Finance Foundation Solution At Montreux Foundation

Ace Achieve Infocom (Nov 1: 13 cents) TP: 17 cents
MAINTAIN HOLD. Revenues grew only 4% in FY2007 over FY2006 (restated) and gross margin declined six percentage points to 25 % on the back of pricing pressures. Net profit rose 53% to $22.4 million from $14.6 million in FY2006, owing to a significant reduction in R&D and other operating expenses and a one-off reversal of income tax provisions of $2 million. Growth is expected to come from the 3G network construction business in China. We have revised down our earnings estimates for FY2008 by 27 % on clearer guidance by management about the quantum of revenue expected from 3G-related orders. Unchanged one-year target price of 17 cents pegged at 10x FY2008 earnings. – DBS Vickers Securities (Oct 30)

DBS Group Holdings (Nov 1: $22.60) TP: $25
UPGRADE TO BUY. DBS reported 3Q2007 net profit of $610 million, up 11 % y-o-y and 9 % q-o-q, driven by fee and commission income and net interest income but partly, offset by higher allowances. Shareholders of DBS have a year-to-date total return of 0%, which is lower than the 13% simple average for the three Singapore banks, partly owing to market concerns that DBS’s allowances for collateralised debt obligations could be high. DBS has clarified that none of the CDOs whose value was marked down is in default, and we believe investors will be more optimistic about DBS’s prospects. We roll over the base for valuation to 2008 and, using a 2.4x P/RNTA, arrive at a target price of $25. – UOB KayHian (Oct 30)

Oniontech (Nov 1: 11 cents) TP: 6 cents
MAINTAIN SELL. The company has announced that the contract with LG Telecom for its Ring Back Tone Services (RBT) will not be renewed next year. This news will have a negative impact on the company as RBT was the biggest driver for the growth in revenue — contributing 66% and 70% of total revenues in 2005 and 2006 respectively. With the contract set to be terminated by year-end, we have trimmed our estimate of the revenues in 2008 by 60%to $13.5 million and expect a net loss of $200,000 in FY2008. With no contribution from RBT in 2008 and subsidiaries continuing to make losses, we see no potential drivers for growth. At P/BV of 0.5x, we arrive at a fair value of six cents. – DBS Vickers Securities (Oct 29)

Aztech Systems (Nov 1: 38 cents) TP: 47 cents
MAINTAIN BUY. Revenue increased 8.9 % y-o-y to $67.5 million but net profit was down 28.6% to $3.6 million. For the FY to date, Aztech has secured $270 million worth of contracts, of which $85 million has yet to be fulfilled. Our FY2007 revenue and net profit forecasts are lowered to $264.3 million and $17.5 million respectively. Revenue and net profit forecasts for FY2008 have also been reduced to $324.7 million and $23.8 million. Our recurrent free cash flow-derived fair value has been lowered to 47 cents after revising our forecasts downwards. At its current price of 37 cents, Aztech is trading at a discount of 27.1 % to our fair value and with a forecast dividend yield of 3.6%. – NRA Capital (Oct 30)

Federal Int’l (2000) (Nov 1: 83 cents) TP: $1.02
MAINTAIN BUY. Federal announced that it had entered into a stock sale agreement with T-3 Energy Services Inc for the sale of Federal’s 60 %-owned Houston-based subsidiary, HP&T Products Inc. Federal’s gain on the disposal of HP&T is $15.8 million. We are concerned about the FSO supply market and the execution risks faced in these maiden projects. As such, we await the successful execution of its BOT project for Natural Fuel Ltd in the next few months. Our revised forecast is now $23.2 million and $16.6 million for FY2007 and FY2008 from $17.1 million and $20.4 million respectively. Our fair value is revised slightly downwards to $1.02 (from $1.05), based on a PER of 15x FY2008 fully diluted earnings. – OCBC Investment Research (Nov 1)

Osim Int’l (Nov 1: 60 cents) TP: $1
OUTPERFORM. Annualised 3Q2007 core Osim EPS of six cents equates to a PER of 10x. This excludes any value for Brookstone. The shares appear to have found a floor at 60 cents. At this level, assuming zero value for Brookstone, the Osim brand is valued at only US$220 million. We introduce a new fair value of $1, representing an upside of 68 %. Our fair value is based on a value of 80 cents for core Osim (12.5x 2008E core Osim EPS) and a value of 20 cents for Brookstone (half of our estimated valuation of 40 cents based on 10x 2008E EV/Ebitda, to take into account current US macro concerns and resulting forecasting risk). Our new forecasts assume 12 % revenue growth for core Osim in both FY2008E and FY2009E. – Cazenove Research (Oct 29)

Now a days, credit cards are hard to come by. With banks failing regularly, the banking sector is under scrutiny. As a result, consumers are facing new challenges for managing their finances. For many people caught in the mire of our present financial crisis, opening a new bank account, or getting a credit card, is next to impossible.

