Koh Bros is looking good and should attract more market attention going forward.
Latest announcement is positive:

KOH BROTHERS AND UNITED ENGINEERS JOINTLY AWARDED PUB PROJECT FOR JURONG WATER RECLAMATION PLANT

- 60 : 40 JV submitted winning bid of S$54.6 million

Did you notice that on last Friday and yesterday -- ie, Monday -- Koh Bros did share buybacks at higher prices of 22 and 22.5 cents? Maybe they read your posts LOL. Anyway, it's a good market signal for me.

James-san, if you turned the clock back a year, you would be reading Koh's financial statements glowing with very positive cashflow from operations to the tune of S$41 million for FY2010. It was negative cashflow in FY2011, tho.

Which construction counters are you referring to? Nowadays, Koh Bros, Tee Int'l, Lian Beng, etc are not pure constr counters. They have morphed into construction-developer plays which could explain their erratic cashflows.

Hmmm... Koh Bros didn't do any buyback yesterday and the day before. As I noted in an earlier post, my concern is that Koh Bros will not help to push up the stock. It's 21 cents or nothing for them. Like that how?

Jameskuwe: Koh Bros bought back another bunch of shares. Small quantity. All at 21 cents. Anyone can conclude that 21 c is the support price. No one can be sure if the Kohs will like to eat shares at a higher price. So, there is limited downside and ... big? small? upside.

Sun Plaza retail mall is half owned by Koh Bros which tried to sell it a few years ago. Didn't go through.  My friend says Sun Plaza is not your cool place to go shopping & dining. The ambience is no standard. The place is looking run down and crying out for a new coat of paint. If Koh Bros can sell Sun Plaza, it will trigger a re-rating of the stock.
 

James,

Koh Bros does look interesting. U have more insights after more digging into their financial statements?

Strange creature -- stay so still, even after chalking up 6th consecutive year of record profit.

 YONGNAM DELIVERS SIXTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR OF RECORD EARNINGS 

CITIGROUP today:

Valuation

Our S$0.31 target price is based on 7x FY12E earnings estimates; this is roughly inline with Yongnam's historical (FY06-present) average. We believe mid-cycle valuations are comfortably justifiable by the group's

i) attractive structural growth story (well positioned to capitalize on large-scale government projects);

ii) good execution track record;

iii) market dominance, and iv) reduced downside risk arising from a greater degree of certainty with respect to industry outlook (state-funded long-term projects) and replacement value of its strutting assets.

Risks

The key downside risks to our investment thesis on Yongnam are: 1) Potentially dilutive impact from 365mn outstanding warrants (30% of share base; exercise price: S$0.25; expires Dec-2012); 2) Higher than expected increases in steel price; 3) Poorer-than expected Structural Steel contract wins; 4) Delays in commencement/ cancellation of key infrastructure projects (e.g. Thomson Line, Eastern Region Line, North-South Expressway); and 5) Execution risks. If any of these risk factors has a greater downside impact than we anticipate, the share price will likely have difficulty attaining our target price.

Didn't move yesterday, so still got chance to accumulate at 25.5 - 26 cents. Anyone?

Yikes, forgot about this stock and didnt accumulate. This morning, announced :

YONGNAM DELIVERS SIXTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR OF RECORD EARNINGS WITH NET PROFIT UP 16.5% TO S$63.4 MILLION

- Gross profit margin improves from 28.6% in FY2010 to 31.1% in FY2011

- Order book remains strong at S$462.0 million as at 31 December 2011

- Declares final dividend of 1.0 (FY2010: 0.65) Singapore cent per ordinary share

A simple technical analysis suggests that smart money is accumulating shares of Yongnam.

Read this (good or goondu?) post by AK71: http://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.com/2012/02/yongnam-smart-money-is-accumulating.html

Happened to look thru Yongnam's announcements for Jan-June 2009, the period which CAD is investigating.

There was a 35,642,000 share purchase by the CEO on March 13 from the open market. This was a big 2.92 % stake which raised his direct holding to 5.67 %. He has another 5% + in deemed holding.

The 35.6 million share purchase was at 7.66 cents, and now the stock is a 3-bagger at 24.5 cents!

Wonder why it took so long for the whistle blower or kaypoh or rumour monger to talk to CAD./

Minus 2 cents = 24 cents. CEO going to be weighed down by CAD probe. But is it business as usual in the company?

Another big fish invited to lim kopi at CAD!
Will the CEO's case bring down the stock price tomorrow?

UOBKH

Yongnam Holdings – Strong construction demand will lift earnings BUY with 79% upside
 (BUY/S$0.235/Target: S$0.42)  

Re-iterate BUY on Yongnam Holdings (Yongnam) with a target price of S$0.42, pegged at the sector’s 9x 2012F PE. We expect its share price to remain resilient amid economic uncertainties, backed by a strong track record and a consistent dividend policy. 

Yongnam’s share price remained stable in 4Q11 despite clinching two sets of contracts. This would present opportunities for investors looking to ride the regional infrastructure construction play story. 

 

Yongnam will report its full-year earnings in February and we expect a net profit of S$63.5m, driven by stronger gross margin due to favourable project mix. The company has a policy of paying about 15% of earnings as dividends, which we project at 0.78 cents for 2011.

