iCapital.biz Bhd (ICAP, 5108) year 2011 Annual Report

ICAP,  managed by Mr. Tan Teng Boo (陈鼎武), which is the one and only closed-end fund in KLSE, has just published its 2011 Annual Report.

As disclosed in the annual report, this is the current portfolio of ICAP as at 22 June 2011.

ICAP has finally sold out all MIECO (5001) and removed it from the portfolio. If you want to criticize ICAP, this is the failed investment which has caused a 59.22% or RM1.2 million lost to its share owners. MIECO was sold out at an average price of about RM0.5257 (RM857,876/1,632,000), which was not a good timing and near its lowest price. MIECO has once gone up to RM0.83 in March 2011, and even gone up to RM0.97 one day before the 6th AGM of ICAP held last year. In fact, during the AGMs of past few years, share owners had been asking Mr. Tan Teng Boo about why MIECO was still kept in the portfolio despite horribly performed in its EPS as well as share price.

To my surprise, within the year, ICAP has bought and also sold 1,360,000 units of COASTAL (5071), making a profit of 12.12%. Why COASTAL is such a short term investment/speculation, despite its fundamental still looks good?

You will notice that PADINI (7052) has increased by 5 times in the portfolio. Actually, this is due to share split exercise of PADINI. ICAP has not changed its holding in PADINI since 2008.

ICAP currently only invested in 10 counters only, which is the lowest number since inception. The cash position has increased to RM115 million. This shows Mr. Tan remains cautious to the investment environment, especially when he quoted John Donne's "no man is an island, entire of itself" in this annual report.

Anyhow, despite the failed investment in MIECO and lowering of invested position, the NAV of ICAP still keeps on climbing and is now at its historical high. This shows that overall, ICAP is still a well performed closed-end fund, and Mr. Tan remains a remarkable fund manager trusted by some 3,200 share owners, including foreign financial institutions such as The Bank of New York Mellon, Credit Suisse, etc.

I have produced the table below to show the change in portfolio of ICAP from 2006 to 2011.

MSC (5916) was highlighted during the 6th AGM of ICAP last year, and ICAP has bought in another 1 million shares of MSC after that. SURIA (6521) was another highlighted counter during last AGM, and ICAP has also increased its position in this counter. However, the share price and trading volume of these 2 counters still remain dull until now.

The NAV performance of ICAP over the year is mainly contributed by blue chips such as F&N (3689) and PETDAG (5681) bought a few years ago.

Well, see you in ICAP 7th AGM and 2011 Investor Day on 1 October 2011.
Disclaimer: This article is intended for sharing of point of view only. It is not an advice or recommendation to buy or sell any of the mentioned stock counters. You should do your own homework before trading in Bursa Malaysia.

The end of CIMB credit cards weekend cash rebate promotion

If you hold a CIMB or Direct Access credit card, you might have been enjoying their weekend cash rebate promotion since 2009.

This had been an attractive cash rebate promotion, whereby 5% cash rebate was given to weekend retail transactions in Tesco, Giant, Cold Storage, Sunshine, Guardian, KFC, etc. There was also 10% cash rebate rebate for weekend transactions made in Burger King.

At first, this weekend cash rebate applied to both Saturday and Sunday. Later, it applied to Sunday only. Anyhow, this was among the best credit card weekend cash rebate promotion, and more attractive to similar programme by Citibank Cash Back Platinum Card (2% rebate only for groceries transactions in Tesco, Giant, Cold Storage, etc., although not restricted to weekend) and UOB One Card (also 2% rebate only for groceries).

However, after the last promotion period ended on 30 June 2011, there is no news from CIMB about any new weekend cash rebate promotion for their credit cards. It seems that this attractive cash rebate programme from CIMB has finally come to an end.

Meanwhile, OCBC Titanium Credit Card also offers 5% rebate for groceries transactions, which is now the most attractive cash rebate credit card at the moment.

The 2nd Integrated Content Development Programme (ICON2) by MDEC

If you are a Malaysian and wanna enter into mobile apps development for iPhone/iPad or Android, or you want to setup a content/knowledge website, you should know about ICON2 which can provide you training, financial and facility support to bring your dream to reality.

The Integrated Content Development Programme (ICON) commenced in 2009 was aimed for MDEC to provide support and assistance to Malaysian content developers in creating quality web and mobile apps. 96 projects has already benefited from this programme.

ICON2 just launched earlier this month (July 2011), is an extension of ICON, and initiated under the Communications Content and Infrastructure sector, identified by ETP as one of the growth engine in the 12 NKEA. This round, it is targetted for iPhone/iPad and Android apps development projects.

There are 3 components under ICON2.

ICONapps is a mobile apps development programme for team of 2-4 Malaysian developers. It provide funding assistance through reimbursement for training in iOS or Android development, any purchase of development platform and devices, purchase or license of 3rd party SDK, and also reimbursements for any 1st year developer registration fee.

In short, you can start up your mobile apps development by getting free training, free computer, free development phone, free development tools, etc. from MDEC by applying to this ICONapps programme. I believe this is a perfect programme for university/college students and/or free graduates and/or any Malaysian who would like to develop mobile apps to kick start with.

ICONdap is a developer assistance programme that provides funding assistance for those who have innovative ideas and concepts to come out with POC and prototype. The funding covers all direct costs incurred for the proposed project. At the final stage, MDEC will also assist you for Business/VC/Angel matching.

ICONeX is a digital content hosting and exchange facility targeted at SMI/SME and individuals which require bandwidth for online content, applications and services. This is a datacenter server hosting and/or co-location facility at a competitive price.

Click here for more information and application form download of ICON2.