As it is Dataprep is worth 16 sen or less

Early this year, Dataprep which has very little business direction and continuous deterioration in revenue was being pushed - most probably by, various parties - bloggers, speculators and perhaps syndicates to 60 sen.

We can see that it is a company which does not have much left. This IT solution provider was dependent on government related projects back in 1990s to early 2000. After that, the company just went spiralling down with poor fundamentals. It was in fact controlled by Mirzan Mahathir and later when it was in trouble, the Genting's youngest son took over.

A lot of these businesses are very thematic at the particular part of time with very little core strength and competencies to be built into a competitive company. Moving passed 2005 and beyond, IT business is no longer the theme of the decade for Malaysia as we have moved on to oil and gas for the last decade and of course even that many O&G is now facing challenges.

Just yesterday, the controlling shareholder i.e. under Datuk Lim Chee Wah - the youngest son of Lim Goh Tong - sold off its controlling stake to one Tan Sri Muhamad Ikmal for 16 sen a share. We know that usually a company for its controlling stake would be sold at a premium and this possibly was sold at a premium.

Several times in my blogs, I have been critical and warned of businesses which have become of little value (or dwindling in value) as it is not able to turnaround and at the same time managed or led by non-visionary leaders in a tough competitive space. Dataprep is in that space. For people whom are deep into speculating such companies for sure they had hoped that Dataprep would have gone towards RM1.00 but these companies have no fundamentals that would enable them to stay at 60 sen and be deemed still undervalued.

From the surface, I am not able to see what the new owner will do with the listed company as it is still unknown. Through buying a 64% stake though, I can see that it is a significant controlling ownership - and from this, many types of structures it can do.

I am also sure there will be continuous speculation, but to me as it is 16 sen is the closest I think it is. Even then, until the company is clear on its direction - who would want to own the share of a company where we are not sure of its business direction.