Latest / Investor Exchange / Why OTS Holdings Is Betting Big Despite A Swing To The Red In 1H 2026
Transcript
- 0:02Time for another Investor Exchange podcast. Here are your hosts, Matt and Sally.
- 0:08Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we're going to talk about something that
- 0:11is probably, you know, sitting in your kitchen cabinet right now.
- 0:14Oh, I'm pretty sure I have a couple of cans myself.
- 0:16Right. It's that guilty pleasure.
- 0:19You know, the one Sunday morning, you get the frying pan out,
- 0:22get a little bit of crispiness on the edges.
- 0:24I mean, we're talking about luncheon meat. It really is the ultimate comfort food. Absolutely.
- 0:29And, you know, when you think of premium luncheon meat or like high quality
- 0:34sausages, you usually think of a few specific names.
- 0:38They think of Golden Bridge, you think of Kelly's, maybe Eldina if you're looking for halal options.
- 0:44These brands are just, they're institutions. You really are.
- 0:47They are the heavy hitters on the supermarket shelf, and they all belong to
- 0:51one parent company, which is OTS Holdings Limited.
- 0:54Right. And OTS Holdings has been listed on the Catalyst board since, what, 2021? In 2021.
- 0:59So they're a homegrown success story. But today...
- 1:03We aren't here to share recipes or debate which brand has the best texture.
- 1:08But that would be a fun deep dive on its own. It would be. But no,
- 1:12today we are looking at their latest financial report.
- 1:14This covers the first half of their fiscal year, 2026, which ended December 31st, 2025. Right.
- 1:22And I have to be honest, looking at these sheets, that comfort food is causing
- 1:27some serious indigestion for investors right now.
- 1:30Yeah, that is a, well, it's a very polite way of putting it.
- 1:32I think loss of appetite might actually be more accurate here. Loss of appetite? Yeah.
- 1:38Because when you look at the condensed, consolidated interim financial statements
- 1:43alongside the profit guidance they released in early February,
- 1:46it paints a picture of a company that is really struggling to find its footing.
- 1:50It's a classic case of a business caught in transition, a very messy transition.
- 1:55It feels like they are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
- 1:58So our mission for this deep dive is to figure out, is this just a temporary
- 2:02stomach ache? Like maybe they just ate something bad?
- 2:05We need to look at this purely from an investor's perspective.
- 2:08We need to strip away the corporate gloss and look at the actual cash.
- 2:12Is this a buying opportunity because the stock is beaten down,
- 2:16or is it a value trap that you should avoid?
- 2:19Let's jump straight into the headline numbers then, because the swing here is
- 2:23actually quite violent for a company of this size.
- 2:25It is a huge swing. If we rewind to this same time last year,
- 2:29so the first half of FY 2025 OTS was profitable. Yep.
- 2:35They weren't, you know, printing money, but they made a net profit of $0.7 million.
- 2:40Solid. Respectable for their size. Very solid. Yeah.
- 2:43Fast forward to this report. For the six months ending December 2025.
- 2:47And they have posted a net loss of $0.3 million. Ouch.
- 2:51That is a flat out $1 million swing in the wrong direction in just 12 months.
- 2:56And for a small cap company, a $1 million swing isn't a rounding error.
- 3:00That is fundamental. It changes the entire narrative of the stock.
- 3:03Right. When you go from black to red, the first thing any savvy investor asks
- 3:07is, did the expenses explode or did the sales evaporate? And looking at the
- 3:10top line, the revenue, it looks like evaporation. Complete evaporation.
- 3:14Revenue dropped by 15.4%. Yeah. To put that in real money, they went from selling
- 3:19$16.8 million worth of sausages and meat products down to $14.2 million. Yeah.
- 3:25That is over $2.5 million of sales that just vanished into thin air.
- 3:29Vanish is the right word, but we need to be very precise about where it vanished.
- 3:34Okay, lay it out for us. Because if you walk into a supermarket today,
- 3:37the shelves still look full. The Golden Bridge cans are there.
