posted
Daily News Steering Column: A great leap forward
It is really a great achievement for Micro Cars to have secured the local assembly rights for the irresistible Ssangyong Rexton and the Kyron. Micro, which started just four years ago, has made vast strides in the field of automobile construction and engineering.
Micro initially faced many obstacles and in fact, there was no provision in our laws to enable the registration of a locally made car. Consumers were also wary of buying a locally made car, fearing that quality and reliability would be below par.
Four years on, Micro has allayed these fears to the point that a well-known manufacturer has entrusted it with the responsibility of manufacturing two best-selling models locally.
All of Micro’s own models are selling well too. The Trend and the all-new MPV van are utterly stylish and practical.
Micro must be lauded for gradually increasing the local content of the cars. The eventual aim is to build a 100 per cent local car, having already surpassed the 40 per cent mark. Micro is also gaining a reputation overseas, with export orders pouring in.
Micro must be given every possible incentive, so that more families could buy a vehicle of their own. Our duty structure is that even with some concessions in place, Micro cannot sell its smallest car for under Rs.600,000.
On the other hand, Indian consumers can buy a Maruti Suzuki 800 for just Indian Rs.250,000 and the all-new Zen, which will be launched here shortly, costs from just Indian Rs.320,000 upwards.
In Sri Lanka, the Maruti 800 costs Rs.800,000 without VAT. A car is within the reach of practically every middle class or lower middle class family in India.
That is the scenario we should aspire to achieve. Micro is already well poised to take that road. It already has a portfolio of products that suits every purse and with further local value addition the prices could be lowered.
The Government should purchase more vehicles from Micro for its Ministries and departments.
It is also time for those politicians who raise a hue and cry over their avowed determination to help local industries to stop buying foreign-made SUVs with their US$ 35,000 vehicle permit and instead opt for a Micro-made SUV, saving foreign exchange.
Micro Cars is certainly Sri Lanka’s pride and joy and all must support it to reach greater horizons.
Major milestone for Micro
Rexton and Kyron assembled locally:
Shirajiv SIRIMANE
If you have recently seen a sudden rise in the number of Ssangyong vehicles on Lankan roads, especially the all-new Kyron and old favourite Rexton, that is because both cars are now built in Sri Lanka.
Micro Kyron
The company behind this Ssangyong success story is Micro Cars, the only car manufacturer in the country.
“My ultimate aim is to produce a 100 percent locally manufactured car in Sri Lanka,” says Chairman Micro Car Pvt. Ltd (MCL) Dr. Lawrence Perera.
Perera said that the first ever Sri Lankan manufactured car named “Micro”, was designed, developed and prototyped locally by Transmec Engineering (Pvt) Ltd., and was officially launched in 2002. Only the four-stroke engine and gearbox are imported from Italy.
“Today we have 52 per cent of local value addition and I want to increase local value addition further,” he said.
The Micro Car Company recently introduced its newest addition, Micro Ssangyong Rexton, presenting the first car to the President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees. “We have sold over 50 units so far and have several exports orders too,” he said.
The prices for the fully loaded vehicles range from Rs.6 Million to Rs.7.5 Million. “This price is almost 40 percent less than the price of an imported SUV and the Government has pledged that they would purchase more vehicles thus saving foreign exchange,” he added.
The body of the vehicle, mirrors, seats, and rubber components including the tires are totally manufactured in Sri Lanka.
“We are now working with several local component manufacturers to achieve quality, to reach a minimum of 40% local value addition. When this is done we will enter Europe through GSP+ program,” he said.
When this is achieved this would be the first time a Sri Lankan manufactured car would be exported to Europe.
He is also looking at introducing a vehicle navigation system to his vehicles and plans tie up with a cellular company for this. “This would enable drivers to find any address or location from a screen,” he said.
With the technical assistance from Ssangyong Korea, Micro Cars Ltd now assembles the “KYRON” and the “REXTON.” These cars use Mercedes Benz licensed engines and auto transmissions.
