Reposting somebody elses post

This is a repost from a blog I read often... I would put a URL, but who clicks on URL's?

Here is the URL

Sg Buloh-Kajang MRT Line, Why So Expensive? by Salvatore Dali. This guy is a chinese guy btw.

"Sigh ... why ask the question when we all know the answers anyway. Should we just stop asking questions? Should we ask questions and then nonsensical answers come back, and we all go back to our routine? Then ask questions again, and the same virtous cycle repeats itself. This is not the first, nor is this the 100th project to trigger alarm bells. Seems like the 2008 election results is not enough to jolt some people to do better - so fellow Malaysians, you should know how to do better if they do not know how.

First, make sure you register as a voter, and then make sure your family and relatives register as well. Then make sure your friends register. The voting in 2008 is actually 48%-52% for/against ... and 4m eligible voters DID NOT register to vote at all!






http://goodstockbadstock.blogspot.com/2011/03/should-we-ask-singapore-to-help-us.html#comments


When the MRT proposal was first released, I am in general supportive of the deal. The idea of having a MRT line is great. Plus, I have done some calculation, the project cost seems to be in line with the cost of constructing the MRT in other countries. The initial estimate by MMC-Gamuda, although slightly more expensive, it is still within the ball park range. Then, today, newspaper said that the line would cost much more, almost 50% more. Now, our MRT line is not slightly more expensive, it is very very expensive. I am talking about the cost of Sg.Buloh-Kajang line, as the details of other line have not been released yet, so it would be quite stupid and silly to estimate the cost as we do not know how much of the rest of the line would be underground, like our friends in CIMB just did.


First, let's look at what CIMB said about the proposal since they are the only documents that I have on hand that talk about the Pasarana's MRT briefing in details.






As mentioned in the CIMB report, the cost of the line has gone up by nearly RM6b or 50% more than the initial estimates. The analyst explain the price hike as caused by inflation. Very clever. In less than 2 years, price increase by 50% or an inflation rate of around 25% ( arithmetic average). If the cost of construction materials really increase at 25% per annum, a lot of our property and construction players would be in a loss-making position. Property prices, across the country (not in selected spot), would have gone up by 50%. Did we see that type of increase? I don't think so. Assuming the analyst is correct, at a 25% per annum inflation rate going forward, the final cost of the MRT project would be staggering. 25% per annum inflation basically means that the cost will double in slightly less than 3 years. Our MRT is a ten year project, so, within the time frame of the project, the cost will be more than 8x the original estimate or around RM290b. He is not surprised, I wonder what will make him surprised. Plus, the engineers and QS in MMC-Gamuda are very smart people too, they make projections without considering inflation. Or did these people purposely understate the price to get buy in from government, then only tell the government that the actual cost of the line? If that is the case, it makes our government looks quite stupid.


I am comparing our cost with the recent MRT line with that of the recently completed circle line in Singapore. I am not comparing with China because it would make the Singapore line looks expensive and our Klang Valley MRT ridiculously expensive. Let's just says that China are constructing their MRT lines at a tiny fraction of the cost of our Klang Valley MRT. Perhaps I should, since we are paying our Bangladeshi workers similar wages as the Chinese paid their construction workers. But, China is having at least 15 subway lines being built simultaneously, so, they probably would have some economies of scale there.


Singapore completed their circle line last year at a cost of SGD10b. It is 35.7km fully underground line. According to Prasarana CEO, an underground portion cost 5-10x more than the elevated portion of the line. So, I will take 5x as benchmark, that is, I make the Singapore line looks more expensive although the estimates coming out indicate that the underground portion is 10x more expensive. Who is doing the underground portion? Haha..you know what I am thinking right. So, at SGD10b for 35.7km, we will get a cost of RM669m/km for underground and RM133m/km for the elevated section. So, the Sg.Buloh to Kajang line cost RM11b if we use Singapore circle line cost as benchmark. It seems that kiasuland can build their MRT almost 40% cheaper than boleh land even though their engineers and their Bangladeshi workers are paid at least twice as much as Malaysia paid our engineers and Bangladeshi workers.







A little bit background on the Circle Line, the SGD 10b construction includes cost overuns. The intial cost is just SGD6.7b. This is uncharacteristic of a Singapore public project as they normally complete their project below the initial estimate and yet, our Klang Valley MRT line costs 60% more on per-km basis. I wonder whether our Malaysian geography is so different than Singapore that it cost 60% more. In addition, the Circle line construction faces quite a lot of problems. It was constructed at the same time as the two Integrated Resorts.