With credit cards becoming a difficult as well as an annoying commodity and the security of banks being a big question mark, the use of prepaid debit cards is on the rise. Now a days a consumer can pick up a plastic card worth $25, $100 or even $500 by simply walking into any major drugstore. A prepaid debit card enables shoppers to simply pay for the card at the cash register and then avail its facilities like ATM withdrawals, store purchases and online shopping. In short, a prepaid debit card carries the conveniences of a credit as well as a debit card without the annoyance of going through a credit check for getting it. Another advantage is that once its prepaid balance is over, it cannot be used as a credit card. In a way, its more like cash. Thus it prevents consumers from getting carried over into debt while using a credit card.

Consequently, the prepaid debit card market is poised for an explosion. Financial Services Technology (FST) has created a cool graphic visualization of how the prepaid debit card market is projected to explode from $8.7 billion loaded on the cards to $119 billion in 2012. A major chunk of this market comprises of the likes of American college students who do not want to carry cash, low income people and immigrants who have fewer financial options than their well do counterparts.

Come to think of it, a decade ago prepaid debit cards were barely in use while today they are the most attractive option to the roughly 80 million consumers who have little or no access to bank accounts! But there is a concern over the price tag that comes with all the niceties that a prepaid debit card offers.

The charges are small but incremental. For example, there is a fee of $1.75 for each ATM withdrawal, $1 for each ATM balance inquiry, 50 cents for each purchase, $4 for monthly maintenance and more. Usually the charges are within the fine print of the accompanying literature and are often overlooked by consumers. To an uninformed consumer, a prepaid debit card might become an expensive way of consuming or banking. Also, since the prepaid debit card industry is relatively new, it is yet to undergo the Congressional and regulatory scrutiny that credit and debit cards have gone through. However, once the industry is regulated, the cost of it will be passed on to the consumers in terms of higher fees making the prepaid debit cards more expensive. The downside of not having regulation is that consumers will have few legal protections to recover their money since there might be hidden fees associated with a prepaid debit card.

As an intelligent consumer, our next step might comprise of examining the cost of a prepaid debit card with that of using a balance checking and debit accounts.

In this scenario, The Network Branded Prepaid Card Association has released an interesting economic study conducted by Michael Flores of Bretton Woods which claims that:

consumers who opt to use a network branded prepaid card could pay as much as 35-70% less in fees as compared to low balance checking and debit accounts, making prepaid cards a far more cost-effective, valuable financial tool for many.
The following charts provide detail of the costs for basic checking accounts, check and cash services, and a branded prepaid card with and without direct deposit. An important point in this analysis is the inclusion of overdraft fees for checking accounts. Usually banks use a basic or free checking account to attract customers. Most banks earn revenues from overdraft fees.

Bretton Woods published a report in January, 2009 analyzing overdraft fees and determined the average household with a checking account incurs one overdraft per month or twelve per year. The majority of fees are incurred by a minority of households who incur 4 overdraft per month or 48 per year. Since this study analyzes individual account/card holders rather than household usage, Bretton Woods reduced the number of annual overdrafts to six per year.

Everybody has their own budget. If you take the decision that you do not need 4$ Starbucks coffee cup and instead opt for McDonalds, this is call estimation or budgeting. Budget is to help you get out of debt or saving money to invest later. Creating a budget is quite simple. Sticking to a budget is very difficult. First of all you must know what do you want and why you are doing budgeting.
There are a so many reasons for the budgeting and the first step is to know the reason in any sort of budget plan, the reason behind it gives you a tangible goal to aspire to.

Do you know about your expenditure? You should count your mortgage, debt, insurance premium and utilities. But you have to buy a bottle of juice every day at lunch. In a bottle of one dollar or more in addition to about $ 15 a week or a few hundred dollars in a year. You should keep a track of your expenditure for a month or so to get the accurate picture. And that is the best way to find out what is your overspending.
Reduce both discretionary and mandatory expenses for the next year. And how much do you pay for your auto insurance and other insurance premiums? Can it be the mayor to reduce your monthly payments? Do you use credit card? Then how much is your unpaid balance? You can consolidate your cards into a single debt with lowest interest. And Instead of paying rent you can buy a new house and start to build equity. The mortgages can be not much more than the rent you pay and you can build equity easily.

