Paramount acquisition: where are the financial numbers? (2)

As expected by this blog, Paramount Corp was queried by Bursa and answered accordingly.

I am still surprised that Paramount did not provide the rather basic information in the first place, listed companies should avoid being queried by Bursa, which hints at a possible lack of transparency.

The financials that Bursa asked for and Paramount provided:

In other words, based on the historic 2015 numbers:

• 3.0 times revenue
• PE of 22.7
• 5.1 times shareholders equity

For an unlisted company these appear rather rich multiples.

However, ROE is quite high (23%), there is (some) branding, and the R.E.A.L. group probably has grown quite fast in the past.

Also, may be the 2016 numbers (which unaudited are surely already available) are good compared to the 2015 numbers.

Paramount acquisition: where are the financial numbers?

Paramount Corporation announced the acquisition of 66% of the existing shares of R.E.A.L. Education Group for RM 183 Million, which puts the valuation for the whole company at RM 277 Million.

That is quite an amount of money.

Both an attachment and a presentation are given, with some statistics and history of R.E.A.L. and how it would complement Paramounts educational arm.

But strangely enough not a single financial metric of R.E.A.L. is presented:

• no revenue numbers
• no profit numbers (gross or net)
• no NAV

Paramount is a company with a pretty good long term track record, the above omissions are therefore rather peculiar.

Surely the minority investors of Paramount are entitled to receive this basic information, to be able to evaluate this deal on its merits.

May be the numbers can be found in extracts to be found at SSM, but should investors really need to do so much effort?