Cory Diary : 2018 Equity Performance

Year 2018

2018 has been tough for local equity investor. The STI ETF registered -6.48% after dividends. For people who is new to this, STI ETF is traded in SGX like shares in stock market. The last traded price is 3.117. (Stock Quote is ES3). It is often use as a benchmark to measure against investor portfolio performance as the ETF closely follows Straits Times Index which tracks the performance of the top 30 companies listed on the Singapore Exchange.

There are few methods to measure STI ETF Performance. I use XIRR after considering dividends distributed over the year. ( Typically twice annually ). XIRR is a function in Excel to calculate annualized returns. So we can do apple to apple comparison to my Investment performance. On the right table computed is how I obtain STI XIRR -6.48% including dividends.

My XIRR for 2018 Performance is -3.28% which is closely match to -3% portfolio losses. If I am to exclude US stocks, it will be XIRR -2.12%. So 2018 is the year where I am in the negative after dividends. My test drive in US Stock is quite bad in timing and the only consolidation is only a few % of my portfolio. So as mentioned in my earlier article, every % counts. The other lesson learned is on SME stocks that are more towards capital gain to size them up correctly smaller as they are more volatile in bad market condition and to realize them. 

What I did well is to contain and manage my losses and therefore outperform STI by 3.2% if I am to include US Stocks or 4.6% for local equity alone. This is especially important to me because over the years my portfolio has grown quite significantly. Every 1% move is quite a delta in $ number today than 5 or 10 years ago. Another thing I did well is work :). I got good bonus and this basically covered all my losses.

Cumulative Performance Comparison

Comparison is more meaningful if we do cumulative to minimize the luck component. This differentiate the men from the boys. However comparison to STI is tricky reason being you cannot decide when you are born therefore cumulative 30 years STI returns can be vastly different from cumulative 10 years STI returns from now. So is very misleading in my opinion if one advocate index investing purely without taking timing into consideration. Since I start actively with sizable portfolio 12 years ago, that will be the benchmark I will use. There are others assumptions made but let's ignore for simplicity.

I check multiple times on STI from 2007 onward. Excluding dividends if you have been doing index investing, is actually -0.2% annualized returns for STI. Which means about 3% returns after dividends.

For myself, 5.4% annualized 12 years compounded. The figure is expected to go on a down trend due to recent years of market weakness similar to STI however I have added disadvantage on aging and need to allocate to lower yield bonds, and much larger allocation of cash injection in later years. I would see the returns going down to 5% to match my portfolio dividend yield if the broad market continues to be flat or negative. Nevertheless is still better than leaving them in the banks.

My New Year Wish is to be able to help my wife manage her portfolio. She has been pretty damn lucky that I won't wish to touch. I have 2 more other wishes for 2019. 

Happy New Year !

Cory

2019-0101

Cory Diary : Sector Map Distribution 2018-1230

Just drawn up a map on my current equity investment portfolio. Do note SSB/Treasury, Pension and Fixed Deposits are not included.

Everything in percentage. There are mainly two areas which I will focus on here.


Dividend Play

About 50% in dividend focus equity (Trust/Reit). This will probably move to higher allocation in 2019. Net-link Trust will need to be watched closer as currently is a little over-allocated. Need to pay attention on how 5G plays out. One way is to increase my other dividend holdings. There are also good amount in Frasers and Maple families which are quite popular with investment community and I think is rightly so. Will it continues to do well in 2019 ?


Index and Bank

With rising rates, Banks will naturally benefits from it unless recession hits us. There are lots of noise in the market current whether 2019 is bull or bear. If I compute correctly, STI ETF yield is about 3.65% in 2018. What this mean is historically, STI price is relatively low using yield as benchmark. However we know that low can go lower just that the probability is smaller. Chart wise I think is unlikely to break support too. See link. Since STI Index is heavy on financials, higher exposure in the ETF is preferred. Unfortunately there is Telco element in it which I am not so sure. Therefore, I will still need to allocate some directly to bank counters.

I will be summarizing the final counters using radar and bubble after year 2018 truly ends.


Cory

2018-1230

Cory Diary : STI Index - Crucial Juncture

Most people who is well verse with STI Index would probably know that timing matters in STI Index investment. And going in lower will do us well in the future to come. So you may like to know that we are on the cross road for this period and the index is on one of it's low point of the wave fluctuation.