At that time, Singapore faces a shortage of constructions workers, so construction cost skyrocketed. Furthermore, at that time, Singapore faces a shortage of sands as they manage to piss off a few of their neighbors including Malaysia. So, no one are selling sands to them. Even Genting Singapore construction is delayed even though they sign an exclusive agreement with the Singapore arm of YTL Cement to ensure fixed supply. LVS do not have this sort of agreement and causes them to open much later than Genting Singapore. The shortage of sands is so acute that most Singapore property built on that period uses glass to replace wall to cut cost. A construction project in my university was delayed to ease the demand for construction workers and sands.

The circle line also faces problem in the form of part of the section of the tunnel collapsed, causing delays and re-alignment midway through the project. With all these problems happening during the time of the project, their final cost is still 60% cheaper than our MRT cost at planning stage. I wonder how come our MRT line is so expensive? Should we just tell the people that construct the Singapore MRT to help us construct our MRT then? I think their MRT is built by some Japanese firm, so, there are no question of political feasibility. The old man like to look east, so, he won't make noise.


The complains about the line recently is mostly about the placement of the stations. But, the press painted them as these people do not want the MRT line at all. They make it a rich versus poor thing. We are already being segregated based on race and religion, now they want to separate us based on wealth. Banyak pandai punya media. These people are basically complaining about the placement of the stations, the implementation of the project. They do not say that they want to cancel the project. In fact, some of the station placement is so poor that it is laughable.

Based on their maps, one station in the so-called "poor" part painted by the media is actually place after a toll and it is a park and ride facilities. So, if I am a resident of nearby Taman, I want to take MRT to work, I need to pay toll to access the station. Unless they want to buy up the entire residential estate that is situated behind the station, I do not think the residents in that area can access the station without paying toll. A few hundreds meters down the line, there is a decent patch of land that avoid the toll. Very clever indeed.


They said that the tunneling works would be based on open tender basis. But, the devil is in the details, it may be that the details will favour a MMC-Gamuda bid. By the way, since when does a company that have only dug two tunnels in their entire life can be considered an experienced player? Hmm, you mean those Chinese firms that have 60 TBMs working on a single subway line should be considered grand master? Do we want a grand master to build our underground portion or you want an experienced player with 2 tunnels under their belt? Would it be better for our companies to learn from these grand master and hold minority stake in the project. Next time, with these knowledge, they can go to India or Africa and win tunneling project.


So macam mana?
"

Parking at Sunway

Just had my car broken into. My door was deliberately left open. Parking in Sunway is just downright ridiculous. The car shops are all weasels. They "reserve" parking slots and their attitude is that the public parking spaces there belong to them. My car got broken into, but theres nothing missing there. The shop infront of my car there are not willing to admit that they did the shit. I had to rope in a few mechanics to help me check if anything was wrong with my car. The mechanics actually admitted that there are a lot of shopkeepers that vandalise your car because they don't like people parking infront of their shops.

One of the mechanics even said that you should just park at the parking at the other side of the road. Thats a PUBLIC parking spot. They ought to get arrested for destruction of private property. If there was anything missing I would have lodged a police report against that shop. God damn.

What am I doing here

God damn I'm so bored my mind is bleeding out of my ears... My room is a god damn mess. I've got about 7 cups on my table. I need to clean my room, I need to work on that accounting software, I need to start learning how to use that options account and go out and put some money into it. I need to get out and knock on some doors.

Update.

It's been ages since I last posted, there are tons of things going on right now, and I'm thinking of ramping up my investments with options. Options are a form of security derivative, a form of leverage that allows an investor to leverage his investments. EG: Putting down 10,000 bucks and having the exposure to 100,000 bucks of shares. It's far more dangerous but I think I've gotten fairly good at distributing risk.

Anyway, this post is a rant. It's been quite a roller coaster these few months. Lots of things have been going on. Some important, others less so. I've been working semi actively with my father for some time right now, there are plenty of interesting characters, my father talks very cordially with them, but the prevailing theme among them is that none of them are trustworthy. I think that's probably fairly true in most situations. A large part of working is being able to give and take. Sometimes you need to deal with people you wouldn't want to associate yourself with. There are always little weasels putting on a fake front and trying to curry favour, turning your back on them is generally a poor idea. The key is being able to root out people like this and cutting them off early, way before they can sink in their little paws and do damage. I've made a mistake on this before while dealing with a former acquitance of mine, who goes by the name Dominic. It's a mistake I'm not ready to repeat.

