Back pain means business for YSP Sah again

Back pain means

business for

YSP Sah again

Recently my wife started to experience irritating back pain again, so much so that she had to start consuming back her regular herb supplement known as Elgucare. (In case you are new, Elgucare is a capsule supplement formulated herbs traditionally used for relieving waist ache and backache. The main pharmacological effects are dilating the blood vessels to improve blood circulation, restring the fibro-elastic potential of vertebral cartilages and improving immune system).

Just few days ago, I went to buy Elgucare again (the fifth bottle since her recurring back pain one month ago). On bottle costs around RM160 (no thanks to GST, otherwise I would be paying less than that). The cost of five bottles would set me back by RM800. And it looks like a few bottles are still needed for the next several months.

Well, thanks to my good decision years back to be the stakeholder of that company (that is distributing this Elgucare supplement), I can use the dividends (paid by the company to shareholder) to help pay the purchase.

And in case you do not know or have forgotten about it, Elgucare is distributed under the famous brand "Shine" by a company called YSP Southeast Asia Holding (YSP Sah).

This small size cash-rich company YSP Sah manufactures and trades various kinds of pharmaceutical products. It also provides prescription products comprising antibacterial and analgesic lozenges, antibiotics, antidiarrheals, antiemetics, antihistamines, etc.

It operates in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Brunei, and internationally. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Laggard of pharmaceutical stocks' rally

For some time, several or shall I say mostly pharmaceutical stocks have rallied especially led by the leader Pharmaniaga Berhad (This is one stock I sold off TOO EARLY just because I WANT TO HAVE THE FEEL of PROFIT TAKING. I AM STILL LIVING TO REGRET WITH that decision UNTIL TODAY).

Somehow, YSP Sah seemed to be one forgotten stock that remained in the doldrum. Why? No thanks to its INCONSISTENTLY yo-yo quarterly earnings especially last year. It earned 4.1 sen, 0.72 sen, 2.3 sen and 5.27 sen for 1st Qtr to 4th Qtr 2014 respectively.

Such inconsistently earnings can deter investors from owning the stock as the earnings are also fluctuating and not showing any slow gradual or consistent pace or steady range of earning levels.

Sterling 1st Qtr 2015 results

Then on May 14, YSP Sah announced its 1st Qtr 2015 results, an earning per share of 7.02 sen! This is the first time YSP Sah has earned the most in a quarter. It is a record quarterly earning and it is just the 1st Qtr only for 2015. What if the subsequent quarterly results are somewhere near this 7.02 sen earning? (This will remain to be seen).

So, which division shined for YSP Sah this time? YSP Sah has three divisions i.e. Investment holding (RM1.27 Million), Trading (RM0.96 Million) and Manufacturing (RM11.31 Million) respectively for 1st Qtr 2015.

The Manufacturing Division was the star performer this time, posting a higher profit before tax of RM22.31 Million compared to RM6.80 Million in 1st Qtr 2014, an increase of 66% mainly due to lower cost margin in product mix and growth in revenue of RM6.90 Million in 1st Qtr 2015.

Surging Share Price

Investors wasted no time immediately and the next day on May 15, YSP Sah posted a gain of 34 sen to close at RM1.95 in heavy trading volume. Since then, YSP Sah has remained actively over the next several days with the share price notching multiple new high every now and then.

The current price of YSP Sah is at RM2.06.

This new high price of YSP Sah has resulted in more paper profit for me. It means the current price of over RM2 plus has resulted in more than 100% return (not to mention the three dividends totalling RM1,900.00)  since my early investment at RM1.05 (10,000 shares) on June 5, 2012.

Regular readers might remember YSP Sah was featured on Aug 9, 2013 entitled : Customer-turned-Stakeholder of YSP Sah and again on Sep 15, 2014 entitled : Revisiting YSP Sah.

Wrong Timing on both occasions

 

So Star Publications (M) Berhad has revamped and changed its new name to Star Media Group Berhad recently.

The leading English newspaper has from time to time revamped itself to suit the trend of today's newspaper readers. Gone are the time when you can afford to stay the same for years. Today's demand for changes are so constant that it is a credit that The Star has already done its best to stay relevant with technology today.

Anyway, my good friend recently told me that the company has continued to implement cost-cutting measures in its operation. He confidently told me that gone are the good days when bonuses were in the range of 5-7 months per year in the early 1990s to the last few years.

My good friend who had been with the company for more than 30 years told me when the company went for listing in 1995, several criterias were used to ensure the number of shares employees would qualify to buy.

Among them were the years of service, positions and .... surprisingly or not, salary range.

My friend's colleague (let us call him B) had been given an additional share compared to my friend (although both had the same number of working years) because B's salary was just more than RM50.

But because it so happened that B's salary was RM1,515.00 (one more share given to those earning RM1,500.00 and above), my good friend (earning RM1,490.00) could just curse his luck.

Fast forward to last year, Star decided to give shopping voucher RM900 to its employees, but this time only for those whose salary are RM3,000.00 and below ONLY!

My good friend's salary has exceeded the RM3,000.00 range over the years, but he is not entitled to the shopping voucher.

He could not understand why the company would only give the voucher to those earning RM3K and below? In fact, he told me many employees earning more the RM3K were feeling unhappy and frustrated the company is only "helping" a certain "group" of employees.

There were some jokes around that the company sees those earning RM3K and above as OK and those earning below as needing help.

I feel very sorry for my good friend. I have to say that it is a matter of wrong timing on both occasions!