We have Tariffs, Brexit, Rate increase, US Shutdown, Syria pullout and SG Property Curbs and Poor Telco performance. There are so many negatives. Well, without them Index wouldn't be low, right ?

The above chart has a lot of approximations from a novice. So I won't be bothered to try to catch the ultimate bottom but appears 3000 range is strong. Question is do we dare to execute our buy ? I can't imagine if this range is broken. Maybe Trump is right ?



Cory
2018-1225

Cory Diary : Watchful Eyes on Land Mines 2018

Like any company, there is constant search for new blood to rejuvenate our portfolio. As time goes you will realize you get to know more companies and try them out. Some will end badly. A few will flourish. That's part of the game.

However, even a 1% position we will need to think carefully. Often I make the mistake of dismissing their impact which then adds up. For example my foray into tracking the few minuscule US stocks end up bad in the trade tariff frenzy. It could be a lot worst if is a much larger positions.


Land Mines

Passive investment to me is more on not running the businesses literally and there aren't a need to monitor their price closely. That's doesn't mean we are passive in keeping up on our entire portfolio and not checking how they do in price daily. There is constant look out for "Land Mines" who aren't really passive or new to you. What I mean is ones that your portfolio could take a large hit. Is very important at least to me to have a feel for them. That could result in cutting loss to avoid blow out, reducing exposure or averaging down. However needs to be careful of averaging down as it can cause a big dent to our investment if we are wrong.

I do a quick review of my database, and manage to get a list of potential "Land Mines" that I have manage to mitigate. How to read this table (below) is a little tricky. I can do this better but I feel this is not the focus I want to spend time on today. So there are 2 things to know.

1. The list for each column year will only appear if the losses are meaningful enough.
2. if the consolidated results across the year totaled in good losses will the stocks be mentioned.

Fortunately for the past 11 years (almost 11 ! touch wood) there aren't many potential mines. As for the 5 Digits losses, they are low level losses. Year 2018 has 3 and one of them is due to recent JD play.  I like to describe more on the 3 counters with 5 Digits losses in totaled namely MTQ, Mun Siong and Ouhua. All I cut losses and avoided blow-out.

Mun Siong - Extracting money out from IPO money
MTQ - Oil and Gas.
Ouhua - S-Chip. Enough said.

As for 2019, OCBC will be a hold for me. Avoided a blow by Design Studio in 2018.  JD exposure is small so not much meat left and I don't think it will zero out.


Merry Christmas

Cory
2018-1222

Cory Diary : Investment Updates 2018-1215

Trades

SSB Switch
Redeem SSB batch starting 1% rate for 2.01%. And a higher 2.45% effective rate.


First Reit

Reviewed First Reit investment for all the years and it still in good positive despite losses this year. If the sponsor sold off remainder of the 10%, the skin in the Reit doesn't appear to be good. Is not like they have a lot in the first place. Spending too much time on this drama for me to follow through so I thought it maybe better for me to move on. As it look like the rebound has stabilized, decided to switch out remainder of it. This will likely make my portfolio more robust for 2019. Ouch ! Nevertheless. House cleaning is never easy.


Frasers Cpt Tr

With sale of some more CMT Reit as it goes up, I use some of the excess  fund to collect FCT which I thought is valued cheaper. I am not sure the last quarterly reported result is normal though or is it beginning of the end. Sorry for the "horror headline" especially from one who just returned to vest on this. Reits generally are not cheap. It can get more expensive due to low rates though despite rate increase by FED.


STI Index
I did a sell trade again on the Index of the recent increment lots with the constant volatility originally meant for some exposure to the banks. Hope I can catch another smallish ride. I prefer to have larger stake in this.


VICOM
I am back on this. Not much discount though. Not easy to get. It will take a larger correction in the general market to put a dent i guess.


Cheers

Cory
2019-1214

Cory Diary : Bubble Chart 2018-1214

Just drawn up this chart. Pretty exciting on the new look of my portfolio. They looks like planetary system. The vertical axis is the Profit/Loss from the investment. The horizontal axis is the estimated dividend yield of the counter.The bubble size is the investment size. There are 3 dividend exceptions which belong to US Market that I do not track therefore zero out. Take me some time to get the labels and colors right due to overlapping.

From the chart, I can tell CMT has a run away whereas Singtel tanks. Maybe that's why I start partial profit taking. I can tell the outliers whether I should pay more attention to them by size such as Neratel. This is a bear market scenario so I am glad there is no congestion on the lower half of the chart

Not sure there is more reading to pick from it. Let me know.