Park Lane and Ideal Group of the UK are financing this project with an initial investment of US$ 2 Million. Ssangyong Motor Company is the largest SUV manufacturer in Korea.
Both vehicles have state-of-the-art common rail Euro IV turbo inter cooler diesel engines fitted with Mercedes Benz tiptronic fully automatic 5-speed transmission and 4WD system with on the fly selection.
Micro Cars also manufacturers the Micro Privilege, the Micro Trend and the Micro MPV van using well over 37% local value addition.
Micro Cars Ltd is currently negotiating with Nepal and Bangladesh for exports. It has exported sample vehicles to Sudan in December 2006. The project produces 600 cars monthly providing over 3,000 direct jobs and 8,000 indirect jobs.
Daihatsu Drome opens
Sirajiv SIRIMANE
COLOMBO: Uni Walkers Ltd, a subsidiary of Softlogic Holdings Pvt Ltd and authorised distributor and dealer for Daihatsu opened ‘Daihatsu Drome’ a 3S facility (Sales, Service and Spares), on the main trunk route in Rajagiriya.
Softlogic Holdings had invested over Rs. 30 million for upgrading their service centre and the Daihatsu Drome, said Chairman Managing Director, Softlogic Holdings Ashok Pathirage.
He said that this will enable them to provide a more efficient and reliable service for their customers. He said the Government must also re-think their strategy behind imposing high duties for brand new vehicles which he claimed was among the highest in the world.
“For vehicles over 2,000 cc it goes up to over 230 per cent,” he said. In the long run this would encourage more second hand vehicles to enter the market, which would have a negative impact on the environment as well.
He said when they acquired the company it had not sold a brand new vehicle for a long time. “We have already sold over 100 brand new vehicles.” General Manger, Sujeeva Premaratne said Daihatsu being small and economical was a household name a long time ago and they want to restore that image once again.
“We will soon introduce a 24 hour rescue service and open more service centres all over the country,” he said.
This 3S facility is a one-stop location for all Daihatsu customers and provides 100 per cent availability of spare parts for products offered. The product range offered by Daihatsu are the ‘Terios 4x4’ and the ‘Charade’.
Posts: 35 | From: Pennsylvania | Registered: Sep 2006
| IP: Logged |
-------------------- Be Careful Of The Toes We Step On Today, They Could Be Attached To The Butt We Have To Kiss Tomorrow Posts: 4727 | From: Elk Grove ( Sacramento )CA USA | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
(0.0003) MicroHoldings US, Inc. Signs Letter of Intent to Acquire German Telecommunications Company Tuesday April 10, 9:45 am ET
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MicroHoldings US, Inc. (Pink Sheets:MHUS - News) today announced that it has signed a nonbinding letter of intent to acquire the German telecommunications company, Merkur Telekom AG. Merkur is a provider of prepaid and international calling services. According to unaudited financials, the German company produced more than 2 million Euros, or $2.67 million, in gross revenue for 2006 and posted a profit of about 200 thousand Euros or $267 thousand US. The acquisition of Merkur is dependent on the parties completing due diligence and executing a Final Agreement.
"The acquisition of Merkur gives MHUS a solid partner in the European market," states Joe Putegnat, Director of Operations for MHUS. "We hope to add their capabilities and expertise to ours as we continue to grow our company into what we hope will be a major competitor in the telecom industry."
MHUS also owns the subsidiary, XChangeTel, a provider of international calling services based in San Diego, California. XChangeTel was founded by Joseph Putegnat, an experienced telecom industry entrepreneur and pioneer in the development of VoIP wholesale carrier sales.
