Investing For Value

Value Investing Case Study 133-1: A fundamental analysis of Sunway Berhad to assess whether it is an investment opportunity.  Sunway Berhad is often regarded as one of Malaysia's best-managed property groups. Over the past decade, it has transformed itself from a traditional property developer into an integrated ecosystem spanning property development, construction, healthcare, hospitality and recurring-income businesses. Despite its impressive growth, Sunway ranked near the bottom of its peers in return on capital, EBIT margin and free cash flow generation. Even more surprising, it consistently reinvested far more than it earned. Has management simply traded returns for growth? Or is this exactly what investors should expect from a company deliberately building a long-term integrated ecosystem? To answer these questions, I analysed Sunway's business evolution from 2016 to 2025, compared it with five Bursa peers, examined its operating economics, capital allocation and...

Tips  E-50: A 1-minute summary of my fundamental analysis of EverQuote Inc. (NASDAQ: EVER)    Investment Thesis EverQuote appears to be transitioning from subscale operations into profitable growth. Its scalable marketplace, operating leverage and digital-insurance tailwinds provide a credible path toward stronger returns.  Main Business EverQuote operates a digital insurance marketplace connecting high-intent consumers with insurers and agents seeking qualified potential customers. Revenue comes mainly from referral fees for consumer leads, supplemented by commissions from direct policy sales Growth Industry tailwinds and marketplace advantages have supported double-digit historical growth, with recent results suggesting momentum remains strong. Revenue compounded at 15% annually from 2019–2024 despite a cyclical 2023 downturn, before recovering in 2024.  Profitability EverQuote’s profitability is primarily scale-driven, with high operating leverage po...

This is Chapter 18 of my book Mastering Value Investing: Practical Strategies for Real-World Results . Go there for links to the other chapters. Unlike industrial companies, financial institutions are built around regulated capital, marked-to-market balance sheets and equity that exists primarily to absorb risk. Traditional free cash flow models often produce misleading results because concepts such as capital expenditure, working capital and debt do not have the same meaning.  So how should you value them? In this article, I demonstrate a practical framework using Malaysia's national reinsurer, MNRB Holdings, as a real-world case study. Rather than relying on conventional DCF techniques, I show why investors should examine financial institutions through three complementary lenses: Book value and tangible book value to understand the strength of the underlying asset base. Dividend-based valuation to assess the value created through shareholder distributions. Residual...

Tips E-49: A 1-minute summary of my fundamental analysis of Monolithic Power Systems Inc.’s (NASDAQ: MPWR)       Investment Thesis Monolithic Power combines exceptional business quality with valuation risk, leaving little room for investor error. The company has built a strong record of organic growth through proprietary technology, customer integration, and an asset-light model. However, much of this strength appears already reflected in the share price, limiting the margin of safety for long-term value investors. Main Business Monolithic Power is a fabless analog semiconductor company specializing in proprietary power-management solutions. Its products are used across data centers, automotive, industrial automation, and communications markets.  Growth From 2015 to 2024, revenue compounded at 23% annually, far exceeding the mid-single-digit growth of the power-management IC market. Management attributes this performance to engineering-led innovation an...

Value Investing Case Study 132-1: A fundamental analysis of Supermax Corporation Berhad to assess whether it is an investment opportunity.       Most investors think the story of Supermax is straightforward. COVID-19 created extraordinary demand for gloves. The company expanded aggressively. Demand later collapsed, profits disappeared, and the share price followed. But that explanation is incomplete. The real issue is not that Supermax lost its competitive advantage. In fact, its global distribution network and downstream business model remain largely intact. The bigger problem is that the company's economics have changed. During my analysis, I found that the pandemic expansion created a new operating breakeven level. The enlarged asset base and higher fixed costs mean Supermax now needs substantially more revenue than before COVID just to break even. This is why simply waiting for glove demand to recover may not be enough. The encouraging sign is that contri...