- 3:41People are still buying them. Exactly my first thought. I haven't stopped eating
- 3:46it. My neighbors haven't stopped.
- 3:48Right. And the report actually backs that up.
- 3:50The modern trade segment, which is the grocery stores and supermarkets, only dips slightly.
- 3:56Exactly. And food services selling to hotels, restaurants, hawkers was actually
- 4:01stable. It even ticked up a tiny bit.
- 4:03You've hit on a crucial point here. The core domestic business,
- 4:07the stuff you and I see every day, is actually holding up reasonably well.
- 4:10It's sticky. Very sticky.
- 4:12The disaster happened in the segment they categorize in their financials as.
- 4:16Others. Others. I always love that catch-all bucket. Right.
- 4:20This bucket essentially represents their export markets. And this segment didn't
- 4:25just dip. It fell off a cliff.
- 4:27How bad was it? It went from generating over $4 million last year to just $1.85
- 4:32million this year. Whoa.
- 4:34That is a massive drop. We are talking more than a 50% decline in that specific revenue stream.
- 4:40Okay, so half their export business just disappeared.
- 4:44The report blames, I really love this vague corporate phrasing,
- 4:49evolving market dynamics overseas and changes in customer order patterns.
- 4:53It's wonderfully opaque, isn't it? It really is. Can we decode that for the
- 4:57listener? What does that actually mean in the real world?
- 4:59So evolving market dynamics is usually investor relations code for nobody wants
- 5:03to buy our stuff right now. Ouch.
- 5:05But specifically in this industry, it likely points to massive inventory issues.
- 5:10You mean the distributors overseas are overstocked? like they have too much
- 5:13product sitting around? That's the most probable scenario.
- 5:16Think about the post-pandemic supply chain whiplash. A lot of distributors panic bought.
- 5:21They stocked up their warehouses thinking consumer demand would stay sky high forever.
- 5:25Now, global consumption is cooling down, and these guys are sitting on absolute
- 5:31mountains of canned meat.
- 5:33So they aren't going to order a single new pallet from OTS until they clear
- 5:37that existing backlog. Precisely.
- 5:40OTS is essentially sitting by the phone waiting for it to ring,
- 5:43and it's completely silent.
- 5:45That definitely explains a revenue drop. But here's what worries me when I read
- 5:49this. When a company loses revenue like that, the instinct is usually to slash
- 5:54and burn costs to protect the bottom line. Oh, definitely.
- 5:58Did we see that here? Did management react? Oh, absolutely. This is textbook
- 6:01defensive management. They went into full belt tightening mode almost immediately.
- 6:04If you look at the statement of comprehensive income, specifically the expenses
- 6:08breakdown, you can see management pulling the emergency brake hard.
- 6:12You mean the details. What got cut? They took a machete to the marketing budget.
- 6:16Marketing and distribution costs were slashed by 20.2%. Yeah,
- 6:21they spent about $300,000 less on ads and promotions compared to the exact same period last year.
- 6:27See, this is where I get incredibly conflicted as an investor. How so?
- 6:31On one hand, I get it. You have less cash coming in, so you spend less. Basic math.
- 6:36But on the other hand, if your sales are dropping, isn't that the exact moment
- 6:41you need to be screaming from the rooftops? Getting your brand out there. Exactly.
- 6:45If you stop advertising, don't you risk falling out of the consumer's mind completely?
- 6:49It is the classic death spiral risk in retail. Death spiral. Yeah.
- 6:54You cut marketing to save your margin, which leads to lower brand awareness,
- 6:58which leads to lower sales, which forces you to cut marketing again.
- 7:02It's a very dangerous game. It sounds like a trap.
- 7:05But I think in this specific case, OTS didn't really have a choice.
- 7:09They needed to preserve cash liquidity immediately.
- 7:12They are prioritizing sheer survival over market growth right now. That makes sense.
- 7:17But it wasn't just marketing, though. There was a line item in the administrative
- 7:20expenses that really stood out to me. The bonuses. Yes.
