Wonderings

How do you view this? Goldman Sachs International now has a 11.5% stake in Berjaya Corp. No matter what your views are of Vincent Tan or his Berjaya group of companies, you have to salute him in getting GSI onboard. If you ask all the analysts covering Malaysian stocks to recommend 3 counters for GSI to take up substantial stakes in, I can safely say that Berjaya Corp would probably not make the list at all. Its a wonderment, its probably the only time you can shake your head in disbelief but had to clap at the same time.



Goldman Sachs International ("GSI")
Peterborough Court, 133 Fleet Street, London EC4A 2BB, United Kingdom

Indirect/deemed interest (%)	:	11.5
Total no of securities after change	:	464,685,800
Date of notice	:	28/05/2010

GSI is a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs Holdings (U.K.), which is a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs Group Holdings (U.K.), which is in turn a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs (UK) L.L.C. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is the direct holding company of Goldman Sachs (UK) L.L.C. and the ultimate holding company of the other aforementioned entities.

As if thats not enough, he still managed to get Temasek to pour billions into U-Mobile ... another round of head shaking and you just had to clap some more.



Next, lets look at Sime Darby's Annual Report 2009, in the first few lines of the Chairman's Message: "I am pleased to announce that the Group has reported a net profit after tax and minority interests of RM2.3 billion and a Return on Average Shareholders’ Funds (ROA SF) of 10.6 percent, exceeding our Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for FY 2008/09 of RM1.9 billion and ROA SF of 8.8 percent."

This was the headline of Ahmad Zubir's message as CEO: "On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am pleased to report that the Sime Darby Group has exceeded our Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for FY 2008/2009 despite the challenging operating environment during the year. The Group recorded RM2.3 billion in profit after tax and minority interests and Return on Average Shareholders’ Funds (ROA SF) of 10.6 percent, exceeding our Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for the year, of RM1.9 billion and 8.8 percent."

Just wondering whether KPIs are the best management tool we have, or are KPIs really effective after all??!! Don't shoot the messenger ....