Article about Profitable Group

Hi Mr. Tan
Why did you withdraw your blog? Are you a coward?
What are you going to do with the defamatory statements in the Profitable Group website that are attacking you personally? Will you sue them?
Did you do any research before you post the article?

REPLY
My blog article was extracted from the Guardian website. Someone, presumably an investor, sent the article to me, requesting for it to be posted. I checked against the link and found that it was posted in the Guardian website.

Several of the statements refer to land banking in general and not specifically to Profitable Group. There were a few statements referring directly to Profitable Group but they looked quite factual to me. So, I posted the article in my blog.

When Profitable Group said that the article contained untruths, I removed it from my blog immediately. I also offered to post any correction that they wish to send to me. In particular, I asked for any correction that they sent to the Guardian article to be sent to me.

It is not a matter of cowardice. It is a matter of being fair. I do not hold any malice towards Profitable Group or any of its directors and do not wish to damage their reputation through any unintended mistake.

I have seen the statements made by Profitable Group in their website that do appear to attack me personally. I do not intend to take legal action against them for these statements. I will let the public make their own judgement about my character. Let the truth prevails. Let the facts speak for themselves.

Tan Kin Lian

Huge profits of life insurance companies

Someone who worked inside a large life insurance company operating in many Asian countries told me, "Mr. Tan, do you know how much profits a life insurance company makes in each of the various countries? It is a lot of money. So many tens or hundred of millions each year. This is why they can afford to pay so much upfront money to tie up with banks to sell their insurance policies, or to buy over other life insurance companies! ". He also told me that Singapore is one of the more profitable countries for the insurance company!

I am aware that the life insurance companies are very profitable, because they take away so much of the future savings of the policyholders - while the regulators are asleep.

Just imagine! If the accumulated savings for a policyholder is $500,000 and $200,000 is taken away from this policyholder, especially in an investment-linked policy (just look for the "effect of deduction" in the benefit illustration) and you will know how profitable the insurance company can be. If the insurance company sell 100,000 policies, the profit from these policies (including the portion shared with the agents) would amount to $2,000,000.00 over 25 or 35 years. Remember, the profits of the insurance company comes from the policyholders who became that much poorer by putting a blind trust in their brand name!

Learn about the benefit illustration here:
Participating policy
Invesment linked policy

If you want to learn a better way to safeguard your own financial feature, read my book on financial planning. It could save you up to $200,000 over a lifetime!

Tan Kin Lian

Selling profitable products

Mr. Tan,

Was the NTUC Income Limited Premium Whole Life introduced when you were still CEO of Income? If yes, can you give a comment why you allow such a bad product to be launched when you were in office?

Is it because while in office, you have to ensure good revenue for the company and hence has to sell PROFITABLE product? If so, how can the public be very sure that your new "campaign" against your own company is not due to some hidden agenda? (Not particularly to this product)

When you were in office, why did you allow your company to sell endowments, whole life to the public and have the agent earn a big commission? You should have eliminated all participating products and fire all your agents. Can you explain?

I like to bring to your reminder that your insurance agents were responsible in bringing Income to this level of success. Without them,you cannot never have achieved what you had achieved. Do not forget that your success was due to the hardwork of many AGENTS for without sales, you will have no salary when you were CEO.

For your information, I was not and I am not a NTUC Income agent.

REPLY

I have covered this point on a few occasions in the past.

During my time, the Income agents sell products at a modest level of commission and were able to bring products at lower cost to the customers. This was an efficient means of marketing at that time.

The endowment and whole life policies sold in the past gave much better value to the policyholders compared to similar products in the market.

During my time, I was not concerned about selling PROFITABLE products, because most of the profits go back to the policyholders. I was only concerned about offering products that serve the needs of the policyholders and are fairly priced.

In today's environment, there are more efficient ways for customers to take care of their financial future. I recommend that they buy Term insurance and invest the difference.

Agents can continue to make a living by acting honestly, giving good advice, in the interest of the consumer. Do not exploit the ignorance of the consumer.