- 7:24Admin extensives dropped nearly 10 percent, and the notes explicitly say it
- 7:28was due to the absence of December performance bonuses.
- 7:31Yeah, that one really stings. That is a huge red flag for me.
- 7:35Not just financially, but culturally.
- 7:37Oh, 100 percent. You are telling your staff the exact people who have to work
- 7:41double time to turn this ship around. Sorry, no donuses here.
- 7:44Thanks for the hard work. It is a massive morale killer.
- 7:48There is no way around it. When you cut the year-end bonus, you are signaling
- 7:52to every single employee that the company is in serious trouble.
- 7:56And what happens next? It risks a huge brain drain.
- 8:00Your best salespeople, your most efficient operational managers,
- 8:03they might start looking for the exit just when you need them the most?
- 8:06Because they can get bonuses elsewhere.
- 8:08Exactly. It suggests things are way tighter internally than even the revenue drop implies.
- 8:14And yet, despite cutting marketing and cutting bonuses, their total expenses
- 8:18didn't drop enough to save them from a net loss. Nope, they still bled money.
- 8:22And there is one expense line that actually shot up.
- 8:25Finance costs. Up nearly 29% year over year. That's massive.
- 8:29So they're paying way more interest to the banks. Why?
- 8:32Are they just refinancing bad debt to keep the lights on, or is there something
- 8:36else going on? No, this is actually the most interesting part of the entire story.
- 8:40They aren't borrowing just to plug holes. They are borrowing to build.
- 8:44Building what? They have taken on new bank loans to finance a major operational expansion.
- 8:51Ah, this is the Malaysia project we saw in the notes. Correct.
- 8:54If you flip over to the balance sheet, look at the non-current assets.
- 8:58Specifically property, plant, and equipment, which we call PPE.
- 9:02Okay, looking at it. It jumped by nearly $2.9 million to reach a total of $22.1 million.
- 9:09That is a lot of heavy metal sitting on the books. It is. They are building
- 9:13a massive new manufacturing facility in Johor, Malaysia.
- 9:16So just across the causeway, what's the strategy there? The thesis is quite
- 9:20simple. Singapore is expensive.
- 9:22Land is notoriously expensive, and manufacturing labor is very expensive.
- 9:26If they can shift the bulk of their actual meat processing and production to
- 9:30Malaysia, they can theoretically slash their unit costs and completely restore
- 9:35their shrinking margins. That makes perfect sense on paper.
- 9:37It's the standard Singapore SME playbook.
- 9:40Move the factory across the causeway. Exactly.
- 9:43So why isn't it working yet? If they have the factory, why are we seeing these
- 9:47nasty losses? Because of the incredibly painful gap between building a factory
- 9:52and actually running a factory, the physical structure is there.
- 9:57The stainless steel machines are installed. The money has absolutely been spent.
- 10:02That's why the debt and the interest payments are up.
- 10:05But they can't turn the machines on. Wait, why not? Regulatory limbo.
- 10:09The financial report states they are still pending several certifications and
- 10:12approvals from local authorities in Malaysia. Oh, the absolute joys of bureaucracy.
- 10:17You said it. So they own this massive asset, but they literally aren't legally
- 10:21allowed to use it yet. Right. Think of it like this.
- 10:24Imagine you decide to renovate your kitchen to start a home catering business.
- 10:28Okay, I'm with you. You buy the $5,000 oven, the granite countertops,
- 10:33the huge industrial mixer.
- 10:35And you put it all on your credit card. That's the bank debt. Yes, that's the debt.
- 10:40But then the city health inspector just doesn't show up to give you the permit you need to operate.
- 10:45So I'm stuck paying the 29% interest on the credit card for the oven.
- 10:49But you can't bake a single cookie to sell and pay it off.
- 10:53That is an agonizing position to be in. That is exactly where OTS is sitting right now.
- 10:57And that timing mismatch is what is absolutely killing their cash flow.
- 11:01Let's look at that cash flow. Look at the cash flow statement.
- 11:05Net cash used in operating activities was negative $1.2 million.
