A big bounce may await rubber investors

THE Long Bar in Singapore's Raffles Hotel is famous for the Singapore Sling. But it is not the pink cocktail that will ring loud in the memory of 75-year-old British businessman Algy Cluff.

In 1961, the then-21-year-old was an officer in the British Army in Malaya. He ran into Charles Letts, a 46-year-old Scotsman, at the Long Bar. The six-foot-four Mr Letts was a commodity trader who had settled in this region. He was fluent in Thai, Malay and Hokkien, as well as in the intricacies of commerce in Malaya.

While they sipped Singapore Slings, Mr Letts persuaded the young officer to buy shares in rubber companies. The Malayan Rubber companies were trading at a vast discount to their book value.

Mr Letts' pitch for rubber companies was forceful. He told the attentive Mr Cluff that the Malayan rubber companies were not only cheap, but they were miscast. They had been valued in London on their rubber earnings, but were actually property companies. Mr Letts was convinced that Malaya, which had just got independence in 1957, would require plantation land for its cities. The young country would need the plantation land for housin…