Profitable companies return subsidies under Job Support schemes

Some profitable companies, such as banks and pharmaceutical companies, have returned the subsidies given by the government under the Job Support schemes.  Their action is laudable. However, some other profitable companies may pocket the subsidies.  This shows the weakness of the approach adopted by the finance minister to help business meet the cost of the circuit breaker measures. What is a better approach? https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=2984

Good experience with Forex Training Course

Many people had bad experience with forex training courses. They paid a high fee to get the training and lost money  in the trading activities (as the methods are not reliable). Here is an exception. This student still lost money, but he felt that the training provided was worth the money spent:

Dear Mr Tan,It would be my pleasure to share my experience with you.
Let me tell you upfront that I am not yet profitable trading forex.  Please allow me to explain why I was still happy with the course.
I took up the forex training course with X in December 2010.  At that time, I was retrenched for about 3 months and was unsuccessful in finding a new job.  With time on my hands and not knowing what else to do, I attended a few forex sales seminars and eventually signed up with X.  I paid about $3000 upfront for the course.
Before I signed up, I had already educated myself on forex trading.  I was aware that there were forex training providers who created the impression that forex was easy money.  X was honest about what forex trading was really about.  This convinced me to sign up.
The course started with 2 days of classroom training over the weekend.  This covered the theoretical knowledge needed to trade forex.  After the classroom sessions, students are entitled to attend regular tutorial sessions for 1 year.  The tutorial sessions were officially on the evenings of Mondays and Wednesdays.  During each session, the Chief Trainer Y would conduct an analysis of one or more currency pairs to demonstrate how he applied his techniques and then pointed out potential trades.  This would be followed by hands on session during which students learn to apply the techniques on their demo accounts while Y would go around answering questions. For those who have the time, X was open daily for students to go in and trade with other traders. Y would conduct two analysis for the students; once before London session opened and once before NY session.  As I did not have a job, I went in daily, from afternoon until night.  During these sessions, Y would analyse a currency pair and point out potential trades.  I found out over time that most of his trade calls were good and resulted in profitable trades.  However, it was a different matter when I did my own analysis and took my own trades.  Most of my trades turned out to be losers.  Faced with Y's successful trades and my own unsuccessful trades, it became obvious to me that it was not the technique but the trader that was the problem. I spent practically all my weekdays at X until I found a job in June.  When I was there, I found Y to be genuine about helping his students.  I was using air-con, Internet and electricity for free.   Although I could not go into X anymore because of work, I still joined the Wednesday sessions via webex meetings.  This was something additional that Y provided.  I didn't have to pay a single cent after that initial $3000 payment.  In fact, I wondered if he could be profitable like this. When I saw your online survey on forex and a comment that all forex courses are overpriced and useless, I knew where you were going with this.  You probably heard feedback from unhappy people who felt that they were cheated by forex schools.  Hence, I felt I should provide a balanced view.  There are indeed forex schools that use questionable tactics to sign up students but there are genuine ones too. Evaluating whether a forex course is good based on trading results can be tricky.  This is because forex trading techniques are easy to learn but it takes time and experience to learn how to apply them correctly.  It takes time, discipline and effort and is not a get rich quick scheme.  Like in any business, only a small percentage eventually master the skill to become successful. I personally found that it is quite safe to trade forex.  I am still working on my forex trading skills.  I have heard of people losing lots of money trading forex but it was usually because they could not follow simple trading rules that would keep them safe.  For example, students are taught not to trade large amounts until they are successful with paper trading or trading with mini accounts for a few months.  Another rule is that you are not supposed to risk more than a small percentage of your capital per trade.   However, there are many people who simply could not follow these simple rules. Mr Tan, if you have read up to this point, thank you for your patience!  And thank you for what you are doing to help ordinary Singaporeans! 

Profitable Group

Here is a news posted by the Profitable Group under the title "Mr. Tan Kin Lian".

The source of my posting is from the Guardian website: Don't bank on this land for making a profit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/feb/21/capital-letters

I asked the lawyer of Profitable Group if they had written to the Guardian to correct the untruths. They have not replied to me.

Here are more information on this subject matter. You can make your own judgement.

Court case against Profitable Plots

Even as the number of cheating charges at stake has fallen

for the three directors of Profitable Plots,

a tussle over papers has emerged.

 

The trio asked the High Court yesterday

for access to certain documents -

or their copies -

that the police had seized

from their land-banking and investment firm in a 2010 raid.

 

The public prosecutor had objected to the defence's previous request

by citing a lack of legal basis,

and this request was also rejected by a lower court -

the Criminal Case Disclosure Conference court -

earlier this month.

 

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/premium/top-stories/directors-seek-seized-profitable-plots-papers-20120830

 

Business Practice of Insurance Company - Another View

VIEW POSTED IN MY BOG

Business models usually evolved and got copied from one company to another. I would like to offer my view to mr. tan's observations:

1. From some friends of mine in a sales department of a networking equipment company, a pharmaceutical company, a software company, they told me that it is very common to have attractive prizes such as overseas trips and motivational activities as incentives, aside from high commission and bonuses that they get from selling the products.