- 11:10Negative $1.2 million. Yeah. Last year, they were cash flow positive.
- 11:14Right now, they are burning cash just to keep the lights on and wait for a piece
- 11:17of paper with a stamp on it. That perfectly explains the indigestion I mentioned earlier.
- 11:21They have swallowed the massive cost of the factory, but they haven't digested
- 11:25it yet to actually get any energy from it.
- 11:28That's a fantastic analogy. It's a total blockage. And until that blockage clears,
- 11:33until those official certifications come through, they are bleeding hash every single day.
- 11:38Now let's zoom out a bit, because even if they get the license tomorrow,
- 11:41let's say the inspector shows up, the stamp comes through, and the factory roars
- 11:46to life. Best case scenario. Right.
- 11:49Even then, they still have to sell the actual luncheon meat.
- 11:52And the environment they are selling into right now, it doesn't look particularly friendly to me.
- 11:57It is incredibly hostile out there. The report flags several macro risks.
- 12:03But the one that really threatens their core existence, the one that should
- 12:06keep OTS investors up at night, is private labels. The house brands. Exactly.
- 12:11We're talking about Fair Price brand, Meadows, the giant brand.
- 12:14Yes. And this is a huge shift in consumer behavior. In the past,
- 12:18maybe 10 years ago, house brands were generally seen as the cheap and nasty option.
- 12:23The packaging was usually ugly and the taste was, well, questionable.
- 12:27You only bought it if you really had to.
- 12:29Right. But that has changed dramatically. Supermarkets have massively upped their game.
- 12:34The quality of a house brand luncheon meat is now 90% as good as the branded
- 12:38stuff, but the price is often 30% lower.
- 12:42And in an inflationary environment, which the financial report also highlights
- 12:46as a major headwind, that 30% price difference is literally everything for a
- 12:52family shopper trying to balance a budget.
- 12:54It is. The report explicitly says that intense competition from private labels
- 12:59has constrained pricing flexibility.
- 13:01Let's unpack that specific phrase, constrained pricing flexibility.
- 13:05That's just polite corporate speak for we're completely trapped,
- 13:09isn't it? Completely trapped. Think about the mechanics of inflation.
- 13:12OTS is facing higher operational costs across the board. Energy is up.
- 13:16Energy is up. Raw material prices, mostly pork and chicken, are highly volatile
- 13:20due to global issues. Freight costs are elevated.
- 13:23Normally, a healthy business just passes those extra costs right down to the
- 13:27consumer. You just raise the price of the can by 20 or 30 cents.
- 13:30But they can't do that. They cannot, because right next to the beautiful Golden
- 13:34Bridge can on the supermarket shelf is the fair price house brand can.
- 13:39Right. If Golden Bridge gets even a little bit more expensive,
- 13:42the customer just shifts their hand six inches to the left and grabs the house brand instead.
- 13:49OTS has to eat the cost increases themselves. Which absolutely crushes their profit margin.
- 13:55That is the squeeze. They're being squeezed by suppliers on one end and by the
- 13:59supermarkets on the other end.
- 14:00And ironically, the supermarket is both their biggest customer and their most dangerous competitor.
- 14:05That is a brutally tough spot to be in. You mentioned suppliers and global costs earlier.
- 14:11I saw a mention of U.S. tariffs and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East in their risk factors.
- 14:16Yeah, the macro stuff. It feels a bit like a stretch, honestly,
- 14:19for a Singapore sausage company to blame U.S. tariffs, doesn't it?
- 14:23Or is there a real tangible link there? There is a real link, but it's indirect.
- 14:27It's all about the global supply chain ripple effect. Walk me through it.
- 14:31If tariffs or conflicts disrupt major shipping lanes in the Middle East,
- 14:36ocean freight rates spike globally.
- 14:39Everyone pays more for containers. Okay, that makes sense. And if animal feed prices go up in the U.S.
- 14:45Because of agricultural tariffs, the global cost of pork goes up in Asia.
- 14:50OTS is a massive importer of raw frozen meat.
- 14:53So they are entirely at the mercy of global commodity prices.
