Genting is so HIGH!

Genting Bhd’s share price extended its gains, rising as much as 3.92% or RM1 to RM26.50 in early trade on Oct 10 on the positive outlook of its bid for Singapore's second casino licence.

Genting's odds for winning Singapore's second casino licence have been strengthened after the abrupt withdrawal of US gaming giant Harrah's Entertainment Inc from the race.

The deadline for bids is Oct 10 and the results will be known by year-end.

Genting is widely seen as the frontrunner because it would spending more than US$1 billion (RM3.7 billion) to bring in theme parks giant Universal Studios to build family attractions on the 49ha site on Singapore's resort island of Sentosa.

~ From TheEdgeDaily

Foreign Investor Factor

Share prices of Kosmo Technology Industrial Bhd, Farm’s Best Bhd, MoBif Bhd and Iris Corporation Bhd fell sharply on Sept 19 after the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Securities Commission launched probes into Aeneas Capital Management LP, which was among the largest investors in these companies.

Aeneas Capital Management LP, the hedge fund company run by former SAC Capital Advisors LLC money manager Thomas Grossman, is under investigation by regulators in the US and Malaysia after bets on Malaysian stocks caused losses of about 60 per cent in one of its funds, people familiar with the situation told Bloomberg yesterday. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is examining Aeneas to determine whether it broke any securities laws, three people with direct knowledge of the inquiry said. In Kuala Lumpur, Aeneas is being probed for potential stock manipulation, said the people, who declined to be identified because the investigations aren't yet public.

Aeneas was among the largest investors in the four counters, in which its investment more than doubled this year. It lost money in stocks, including Iris and Farm’s Best, prompting Deutsche Bank AG to demand repayment of loans that finance the trades:

• IRIS
• Mobif
• Kosmo
• Farmbes

Do review the chain reactions from May to September. The selldown did not have a serious impact on the overall market sentiment, except for investors who had bought the stocks.

VC-backed companies

When considering an investment in a "MESDAQ" company, we do need to count on the presence of a VC. Of cource, we need to have a deeper understanding of the roles and objectives of VCs, and how these vary from one VC to another as different VC has different vision .

OSK Ventures International Bhd (OSKVI) is one of the most famous VC company in Malaysia with portfolio of about 20 companies. MTouche and Green Packet are backed by OSKVI where their performances have been very outstanding since their IPO. May be we can pay attention to future IPOs which involved by OSKVI.

My previous company got funds form Maybank VC. However, there were no guidance from their site and certainly does not match their objective: "Help improve the quality of the investee company's management". So far they are only 1 or 2 listed company (With poor performance) actually funded by Maybank VC.

So my perception is, the quality of a company sometimes do effected by their VC involvement (Good or Bad).

Example of VC Factor:
ISS Consulting Solutions Bhd, a software solutions provider that was listed on Aug 2. One of the substantial shareholders, Malaysia Venture Capital Management Bhd (Mavcap), sold almost 16 million ISS Consulting shares within the first three days, slashing its stake from 16.6% to 9.3%.
ISS Consulting ended its maiden trading day at 32 sen, well below its offer price of 41 sen. The stock closed at 21.5 sen last Thursday.