Some people get addicted to compliments, they know that the person who is saying the compliments have been telling lies to them. You know that you are being lied to, but you aren't ready to let go because your relying on the things that they are telling you to form your confidence. Regardless of whether it is the truth. It's a poor thing when your not able to form your own opinion without being told what to think.

I've been working on a number of ideas lately, a lot of them are basically ways to get rich. I've had great record in predicting the market, but it's a bull market right now. I'm not sure what my record would be in a bear market. It's probably coming soon. This has been the longest post recession bull market since 1987. I'm not sure whether now is the time to be so heavily vested in the stockmarket, but it's still looking good, so i'm here to stay.

Dealing with dishonest people.

Got screwed over by an immoral little shit. I should have just cut him off the last time, that useless little fox. Well, life goes on...

There's a good saying by Donald Trump, "forgive good people but don't even think about forgiving bad people".


On a side note... stupid people give me stress...

YLI Holdings

YLI holdings is a ductile pipe producer. What is a ductile pipe producer? Please google it. They hold a contract to supply Syabas(the water company) They are the largest producer of this product in Malaysia.

This company is really undervalued, at one point in time it was worth RM5, that was about 3 years ago. As of right now it's selling for RM0.63 cents, this gives it a market cap of 62 million. They have very little debt, if I'm not mistaken their debt to equity is something like 0.25. They have cash holdings of 32 million, thats more than 50% of their market cap that is in cash. Net tangible assets of RM2. The company is worth 3 times their market cap and 50% of the market cap is in cash. Seriously can it get any cheaper than this? Not to mention that it hasn't revalued its properties since 1996... What a value trap. I wish somebody would buy over this company, slice it up and sell off the pieces.

The whole problem with this company is that it isn't making any money, hasn't been making money for about 2 years, profit declining. However because of it's strong financial position and low debt it can probably maintain this status for quite some time.

The reason their profit has been declining is because many of the water projects that were supposed to be carried out in the 9th malaysia plan didn't materialise, and then there is the water tariff issue. There is a lot of water works project to be done in Malaysia, I can't remember where but I read a whole bunch of articles talking about it. Something about how there are 18,000 km of pipes that need to be replaced, and then all this about connecting the waterways between some state or another. The salient point is that there is a lot of built up demand for the products that this company is selling, and they are the largest producer in Malaysia, they also hold a contract that gives them a monopoly on supplying to Syabas.

I'm not sure when the water projects will materialise, but if it does this counter ought to skyrocket. Another problem is that the original ownder of this company, a chinese dude, sold of his major stake to a malay guy. YLI was doing very well... until it got sold to this Syed Yusof fella. Then everything went to the pits, management problem maybe? The company is still financially very strong, but any profit growth is going to be pretty much reliant on the water works project coming through, and maybe the water tariff hike.

Underwater

These days I feel really misunderstood, maybe it's because I'm too straight forward when I talk, or maybe it's because I don't sound friendly. I don't even understand how I manage to offend people sometimes, is it poor body language, a bad tone? Do I sound insincere? It's so hard to pretend to care about something when I really don't, I've never been able to do it.

Sometimes it feels like I'm building armour, these days I take so much crap sometimes I just block the emotion out. It's great for analysing, but god it feels like I'm dying inside. It feels like there is one world where everyone else is living, and another world where I am living. I'm tired, and frankly speaking kind of lonely these days. I try so hard on some things, and there are just a whole load of people out there just living their lives, moving on the treadmill of life, they just get by and thats it, they just get by. There is just this huge feeling of disconnect.

When did it become like this? It feels like one part of me is advancing, and another part of me is slowly dying. Somebody once told me that I have a very hard time expressing myself, used to be that I didn't need to express myself, people would just be around. But these days, when I try to talk, I don't know, maybe it's because of the topics I like to talk about, or maybe it's because I'm trying too hard to change. Sometimes people tell me I look slightly intimidating, especially when I'm trying to put on a good impression. I've heard this from many people, but when I try and be approachable the feeling I get is that people think I'm being pretentious. It feels like I'm drowning, the harder I try the deeper I go.

Is it so hard for people to understand? Especially people who used to know me, I am not like that. I am not arrogant, I am not pretentious, I say what I feel. I don't play politics, I'm not the type to play a character that I'm not.

Sigh, these days I just feel so misunderstood.