2. With regards to "projections" - isn't projections are what they are meant to be - projections? if anyone tell you that projections are "guaranteed", then better inform MAS immediately. No, better still, if you can tell me which company can guaranteed 100% something in 20 years time, I will invest in it myself.

3. Most people in the sales line will meet objections and rejections. This happens in any industry. Unless you are naturally thick-skinned, you have to learn how to manage them or else how are you going to give your solutions to people. In particular to the insurance industry, where many people do not plan for their own future or unexpected demise, you got to learn how to overcome objections in order to help them help themselves.

4. I think every product serves a need. it is not fair to compare a product of yesterday with a new product today. A good fund yesterday may be a lousy fund today even though same performance. Why? because our expectations have risen. I know some MNCs who practice this model of eliminating staff whose performance levels falls below 5% relative to the performance of his/her peers. That means, every year sure must lay off some people. When a person buys a product, it was intended to serve a purpose and as long as the original purpose is achieved, it is should be ok. That's why people must know that buying insurance is not a one time thing. he/she must always buy new one whenever there are new needs to be addressed.

5. It is better for the company to make profits than to make losses. The questions should be - are the profits channeled back as more bonus for clients, training of advisors and creating more value-added solutions to consumers? Let's not be hypocritical - if you are buying equities or bonds, don't you want the companies that are linked to them to be profitable and sustainable companies?

Come on, if I buy a product from Income, I also want the company to be profitable and have money to improve the quality of the advisors and come up with innovative products.

There are two sides of a coin and it's not always fair to say that this company or product or agent is bad or good without considering the context where the event took place. By the way, since MAS is the regulatory body, if such practices are not condoned, how come never shut them down?

Bernie Sanders and the labor dispute in Verizon

Sisters and Brothers,

The CEO of Verizon makes almost $20 million a year in compensation. He leads one of the most profitable companies in the country.

Yet Verizon wants to take away employees' health benefits. Verizon wants to outsource decent-paying jobs. Verizon wants to avoid paying federal income tax. And right now, Verizon is refusing to sit down and negotiate a fair contract with its employees.

In other words, Verizon is just another major American corporation trying to destroy the lives of working Americans. But this time, Verizon's employees are fighting back.

Thousands of very brave employees of Verizon and Verizon Wireless are on strike until they can get a fair contract. They made a very difficult decision that puts their families at risk -- but it's a choice they made to stand up for justice against corporate greed.

I'm asking you today to stand up and tell the CEO of Verizon that you think Verizon employees deserve a fair contract that protects health benefits, guarantees fair pay, and stops outsourcing. Click here to add your name in support of Verizon employees.

ADD YOUR NAME »

Twice last week in New York City I stood with Verizon workers in the streets. I did so because they're doing something very brave: they're standing up not just for themselves, but for the millions of Americans who don't have a union.

The working class of this country deserves to earn decent wages, decent benefits, and not see their jobs go to low-wage countries.

Verizon's CEO doesn't think that. He called me "contemptible" for saying that his employees need a fair contract, and that Verizon should pay its fair share in federal income taxes.

What I think is contemptible is CEOs with multi-million dollar compensation packages, presiding over extremely profitable companies, and still refusing to give their employees fair contracts.

Corporate greed is a scourge on this country, and it will take all of us standing up for justice in order to rein it in. One significant way you can stand up to corporate greed is by standing with Verizon employees who are out on strike.

Add your name and say you support Verizon employees who are standing up to the CEO in order to get a fair contract with health benefits, fair pay, and job protections.

Corporate America is slowly beginning to realize that they cannot have it all. Thanks for helping them know it.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

Avoiding tax

Profitable companies should pay their share of tax and should not be allowed to avoid tax. To hold ethics and integrity, lawyers and accountants should not use their professional knowledge to help profitable companies to avoid tax, for the sake of earning large fees. This is immoral. Countries and states should not have laws that allow companies to avoid tax (and my statement applies to Singapore as well).
http://www.cnbc.com//id/47218258

Bad investment in Profitable Plots

I met a security guard in Midview City. He is bitter about losing all his savings (more than $200,000) in the UK land sold by Profitable Plots. Because of this loss, he now has to work as a security guard.

He spoke to me about this matter two years ago. This is the first time that I saw him again, after two years. He is bitter that the government allowed this type of company to operate in Singapore and sell the overpriced land to the people.

