Pintaras Jaya, a hidden Gem

Pintaras is a smallish listed construction company (piling industry) with a total market value of RM82mil and it sits on an ample pile of cash and listed investments totalling RM78mil. On paper, investors are according a value of just RM4mil for the business, its management and track record.

I would like to thank my father, Mr Choo Siew Hoo, for helping me to find this hidden gem. My father likes cash-rich company and I am totally agreed with him.

On 20/3/2009, Ptaras was selling at RM1. This is an attractive price as its net cash/shares was 0.61. It is really rare that we could find such a cash-rich company. I manage to buy 3000 shares of Ptaras on 20/3/2009.

The only concern I had about Ptaras was its low liquidity and I might find it hard to close the position. But my father always shares with me that it is always better to buy a counter when the volume is very thin as during that time investors are not interested in that particular counter; and sell it when the volume is very high. According to him, when volume is high, it means that investors are fighting with each other to buy the counter. It will become more expensive. Yes, this is a contrarian way of investing.

I had to queue a few days before i managed to open the positions. Patience is very important in buying low liquidity stock.

I noticed that RM1.00 was its support. It was also its lowest price in the last two years.

Since opening the position, again, I queued everyday to close the position at RM1.08. Patience is very important in selling low liquidity stock too. I am very happy I managed to close the position at RM1.08 on 27/3/2009 after a week of holding the stock. I was queueing a few tick higher than the queue-to-buy price. I still remember on that day, when i queued to sell, the queue-to-price was RM1.01.

Ptaras is a smallish listed company. Normally, analysts would not do a research on it. When there is even a small catalyst, company such Ptaras would gap up enormously like what happened on 19/2/2009. On 19/2/2009, Ptaras jumped almost 15%.

Ptaras was on The Star (Starbiz) on 19/2/2009. Cash-rich Pintaras eyes acquisitions.
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/2/19/business/3298708&sec=business

I am really agreed with what its managing director (Dr Chiu Hong Keong) said. "Cash is useful even in normal times, but in troubled times it is king."