Sounds familiar today with Temasek going around shopping. I googled and found this below.

Why is Temasek Holdings paying $2.82 BILLION to buy back all the shares of Neptune Orient Line, when it had declared to divest itself from all ownership of viable GLC operations ?

If one is to relook at all the reported outflow of funds from Temasek Holdings for 2004 alone, one can only wonder if there is a bottomless depth in Temasek's pocket:

29 January 2004 - Temasek pay US$45million for 7.5% stake in India's Supply Chain Manager.

18 February 2004 - Temasek pay S$43.7million for an increase of 0.56% stake in India's ICICI Bank, raising its shareholdings from 6.72% to 7.28%.

3 March 2004 - Temasek pay US$765.8million for 5% stake in Malaysia's Telekoms.

(No follow-up during March 2004 to August 2004, anyone who did ? )

Temasek's NOL offer 'fair but not compelling'

HSBC advises investors to keep holdings if they are confident of long-term prospects but says those wishing to sell could do so if the market price was higher

By Nicholas Fang

TEMASEK Holdings' $2.82-billion cash offer for all the shares of Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) that it does not already own is 'fair but not compelling', said NOL independent financial adviser HSBC.

In a circular issued to shareholders yesterday, HSBC said that shareholders who wished to realise their investment in NOL immediately should consider selling their shares on the open market if they can obtain a higher price than Temasek's offer price.

However, shareholders who are 'confident of the long-term prospects of the group' were advised to retain their shares and not accept the offer.

Temasek Holdings stunned the market earlier last month when it announced its offer for NOL at $2.80 a share.

The Singapore investment company announced the offer after buying NOL shares on the open market and pushing its stake past the 30 per cent mark that triggers a mandatory takeover offer under corporate laws.

HSBC said that factors in favour of the Temasek offer included the fact that the offer price of $2.80 per share is higher than any adjusted daily closing price in the period since NOL's acquisition of its APL liner arm in 1997 up to the offer announcement date.

'The premium of the offer price over the historical share price of NOL in the observation period we have selected is in line with that of selected tender offer transactions in Singapore,' HSBC said.

However, it also noted that the adjusted daily closing price for NOL in the period since the date the offer was announced up to the latest practicable date has consistently exceeded the offer price.

The shares have closed above Temasek's $2.80 bid price every day after the offer was announced.

HSBC also said Temasek's offer valued the 36-year-old shipping line at a price-to-earnings multiple which was below the mean and median of comparable companies.

It recommended that shareholders who wished to realise all or part of their investment in NOL now, but were unable to obtain a price higher than the offer price on the open market, could consider accepting Temasek's offer.

A Temasek spokesman said yesterday: 'The opinion in the NOL circular has no new and material information on the company.

'We recommend that all NOL shareholders carefully read the independent financial adviser's opinion and the NOL board's recommendation based on the appropriate investment horizons.

'We wish to reiterate that our offer of $2.80 a share is an all-cash, firm offer, which closes on Sept 15 at 3.30pm.'

HSBC noted that NOL had said that, should APL be reclassified by the United States government as a controlled carrier if Temasek's stake in NOL edged above 50 per cent, the financial impact on NOL is unlikely to be material.

It said that NOL had told them that in the event of a loss of business due to such a reclassification, the financial impact would be immaterial as assets involved could be redeployed to serve other customers or trades.

NOL shares ended yesterday three cents lower at $2.82 per share with 3.95 million shares changing hands.

This news report was published in the Straits Times dated 3 September 2004, which will be archived after three days.

NOL releasing Q1 result on 14 May. Hope to see sign of turning comer to profitability. By the way, the analysis at the top were dated 21/2/2014. Nobody interested to assess NOL for last 3 mths ?

Thanks, Watoflos :) Now will also start paying attention to terminal growth. Overlooked
the hidden 'gem' - APL Terminal !

The next round of contracting period for transpacific shipping is May 1. The resumption of the work on the expansion of the Panama Canal should be favourable to transpacific shipping.

The trans-Pacific ocean shipping market is by far North America?s largest trade lane, accounting for nearly 20 million 20-foot-equivalent container units in the U.S. trade alone in 2012.

The market is dominated by imports by large retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot and Lowe?s, which, unlike in other markets, tend to contract directly with ocean carriers rather than through forwarders, as is typically the case in the Asia-Europe market. As a result of the one-year contracts that retailers and other large shippers typically sign as of May 1 each year, freight rates in the trans-Pacific eastbound trade tend to be less volatile than in Asia-Europe.

Key developments in the trans-Pacific include the approaching 2015 expansion of the Panama Canal and its potentially huge impact on routing of Asia goods into North America, Canadian West Coast ports? growing success in attracting U.S.-bound cargo, and West Coast ports? expected response to these competitive challenges.

Exports moving to those markets typically are lower-value commodities such as wastepaper and scrap that keep China?s manufacturing and packaging industries humming.

Closed well supported.
Saw this heading on JOC today - NOL Headed Back to Black NOL Group. Don't have subscription so can't access.

https://www.joc.com/maritime-news/international-freight-shipping/nol-group/nol-headed-back-black_20140305.html

The economic growth is picking up momentum.

Breaking News
World
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PUBLISHED MARCH 05, 2014
Eurozone Feb business growth strongest in 2-1/2 years: PMI
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Eurozone private businesses enjoyed their fastest growth rate in over 2-1/2 years last month as the region's service industry expanded quicker than initially thought, surveys showed on Wednesday - PHOTO: REUTERS
[LONDON]Eurozone private businesses enjoyed their fastest growth rate in over 2-1/2 years last month as the region's service industry expanded quicker than initially thought, surveys showed on Wednesday.
The upturn in the 18-member bloc's fortunes was again led by Germany, but the gulf between growth in Europe's biggest economy and the decline in France has only been wider once in the 16-year history of the surveys.
Markit's final Eurozone Composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which gauges business activity across thousands of companies and is seen as a good guide to economic health, was revised up to 53.3 from an initial flash reading of 52.7.
That was the eighth month the index has been above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction and beat January's 52.9.

I believe NOL should issue another announcement to the closure to the earlier announcement issued on Feb 25 that warned of the possibility of being put on SGX Watchlist. I will expect that there will be some details to share why they manage to 'avoid' the embarrassing fate and hopefully give a glimpse of a more positive spin.

The 5 Mar 2014 list for Watchlist is out. Don't see NOL in the list - http://www.sgx.com/wps/portal/sgxweb/home/company_disclosure/watchlist

The daily short sell list has dropped to around 300 lots and pool for lending reduced to about 2900 lots.

Thanks, Andrew. After 5 years in the doldrums and 3 years of consecutive loss and aggressive plan to cut cost and replace the fleet with larger capacity and more fuel efficient ships, I think NOL will be able to reap significant benefit if the global trade picks up more momentum this year. This is especially so if the demand closes the gap with supply or exceeds market estimate. Sounds a little bit optimistic but market tends to surprise on either extreme.

Hi, Andrew Wong, is http://awonginvestment.blogspot.sg yours ? It appears to covers mainly Malaysia stocks, don't see anything on shipping in particular on NOL ? What's your take on NOL for FY14 ?