Been buying Metro for a while now only because its NAV is around 1.3 and had been getting their share for around 79c..its now moved to about 95...i know they have a decent biz and decent assets but I had failed to look into the below info on their annual report...

The Group continues to hold a 5.0% interest in Top Spring International Holdings Limited and1.1% of Shui On Land Ltd – two leading property developers in the PRC listed on the Hong Kong stock Exchange. We remain optimistic in both companies’ long-term investment prospects; giving Metro potential access to quality property projects in Chinese cities.

TOP SPRING has gone up 78% the last one year and they own 5% of this company..thats a good $50m..Shui On Land has gone up 42% and its still highly undervalued...

I gotta give it to the metro boys, company is at 6.8 times earnings, highly undervalued still, has great property investments, very low debt, and alot of cash...

Seen many companies with the above dna, and they all have 3 directions they can go..

1) do what it can to bring price back up close to NAV levels

2) spin out cash to reduce NAV to current share price levels

3) get taken over or start selling its assets and delist

@ 88 cents ...have lots of upside still for this undervalued counter. How come sumer has not spotted this one?

The decent historical yield aside, Metro has a tortoise mentality that cannot attract enthusiasm of investors. U have to go beyond the yields and cash in the bank -- and start to decipher the mindset of the management and the possibilities of the company in the next few years. The outlook is not so sexy.

'greengiraffe' of Valuebuddies.com put it most accurately:

Based on the latest financial results, there is little doubt that Metro's recurrent cash generated from operations is around the ordinary dividend rate of 2 cents a share.

However, even after netting off the current of 6 cents to be paid, the net cash sitting on the books of 46 cents (which excludes another 20 cents in liquid short and long term investments) remains glaring especially relative to the last traded share price of 77cents and NTA post dividends of S$1.28.

Management's inaction with regards to strategies on narrowing the gap between mkt price and underlying worth of the company underlines the lack of value that is assigned to either the cash hoard or other assets sitting in the company.

While one can fall back on Metro's track record in realising value in China, the latest realisation of its biggest lemon, Metro City Beijing, can be viewed as a narrow escape for the company and probably the last in the next 3 years.

As the seeds sowed for future assets realisation have visibly slowed, it is hard to forsee how Metro can sustain special dividends unless they change their dividend policy or their approach to enhance shareholders' wealth through share buybacks.

2 cent final dividend FY12 -- same as for FY11.
4 cent special div -- 3 cents more than for FY11.

total for FY12 = 6 cents, versus 3 cents in FY11.
I consider this pathetic, and the stock price will prob get a sell wave today from 78-cent close of yesterday .

Metro will announce FY results on May 30. As then date approached, the stock has firmed up, in anticipation of a special dividend. I'm certain there will be one. But I am not certain it will be a juicy one. Nonentheless, Metro is a very undervalued stock. The cold cash in the storeroom is the draw.

73 cents, seems like dead on the water. But can buy?

U can only blame management for failing to crystallise the value in Metro for minority shareholders. I agree that Metro is grossly undervalued. I also venture that mgt has failed because the value has been there for so long, yet the stock price cannot reflect it.

Back in 2009, Sebastian Chong had highlighted Metro. It was then around 64 cents. Nearly 3 years on, it's still ard there  - to be exact, 68 cents. Wah piang.!

http://nextinsight.net/index.php/story-archive-mainmenu-60/36-2009/1438-sebastian-chongs-property-picks-metro-ascendas-india-guocoleisure

The dividends they paid out are measly , with historical yield at 4.4%

This has been a Big Disappointment to value investors. Still at 68 cents despite being clearly undervalued. I copy DMG latest report dated 20 Jan 2012 here --- Got hope or not?

To date, all its property ventures have been profitable, with divestment gains ranging from 5-25% premium over book value. Over the past five years, shareholders’ equity compounded at a CAGR of 9%, before taking into account dividends.

The group is currently in the midst of selling its 50% stake in retail mall Metro City Beijing at a price tag of RMB 1.25b, a 50% premium over its latest valuation. Should the deal be successful, it will be able to book a pretax profit of S$87.4m, with NAV/share raised by 9 cents. Metro’s assets comprise

1) a China-based property portfolio worth $683m;

2) property-related investments with a market value of $173m;

3) an established retail business conservatively valued at $40m; and

4) net cash of some S$300m. This gives rise to a RNAV of $1.02b, or $1.23/share, after netting out liabilities.

We value the stock at $0.86/share on a discount of 30% to RNAV, suggesting 29% upside from current levels. BUY recommended. (Goh Han Peng) 

Is this doomsday scenario something we should be wary of? Or is this a very skewed report by Bloomberg? Make your own decision.....

Beijing Seen Vacant for 50% as Chanos Predicts Crash

By Bloomberg News Feb. 12

(Bloomberg) -- Jack Rodman, who has made a career of selling soured property loans from Los Angeles to Tokyo, sees a crash looming in China. He keeps a slide show on his computer of empty office buildings in Beijing, his home since 2002. The tally: 55, with another dozen candidates.

"I took these pictures to try to impress upon these people the massive amount of oversupply," said Rodman, 63, president of Global Distressed Solutions LLC, which advises private equity and hedge funds on Chinese property and banking.

Rodman figures about half of the city's commercial space is vacant, more than was leased in Germany's five biggest office markets in 2009. Beijing's office vacancy rate of 22.4 percent in the third quarter of last year was the ninth-highest of 103 markets tracked by CB Richard Ellis Group Inc., a real estate broker.

Those figures don't include many buildings about to open, such as the city's tallest, the 6.6-billion yuan ($966 million) 74- story China World Tower 3. Empty buildings are sprouting across China as companies with access to some of the $1.4 trillion in new loans last year build skyscrapers.

Former Morgan Stanley chief Asia economist Andy Xie and hedge fund manager James Chanos say the country's property market is in a bubble. "There's a monumental property bubble and fixed-asset investment bubble that China has underway right now," Chanos said in a Jan. 25 Bloomberg Television interview. "And deflating that gently will be difficult at best."