Bonia venturing into property: deja vu?

I still remember one event in 1997 very well: property prices had risen, many players went fresh into the game, lots of hot money was poured into it, and then Bonia decided to also take a punt at it. Many commentators were amazed why a (reasonably successful) consumer brand like Bonia would want to venture into an unrelated industry.

The rest is history, soon afterwards all came crashing down, the stock market, the currency, the bond market, the property market and the ego of certain people who thought they were on top of the world.

It was with this in my mind when I received an email from a friend with the text:

"Bubble peaking? Fashion and shoes maker buying into property ... totally unrelated business"

pointing at this article on the website of The Edge:

"Bonia adds prime KL property to its real estate investment arm".

A clear "deja vu" moment for me.

Another related article:

"MOL’s Ganesh Kumar Bangah morphs into … property tycoon?"

Ganesh has been a very successful internet founder (MOL, invested by Vincent Tan), what is he doing developing property?

It is not 1997/98, after the crisis many steps have been taken to improve the strength of the banks, the corporate governance of companies, etc., that kind of crisis happens only once every 30-40 years or so. But Malaysia could be hit by a more moderate crisis, the one that hits countries on average every 7 years or so (both 30-40 years and 7 years are just indications). And the above two events (and many more, for instance the punting in penny stocks) do indeed point to a market top. But market tops are hard to predict, and bubbles can grow pretty large, so it does not mean that things will come down any time soon, it could easily happen in 2014 or even in 2015.

Happy Deepavali to all Hindu readers.