Popular Holdings AR2012

AR 2012

Summary (Copied and Modified From VB Forum)

Turnover is $567.3M, up 8.6%, profit before tax is $36.4M, up 15.7%.
Key performing businesses were retail and distribution – turnover rose by $43.3M to $482M while profit before tax rose by $10M to $29.1M
Operating cash flow is $51M. Cash on hand = $145.9M ; Net Cash (of Debts) = $115M.
Net asset value per share is 25.09 cents.
Has 148 outlets, 9 more than in FY12. 63 outlets in Singapore (+1), 70 in Malaysia (+5) and 15 in Hong Kong (+3).
Publishing and e-learning business were flat.
Popular Land’s revenue is $29.6M, up $1.8M form last FY. Excluding impairment loss reversed in the last FY, profit before tax increased by $2.8M to $3.7M.
Has gone into book Café business –{ prologue } at ION Orchard has started the first book café Epilogue. Another Epilogue café was recently launched in Orchard Central.
Started a new business, Office Solutions, to supply office products to the corporate world, estimated to be worth S$400 million annually. Hopeful that this segment will synergise with stationery retail business.
Has ‘Creative Learning Package” – Coverage of 21 provinces, an addition of seven. Teacher training for pre-school teachers has trained more than 500 teachers since it started at the end of 2011.
Total divided is 1.3 cents – 0.5 cents interim and 0.8 cents final. Yield is 5.5% at the last closing price of 23.5 cents.

Biggest book retailer in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
Pan Lloyds continues to be the dominant supplementary book publisher in Hong Kong taking up about 30% of the market share.
Ei8ht Raja, should be completed by early 2013 and ready for launch.
Popular Club membership has exceeded 1.4 million. Card Subscriptions FY12 : $4.902M vs FY11 : $4.819M

In 2009, Popular made a non-cash impairment provision of $28.2M. $21.7M was reversed in FY2010 while $6.5M was reversed in FY2010. Removing the impairment provision and reversal, profit before tax for 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 would have been $9M, $18M, $25M and $36M

Operating & Financial Review