Oriental ... Rich In Cash & Assets

Kah Motor Co Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned unit of Oriental Holdings Bhd has secured a distributorship for Mitsubishi vehicles in Malaysia.

Some industry observers say the distributorship could see a resurgence of Kah Motor in the automotive industry. The company used to be the sole distributor of Honda vehicles in Malaysia but lost the franchise in 2000.

Oriental, DRBHicom and Honda of Japan are partners in Honda Malaysia which assembles Honda cars in Malaysia. Honda has a 51% stake in the JV while DRBhcim and Oriental have 34% and 15% stake.

Some sources however say current Mitsubishi distributor DRBHicom will still hold on due to the supply of cars to government departments and the police force.

It could also be that Oriental and DRBHicom have a working partnership to sell Mitsubishi vehicles.

Accordingly, Oriental’s automotive business accounted for slightly more than half of its total revenue in FY2013, and yet the division incurred losses.

Oriental also has plantation and property development ventures.

It also has hotel business in Thailand, Singapore, Australia, NZ and the UK. Its plantation segment is active in Indonesia and its plastics business has operations in China.

Its net asset value per share as at June 2014 was rm7.80. As at end June 2014 it had cash and bank balances of almost rm2.8 billion, short term debt of rm595 million and long term borrowings of rm2.6 million.

The company is 56.5% controlled by the family of late Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew. Another substantial shareholder is Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, a unit of Aberdeen Asset Management PLC which has a 11% stake.

The company also has many choice assets, such as landbank in Penang, the Klang Valley, Australia and the UK.