anyone who has dropped by at this megastore would not be very impressed with it. Compared to IMM nearby, or the other three superstores of IKEA, Courts, and Giant at Tampines, there is virtually no crowd at Big Box, even on weekends. The window shoppers there do not translate into sales at the cash registers. One reason is the price(s) of most of the retail goods, including food items, are not cheap, and in some cases, higher than elsewhere. (4) As for sales of electronic appliances under the Akira brand, which are sold not only here but in their outlets in other countries, I cannot imagine them carrying a high margin as they are purely contract manufactured through outsourcing with no proprietary design patent, and no global marketing budget. At some point of time perhaps, they would probably drop this line as had happened to other local branded electronic appliances in the past, such as IPC and Aztec computers. IPC group has since switched to property development and holding (mostly in Japanese properties) and Aztec emigrated its operations into ship owning. Perhaps TTI will eventually switch to just developing and owning commercial properties or some other integral form of business in the near future.
Just to show what potential prospect there may be for the Akira brand both here, regionally, or even at the international level, one can look at the Cornell electronic goods brand that was developed and created locally by Hagemeyer Singapore and contract manufactured elsewhere more than a decade ago. The brand is not making much headway after such a long time, mainly because it too, had little marketing budget attached. But Hagemeyer is continuing with its operations because it is complimenting its other more established Panasonic product line.
Last edit: 9 years 4 months ago by Aquarius. Reason: Inclusion of additional items
I don't seem to be able to access where @Desmond has written anything on TTI other than his remarks which was captioned : "TTI upside potential with the STRONG FOOTFALL of NEW HOPSITAL Opening today". I think he was referring to the new Ng Teng Fong Hospital which is just across the road from the Big Box.
I would be interested to read what his views are on this counter and would appreciate it if you could direct me to the appropriate page. thanks.
So, it was after all, a typo error on your part (which you have since rectified) when you were actually referring to me and not @Desmond. I was of the impression earlier (before your correction) that I must have missed out on some useful comments which @Desmond had made and which, somehow, did not appear on my screenshot for whatever reason.
In any case, thanks for your gracious compliments which I may not actually deserve because what I presented earlier was nothing more than common knowledge based on events that have passed, some of which have been reported in the press previously.
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