- 14:57They have zero control over it.
- 14:58If a geopolitical event makes pork more expensive, their margins take an immediate hit.
- 15:03Speaking of things they can't control, let's talk about the currency situation. The Malaysian ringgit.
- 15:09Ah, yes. This part of the report was a bit dense and technical,
- 15:12but I feel like it actually matters a lot for their strategy.
- 15:15It matters tremendously. It's a double-edged sword for them.
- 15:18The report mentions that the ring had actually strengthened against the Singapore
- 15:21dollar during this period.
- 15:23Usually for a Singapore-based company, a strong home currency is good.
- 15:27Right. Why is a strong ring get a problem for OTS?
- 15:31Because they are basically betting the farm on Malaysia.
- 15:34As they ramp up their new operations in Johor, their day-to-day costs,
- 15:39labor, factory utilities, local supplies, those are all denominated in Malaysian ringgit.
- 15:46If the ringgit gets stronger, those operational costs get mathematically higher
- 15:51when they are converted back to Singapore dollars for their financial reporting.
- 15:55So it makes their whole cheap manufacturing thesis a little less cheap. Exactly.
- 15:59It erodes the primary benefit of moving across the border. But there was a flip
- 16:03side in the report, right?
- 16:04I saw a line item about a gain related to the currency.
- 16:08That's the accounting magic at work. Magic.
- 16:10Explain. Think of it like buying a holiday home in Malaysia.
- 16:13Let's say you bought it for 1 million ringgit.
- 16:15If the ringgit gets stronger against the Sing dollar, your holiday home is technically
- 16:20worth more when you calculate your net worth in Singapore dollars.
- 16:23You feel richer on paper. Okay, so my asset value goes up. Exactly.
- 16:27So OTS booked a currency translation gain on their balance sheet because their
- 16:31Malaysian factory is technically worth more Singh dollars now. Oh, I see.
- 16:35But here's the catch. You can't
- 16:37pay your factory workers with the theoretical value of your building.
- 16:41You can't pay the electric bill with a translation gain.
- 16:45Right. It's strictly a paper gain. But the higher operating costs,
- 16:48the higher electric bill in ringgit, that takes real hard cash right out of their bank account.
- 16:55So cash-wise, a strong ringgit actively hurts them, even if it makes the balance
- 16:59sheet look a little bit prettier on the surface.
- 17:01That is a really important distinction for investors to grasp.
- 17:05Do not get fooled by the paper gain. You have to watch the actual cash flow.
- 17:09Okay, let's recap where we are. We have a net loss. We have rapidly falling revenue.
- 17:14We have a multi-million dollar factory stuck in regulatory purgatory.
- 17:19We have house brands eating their market share and currency headwinds.
- 17:23It's a lot. Is there any light at the end of this tunnel?
- 17:26What is the company actually doing about all of this?
- 17:29Well, let's look at the Outlook section of the documents. First off,
- 17:32they issued a profit guidance on February 4th, basically waving a flag and warning
- 17:37the market this bad news was coming. I guess that's actually a small positive.
- 17:40It is. It shows management isn't asleep at the wheel, they see the numbers deteriorating,
- 17:45and they aren't trying to hide them from investors.
- 17:48No surprises is definitely good in investing.
- 17:50But what is the actual turnaround plan? The stated strategy is disciplined execution,
- 17:56which basically means they are hunkering down for a storm. Survival mode. Yes.
- 18:02They are going to keep overhead costs as low as humanly possible,
- 18:06hence the canceled bonuses and the slashed ad spend.
- 18:09And they are focusing 100% of their corporate energy on getting those Malaysian
- 18:13certifications approved.
- 18:14It really all comes down to that factory, doesn't it? It is the absolute pivot
- 18:19point for the entire company's future.
- 18:21Wow. If they can get that factory running at high capacity, their unit costs drop significantly.
- 18:27Suddenly, they can compete with the supermarket house brands on price again.
- 18:31They can restore their margins.
- 18:32And they can start aggressively exporting again with much more competitive pricing.