He said that he still holds the title to the land plots and asked me if there is a hope that the land will appreciate in value when the UK government gave approval for rezoning to residential land.

I said that the real value of the land is probably one tenth of what he has paid for it. So, it will be difficult and will take a long time and some good fortune for the land to show a profit.

It is sad. But there is nothing that can be done now. I asked about his family, and he said that his children are now doing okay.

I hope that the government and MAS should be more proactive in preventing this kind of businesses to operate in Singapore.

Profitable trade on Cassava Science (SAVA)

 I made a good profit of $10,700 USD by buying Cassava Science (SAVA) after a sharp price correction. I sell off the shares soon after the rebound.

https://fisca.sg/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ID=1033&Name=Profitable-trade-on-Cassava-Science-(SAVA)&View=A

Unprofitable businesses

I made a study of the corporate profit in Singapore and found the following:

In year of assessment 2011, a total of 57,000 companies reported a total profit of $90.4 billion, while 106,000 companies reported a total loss of $63.8 billion.

Why are so many companies reporting a loss? It represented 65% of companies making a tax return.

The number of loss making companies increased from 104,000 in 2003 to 165,000 in 2011. The average loss per company increased from $210,000 to $600,000. This is a staggering sum.

Do these figures suggest that it is difficult for small businesses to be profitable in Singapore and that the cost of doing business is so high?

And, if it is not profitable, how do so many companies continue to be in business, reporting a loss. Where do they get the capital to keep funding the loss?

Read the answer here:
http://c-onyx.com/page/1721

Do what is best for the customers

Mr Tan

You build a big and successful business for NTUC Income. In growing the business, did you adopt the same approach as other CEOs in facing the real challenges, and seizing the opporunities?

--------------------------------

REPLY:

The business environment, challenges and opportunities are similar. But,I adopted an approach that was quite different from most other CEOs.

My starting point is: what are the real needs of our customers? how can we best serve these needs?

By putting customers first, I was able to build a large business and still make it profitable. We marketed products that were always the best for the customers at that time.

We did not have rely on "hype" to market the products. We keep the products simple and educate the customers truthfully on the features of the product.

We could still run a profitable business, by keeping our expenses low and avoiding wasteful expenditure.

In most other businesses, the CEO's primary focus is to meet the sales and profit targets - at all cost.

These CEOs might be forced, under competitive pressure, to adopt unethical practices. They may market products that make profit for the shareholders, but are not to the benefit of the customers. For example, some structured products introduced recently fall into this category. Some even manipulated the accounts.

I hope that CEOs of all businesses can adopt the approach of, "do what is best for the customers".

Is Grab profitable?

As I walked past the Grab operational office in Midview City this morning, a thought crossed my mind.

Is Grab operating profitably now? If not, are they still burning their investor's money?

Will they be profitable? When will it happen?

I do not like to see Grab becoming like Ofo or Obike. These bike sharing operations have to close down due to lack of profitability.

Investigation into Profitable Plots

http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110310-0000229/CAD-has-sought-overseas-help-in-Profitable-Plots-investigation

Aztech Group

Someone posted in #HearMeOut (tklcloud.com/feedback) his anger at the delisting of Aztech Group.

I looked at the share price of Aztech. It dropped from $1 to $0.40 over a period of 6 months prior to its delisting in Feb 2017.

In August 2017, Aztech Group embarked on a share reduction exercise and returned $0.42 per share to the participating shareholders. Details are in this letter.
http://www.aztech-group.com/…/AztechGroupLtd_CircularDated0…

The letter stated that the share had been trading at a discount to its NAV (net asset value) prior to the delisting.

Aztech holdings has a history of 30 years. It is quite sad to see that the share price had been performing poorly, although the business seemed to be profitable.

I wonder if this company is suffering from the "Singapore disease" - high cost of doing business, lack of market, etc. This disease seem to be afflicting most small companies in Singapore.

It must be a big struggle for them.

Tesla's production and delivery figures for 2022.

Tesla delivered 1.3 million vehicles in 2022, a growth of 40% over 2021. This growth rate is probably among the highest in the industry.

The growth rate for NIO is 34% for 2022. The growth rate for BYD is 184% but the total EV sold is still smaller than Tesla.

There is a fear that Tesla will lose out in its competition with BYD. However, most analysts expect the EV market to grow rapidly over the next 5 years. Tesla will be able to sell all the EVs that it produces in this expanding market.

Why did Tesla miss its growth target of 50%? The actual growth of 40% indicate a shortfall of 100,000 vehicles.