Living inside of your budget can be uncomfortable and difficult but it is possible. The biggest secret to understanding budgeting is to understand everything about your finances and debt. Before you can control your spending you have to understand where the money is going.

Living within your budget can be difficult and uncomfortable, but possible. Only the secret is to understand the budgeting policy and everything about your debt and finances. If you can understand about your annual expenditure, then it’s very easy to make your budget successful.

Living a life without debt is what everyone longs for. With recession eroding savings of consumers, there are few who are leading a debt free life. Signing up for debt help programs are in and having an excellent credit score is out. Majority of the debtors are trying to eliminate debt so that they can regain their financial freedom and lead a happy life. There are different ways in which you can eliminate debt. Debt consolidation is a good way of getting out of debt provided it is appropriate in your case. If you have any confusion about the debt help option that will get you out of debt, talk to a credit counselor.

How will debt consolidation help you in eliminating debt?

Debt consolidation basically means you are condensing your debts into one. This can be done if you seek professional assistance. You can also do it on your own if you are confident enough. There are many debt consolidation companies that help you by negotiating with your creditors so that you can enjoy lower interest rates and reduced payments. In most of the cases, extra or late fees are eliminated. You have to make payments as per a payment schedule that is worked out taking your convenience into account. Every month you make payment to your debt consolidation company which in turn pays off your creditors.

Alternatively, you can also take out a consolidation loan to eliminate debt. Once you takeout a consolidation loan, you pay off your other creditors and thereafter deal with only one creditor. The loan you take out can be of 2 types depending on whether you attach a security to the loan. If you do, it is referred to as a secured debt consolidation loan and if you don’t use collateral, it is known as an unsecured debt consolidation loan.
There are other ways by which you can eliminate debt but it requires a lot of patience and perseverance and you should have the determination to complete the debt relief program if you have initiated one. It will not only help you to manage your finances better, but it will also enable you to get rid of debts and lead a debt free life.

With the massive financial crisis that US is facing and its effects across the global economy, the pressure on mortgage companies is more than ever. The issues of innovation and cost-reduction prove to be the real game-changers effecting their very survival in the market.

In this scenario, is outsourcing inevitable? The answer, in my opinion, is – Yes. The right outsourcing partner can bring in the much-needed synergy that is required for introducing innovation into the business processes. The mortgage BPO companies have significantly enhanced their knowledge base and skill-level to be able to handle complex mortgage processes. Much of this knowledge has been acquired through in-house domain expertise and specialised knowledge transfer.

There are numerous concrete advantages that mortgage outsourcing can offer. Some of them are:

Global Delivery Platform: The right outsourcing partner offers the advantage of global delivery points perfectly aligning with your organisation’s requirements. With a global network, the company can offer “near-shoring” capabilities to take advantage of time zones and multilingual client requirements.

Cost and Time Savings: Mortgage outsourcing can help you convert your fixed costs into variable costs and also helps in the reduction of capital expenditure. You also get the strategic advantage of being able to focus on your core business by delegating routine process issues.

Enhanced Service Standards: An efficiently established mortgage outsourcing relationship offers greater flexibility to respond quickly to market demands, thus increasing your competitiveness manifold. Besides, you can also share the outsourcing vendor’s expertise in process excellence models, leveraging it to your advantage.  Article Source

Researching happiness for your family is all about financial preparation and one of the fastest growing methods to achieve this financial autonomy is through investing. Parents are trying hard to give the best possible life to their kids, especially in term of education. One must plan an investment in such a way that one can able to give the best possible future to their children. For parents money saving is the best way to meet the needs and requirements of their children in any aspect like college education, wedding and many other obligations.

Finance is basically a science of funds management. Finance includes money saving and often includes lending money. As a parent, planning of your investment well, means providing an adequate security cover to your children. The filed of finance deals with an interrelation of three concepts time, money and risk and also with how money can be spent and budgeted for the future.

At montreuxfoundation.com, our main aim is to serve needy people with hassle free and quick loans to face the sudden financial emergencies. montreuxfoundation.com, we have partnered with some of the best payday loan no faxing lenders to bring our customers fast and free cash advance loans.