- 18:37So let's summarize this whole situation for our listener. Let's play bull and bear.
- 18:41If I'm an optimist, if I'm the bull, what am I seeing in OTS Holdings right now?
- 18:46If you are a bull, you are looking at this as a classic turnaround play.
- 18:51You are saying, look, the brand heritage is still strong. People still love Golden Bridge.
- 18:56This financial loss is just a messy, temporary transition period.
- 19:01You believe the export drop was just a one-time inventory clearing event,
- 19:05and orders will bounce back. Exactly.
- 19:07You believe the Malaysia factory will finally get approved next month,
- 19:10production volume will soar, costs will crash, and by next year,
- 19:14they will be highly profitable and paying dividends again.
- 19:17You are essentially buying a household name at a bargain basement price while
- 19:22everyone else is scared. That's the bull case.
- 19:24Buy when there's blood in the streets. Okay, I can see that logic.
- 19:28Now give me the bear case, the pessimist's view.
- 19:32The bear looks at this and says the consumer world has fundamentally changed.
- 19:36The bear argues that brand loyalty for basic commodities like lunch and meat is dead.
- 19:40Strong words. The bear says that the Malaysia factory is going to be a massive
- 19:44money pit plagued by ongoing labor shortages across the border,
- 19:48permanent currency headwinds, and endless bureaucratic delays.
- 19:51So they just keep burning cash. Right.
- 19:54They see a company that is bleeding its cash reserves and permanently losing
- 19:59its pricing power to massive supermarkets that control the actual shelf space.
- 20:03The bear thinks this isn't just a stumble, it's the beginning of a long,
- 20:07slow decline to irrelevance. That is extremely bleak.
- 20:11Honestly, it brings up a really profound question about the nature of premium
- 20:15brands in the grocery store today.
- 20:17It really does. It forces you as an investor to question what you are actually buying.
- 20:22We started this deep dive talking about comfort food, the psychological safety of it.
- 20:27But I want to leave you, the listener, with this thought to mull over.
- 20:30Let's hear it. We automatically assume that comfort means brand loyalty.
- 20:34We assume we need that specific red can of Golden Bridge to feel good on a Sunday
- 20:39morning. But do we really? Exactly.
- 20:41In a world where inflation is aggressively eating everyone's wallet,
- 20:45does comfort come from the brand
- 20:46printed on the label or just the taste of the salt and fat in the pan?
- 20:50That's the real question. If the generic house brand gives you 95% of the comfort
- 20:54for 70% of the price, is the era of the premium mass market brand over?
- 20:59That is the existential threat they face.
- 21:02Are they selling a genuinely unique product or are they just selling a meat
- 21:06commodity with a nice nostalgic sticker on it?
- 21:09That is the ultimate bet you are making. If you decide to invest in OTS Holdings
- 21:13today, you're betting hard that the sticker still matters to people.
- 21:18And the numbers we reviewed today suggest that, at least right now,
- 21:21fewer and fewer people are willing to pay a premium for that sticker.
- 21:25But consumer habits can swing back just as fast as they swung away.
- 21:28They absolutely can. A sobering thought to chew on.
- 21:32We have covered a lot of ground today, from vanished employee bonuses and phantom
- 21:37factories to the global geopolitics of pork and the nasty nuances of currency translation.
- 21:43It really shows how a simple can of meat connects to the entire global economy.
- 21:47It's never just about the sausage.
- 21:49Absolutely not. Thank you so much for breaking down the balance sheet with us
- 21:53and helping us navigate all that counting jargon. My pleasure.
- 21:55Anytime. And thank you to everyone listening. We hope this deep dive gave you
- 21:59a much clearer picture of what is actually happening under the lid at OTS Holdings.
- 22:04Keep asking the hard questions about the companies you buy. See you on the next deep dive. Goodbye.
- 22:11This content is intended to serve strictly and only as an informational,
- 22:15independent, objective summary of recent events and should in no way be interpreted,
- 22:19construed or relied upon by any party as inside information or financial advice.