Investors are cautioned that certain statements contained in this document as well as some statements in periodic press releases and some oral statements of MHUS are "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). Forward-looking statements include statements which are predictive in nature, which depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, which include words such as "believes," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "expects," and similar expressions. In addition, any statements concerning future financial performance (including future revenues, earnings or growth rates), ongoing business strategies or prospects, and possible future MHUS actions, which may be provided by management, are also forward-looking statements as defined by the Act. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and to vary significantly from reporting period to reporting period. Although management believes that the assumptions made and expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, there is no assurance that the underlying assumptions will, in fact, prove to be correct or that actual future results will not be different from the expectations expressed in this report. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and MHUS has no specific intention to update these statements.
Contact: MicroHoldings US, Inc. Jeff Flannery, (619) 342-8096
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: MicroHoldings US, Inc.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: Jun 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
1.3B shares traded and only moved 2 ticks, yeah it looks like pump & dump dilution. It should be about .0006 or higher by now. Well time will tell.
Posts: 1269 | From: Dallas, Tx | Registered: Mar 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Short! I don't think so, why would shorts sell this low. They would be buying out instead which would raise the pps even more.
Posts: 1269 | From: Dallas, Tx | Registered: Mar 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Remember: Shorts sell High and buy Low while longs buy Low and sell High. But dilution has no logical pattern, it's whenever the idiots in charge wants to make a quick buck, so they dump like crazy with no concern for shareholders, usually after a pumped up PR.
Posts: 1269 | From: Dallas, Tx | Registered: Mar 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
I did a quick search for short interest data, as of march 07 there were only 6500 shorts, down from over 600,000 in feb 07. FWIW.
Posts: 2503 | From: connecticut | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
During this time there has been a number of inquiries to our office as to whether we will reverse the value of MHUS common shares. Let me state that at this time we have no plans for a reverse split.
"We will continue to strive to bring solid, revenue producing businesses into MHUS, create an opportunity for good financing to support the company's growth and deliver shareholder value, and to eventually, I hope, bring MHUS to the Bulletin Board or another exchange.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: Jun 2006
| IP: Logged |
During this time there has been a number of inquiries to our office as to whether we will reverse the value of MHUS common shares. Let me state that at this time we have no plans for a reverse split.
"We will continue to strive to bring solid, revenue producing businesses into MHUS, create an opportunity for good financing to support the company's growth and deliver shareholder value, and to eventually, I hope, bring MHUS to the Bulletin Board or another exchange.
last reported A/S was 200 million? with 2 billion traded today what is the CURRENT O/S and A/S?? will the TA say what the A/S - O/S is?? lots of volume with little movement indicates LOT`s of shares out??
Posts: 2503 | From: connecticut | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
i picked up 10mil at .0002 earlier, lets see how it plays out. If it runs to even .002's, I'm rich if not I'll lose my $2k
Posts: 4071 | Registered: Dec 2005
| IP: Logged |
During this time there has been a number of inquiries to our office as to whether we will reverse the value of MHUS common shares. Let me state that at this time we have no plans for a reverse split.
"We will continue to strive to bring solid, revenue producing businesses into MHUS, create an opportunity for good financing to support the company's growth and deliver shareholder value, and to eventually, I hope, bring MHUS to the Bulletin Board or another exchange.
last reported A/S was 200 million? with 2 billion traded today what is the CURRENT O/S and A/S?? will the TA say what the A/S - O/S is?? lots of volume with little movement indicates LOT`s of shares out??
I SEE YOU POINT, BUT I DIDN'T BET THE FARM ON THIS
posted
It'a sure help, but I don't know about this one. I'll watch it a little longer before I jump in.
Posts: 1269 | From: Dallas, Tx | Registered: Mar 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Fuzzy, I have no inside info. Its just that I have been burnt too mant times on PR's like this. A LOI (Letter of Intent) don't really mean anything. Anyone can send a LOI to another company (or say they did). They can take up to 2 or 3 months before a decision and they usually don't work out on sub-penny co. Sometimes it's just a pump & dump with no real deal ever. So it's better to wait until the deal is complete or at least closing in and pay a slighty higher price.
JMCP is doing the same thing and now no word in over a month.
Posts: 1269 | From: Dallas, Tx | Registered: Mar 2007
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