 

This poor guy's share price has been fluctuated in a tight range S$0.20-0.30 since mid-2009.
Poor guy --= strong construction market leader but no stk market darling. Lucky i took profit a long time ago at 29 cents. Maybe can consider buying back...

Citi has initiated coverage --- may be a good sign. Target S$0.36 based on 8x FY12E earnings, a slight premium to YNM’s historical and peer average of ~7x.


Investment thesis is based on i) higher-than-expected earnings
growth (11% > FY12E consensus); ii) YNM’s strong market positioning amid a positive
industry trend; iii) compelling valuations (~6x FY12E P/E) and iv) downside protection
from replacement value of the group’s strutting assets (>70% of market cap). but improving
fundamentals could enable a sustained breakout to the upside.

DBS VICKERS RECOMMENDATION

Our FY10/11 EPS estimates are raised by 8% and 5% respectively,
as we hike our gross margin assumptions following this set of
results. Balance sheet strength also improved in 3Q as Yongnam
recorded strong operating cash flows and reduced gearing to 0.52x
from 0.61x at end-2Q10. Hence, we maintain our BUY call on the
stock at a slightly higher TP of S$0.47 (10x FY11 earnings).

ANALYST: Suvro Sarkar +65 6398 7973 suvro@dbsvickers.com

Yongnam has announced yet another contract yesterday. Seems like they really do have lots of work to come, which means sometimes a stock decision can be made wrongly because we dont know what\'s around the corner in terms of announcement.:

Harlequin wrote:[quote]Seems a tad too aggressive a target price of 46 cents by CIMB. For that, Yongnam has to win lots of big contracts in the next couple of months. As it is, the outstanding order book ain\'t hot to make me expect a major rise in revenue/profit for 2010. What do ya think?[quote]

Published April 1, 2010

Yongnam upbeat on winning a third of new projects here It plans to boost stock of steel struts as builders' demand remains strong

By VEN SREENIVASAN

COMING into the new year with an order book of some $492 million, specialist infrastructure steelworks company Yongnam Holdings reckons it can clinch at least a third of the estimated $1.4 billion worth of new projects coming onstream this year. And this does not include up to $30 billion of infrastructure projects here, including the $8 billion North-South underground expressway, which is expected to be commissioned in the next few years.

'Some people (in the market) seem to think that with the completion of some of our big commercial projects like Marina Sands, the game is over for us,\' laughed executive director and chief financial officer Chia Sin Cheng.

'They could not be further from the truth. Even as I speak, we are very busy with major infrastructure projects such as the $5 billion Marina Central Expressway, Downtown Line 2 & 3, Gardens by the Bay and others.'

Yongnam considers itself unique in its business. The company is Singapore's, and probably the region\'s, largest supplier of steel struts used to support construction of tunnels, underground highways and subterranean buildings; and structural steel used for the construction of mega complexes and buildings. Indeed, some analysts calculate that Yongnam is bigger than the combined size of its next two biggest competitors, Taiwan's Fuichi and Japan's J-Steel.

'In this business, size matters,' Mr Chia said.

'Barriers to entry are high, not just because of cost, but also because of regulatory requirements and the need for a strong track record. And we have first mover advantage on these fronts.

Yongnam's size becomes obvious when seen in the context of its steel asset holdings: it owns some 135,000 tonnes of steel struts at its Tuas facility, which itself is the size of 20 football fields. These re-usable struts are used by multinational builders like Obayashi, Takenaka, Penta-Ocean and others to physically support underground tunnels and caverns at multi-billion-dollar subterranean infrastructure projects.

Demand has been so strong that Yongnam is planning to buy at least 20,000 tonnes more, to boost its total stock to 155,000 tonnes. Its existing stock is carried at original steel cost of $900 per tonne, though new stock will have to be bought at $1,600 per tonne - a factor which also raises barriers to entry.

'No doubt, there has been a slight flattening out of these commercial projects which use structural steel,' Mr Chia said. 'But the pipeline looks promising, especially with the Kallang Sports Hub and Southbeach projects coming onstream later this year.'

Last year, structural steel accounted for 75 per cent of its full year revenue of $347 million (net profit for end-December 2009 was $40.1 million). But in its current order book, 60 per cent of revenue will come from struts. The company is also looking to diversify geographically.

'Currently, 90 per cent of our projects are in Singapore,' he said. 'We expect the Singapore:offhsore mix to be 50:50 in about three to five years.'

Its past offshore projects include Delhi Airport, Bangkok Airport and Dubai Metro Rail. Meanwhile, the company is bracing for a slew of mega infrastructure projects here, including the underground expressway which will run parallel to the CTE. \'In this business, you must have the capacity and size to deliver,' he said. 'So for us, the bigger the project, the better.'

Meanwhile, it expects to book some 62 per cent of its existing order book into this year's earnings, with the rest coming in during 2011. Asked why Yongnam's stock is stuck at under 30 cents if the outlook was so bright, Mr Chia laughed:

'Yes, we used to be above 50 cents over a year ago when we had half the value of projects in hand. I suppose the market has not appreciated what we are. Many analysts tend to lump us with other general contractors, not realising that we are a specialist steelworks subcontractor who does not share the same risks as those in general construction.'