At the end of 2022, Tesla had 70,000 vehicles that were produced, but were not delivered. The bearish analysts said that it is due to a drop in demand for Tesla.

Tesla could have suffered from this drop in demand. However, there are two other reasons for the lower deliveries:

a) Many customers in America wanted to delay the completion of the purchase to 2023 to enjoy the tax incentive that will come into force.

Tesla introduced a discount of $7,500 to encourage these customers to complete the purchase in 2022, but it came too late to make any impact. Whatever sales lost in 2022 will probably be recovered in 2023.

b) Tesla found it difficult to arrange the logistics to export the vehicles from China to other countries. This was caused by the covid outbreak in China towards the end of the year, which caused a shortage of workers as many reported sick. This problem should probably be resolved in the 2023.

There is one negative point for Tesla. BYD appeared to be able to sell their vehicles in China (as can be seen from their record sales in December). NIO also reported record sales in that month.

So, it is likely that the lower demand is felt by Tesla in China, in spite of the problems in logistics.

To offset this challenge, Tesla had reduced the prices of its vehicles. This should make Tesla more competitive against the other manufacturers.

Tesla enjoys a large profit margin. Even if the prices are reduced, Tesla will still be able to sell their vehicles at a profit.

NIO operates at a loss in 2022. It is expected to make a loss in 2023 as well. NIO has a large debt of 82% of equity. The high interest rate will put pressure on NIO.

BYD is profitable, but has a PE ratio of 52 times. It is imported to improve its profits in 2023 and reduce its PE ration to 33 times. It debt is 23% of equity (which is low).

Tesla has a PE ratio of 39.6 times. The PE ratio is expected to fall to 24.3 in 2023. Its debt is 14% of equity. It has a cash hoard 0f $21.2 billion compared to debt of $5.9 billion.

At the current stock price, both Tesla and BYD are attractive for investment. I prefer Tesla because the stock price can increase by 50% from current level to put the fundamentals at a similar level to BYD.

Tan Kin Lian
https://fisca.sg/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ID=1283

Maternity leave for female employees

A young lady, recently married, told me that she had difficulty in getting a job. Employers are reluctant to recruit her as she is likely to have one or two babies and this will impose added cost to the employer to pay the salary during the two months of maternity leave. During the interview, this question was raised, and she did not get the job.

Sometime ago, another person complained to me that she was unfairly dismissed due to performance, when the real reason was that a baby was expected. She did not want to disclose the employer or take the matter to the Ministry.

I wonder if this is a common situation? I can understand that some employers, who are struggling to survive in business, does not want to have the added cost. Even the profitable companies want to avoid this cost, if they could, so that they can increase the bottom line profit. Perhaps, there is some hidden instructions to their HR department.

Please share your experience and views on this issue.

Elitism and excellence

Minister Chan Chun Sing said that we should be anti-elitism and not anti-excellence. This phrase sounds impressive. But what does it mean? Is it just another way of ignoring the problem of large inequality?

What can be done to correct the grotesque inequality?

The answer is obvious - introduce a minimum wage of $1,500 per month or $10 an hour.

It has been argued that some employers cannot afford this wage. I agree. But what about the other employers?

But can the National Library Board or Changi Airport afford it? 

Why is the National Library Board paying only $5.50 am hour for their part time assistants?

I don't know what Changi Airport pays, but it probably is much lower than $10 an hour. I read a news report that one elderly worker, 65 years old, was so angry with his job that he changed the destination labels on many luggage mischievously and got them sent to the wrong destination.

I know that Changi Airport made a profit of $849 million last year. Can they afford to give better pay to their workers?

Can they also pay more to their check-in staff, so that more locals will take up the jobs? It is rather sad to see many of these jobs being done by foreigners.

If the minister wants to achieve less inequality, words will not do much. He should get the govt to introduce a minimum wage of $10 an hour or $1,500 a month for all jobs in the public sector.

What about the private sector?

All big and profitable companies can afford the minimum wage. It is not that much, compared to many other countries with lower cost of living.

What about the small employers? The govt can provide a wage subsidy of 30% of the wages, capped at $1,000 a month for each employer.

Some small employers will abuse this subsidy, but they can be handled. The govt just need to pay attention and deal with the abuses. It is not that difficult.

Elitism is a bad word for the current practice of this govt. the govt can remove this bad image by paying a minimum wage in the public sector and help small businesses to provide this minimum wage.

When workers find dignity in their job, and the dignity starts with an adequate wage, they will not worry too much about elitism.







Tan Kin Lian