Cory
2018-1214

Cory Diary : Investment Tracker 2018 - 1209

General Plan

Still in the process of fine-tuning my portfolio for 2019. Like to plan for at least (updated for privacy) dividends and then try to push them higher up during the course of the year if possible.That's mean reserving specific amount of warchest.

I am also trying to minimize any potentials mines through re-balancing of profitable counters and getting my portfolio to be more robust. Once is all done, hopefully I can present my updated counters in later articles.

Cory

2018-1209

Cory Diary : Does NAV really Matters in Dividend Investing ?

Often I hear people uses NAV to gauge investment merits. Is a good metric but should never be the only imo. This is based on my personal experience and logic. NAV is only meaningful if the underlying assets is not as productive as we think it should be and the valuation of the company is rather complicated to understand.

In dividend investing, especially reits, the business typically is the property income and the DPU. There aren't rocket science needed. Many reits today publish investor reports. We have good enough information. Ofcourse is still skew towards what Management like us to see. Who doesn't ? That doesn't mean we can condone.

If a company is returning 5% yield consistently. Does it matters to us if the Price/NAV is 1.3 or even 1.5 as an academic question ? The question in my mind will be sustainability of the dividends. The MOS of it's properties. The quality of the earning. The valuation of it's properties. This may explains why the high Price/NAV.

Now, with recent volatility of the market. If the yield of such asset shoots from 5% to 6%. Will you buy ? If the yield expects to drop from 5% to 3%, will I sell ? That depends due to price or reduced DPU. More a fundamental question. Recently I sold 25% of CMT due to price. My fear of losing out stable future dividends creeps in though just a little , 5% yield is not something i could find easily with similar alternative. This is clearly a capital gain trade with re-balance in mind. One could have said I still have 75% but that's not the point. The constant search for quality diversification is always there. Always on the move.


Cory

2018-1208

Cory Diary : Asset Tracker 2018-1201

One more month to year end. I am glad this is going to be over soon. It has not been a profitable market considering the rich valuation we seen with the yield. So the good news could be there is no significant impact to my portfolio.

I am 49. I wish I could say at 55 I would really shout that is it ! I am on full retirement. That will be a goal to achieve but not something I would really do.

Anyway, cut it short. Here's my chart.

Cheers

Cory
2018-1201

Cory Diary : Preparation for 2019 Portfolio

We are near to end of year. While I am still hopeful for break even this year, there is good chance 2018 is negative to most investors on average. While everyone is still busy bandaging your wounds, I think we should at the same time prepare ourselves for 2019.



Portfolio is about managing risk

Managing Risk

1. Re-Balance : Reduced 25% in CMT in earlier blogging. This is due to good run-up to minimum expectation. I wish it could do more but I can settle with remaining 75% shares as they give good dividends even at this level.

2. Clean up : I have sold down largely AimsAmp Cap Reit yesterday. This is to take advantage of recent up swing at 1.37. I have this gut feeling it won't stay high for too long as is a resistance level. I have raised cash from this. The dividend gap to fill from this sale will be glaring if I do not do something this year.

3. Positioning for 2019 :

Shift some funds into enlarging Ascendas-hTrust at lower price. The yield is good. The gearing fine. The grow prospect is still worth a bet. This will fill some of my dividend plan.

Increased STI ETF as I think is at lower point. Averaging down Index ETF is much safer and is as keen as cost averaging and diversifying my risk rather than buying local banks shares directly which direction can be anybody guess.


Investigation Reviews

I looked at APTT a few times but sill do not feel comfortable. There will be technical rebound.
How large and how long is subjective. To myself, going in right now is pure gamble as I lack knowledge and feel for this counter. Short trade maybe nice but it won't be for 2019.

With recent low oil price, Keppel price still do not match the news. M1 purchase seems not a good deal. Property aren't helping. Chances are Keppel will have room to go much lower.

After losing OCC 5.1%, I have been actively looking for alternative. Temesek 2.7% doesn't cut it as is quite near to SSB level. Enlarging Fraser Bond 3.65% will put me over exposed to it. SSB has been max out. I won't want to put more into treasury for the yield is too low. Astrea IV trading premium is too high.


Looks like I still have few more punches to do but I am in no hurry.



thanks

Cory

2018-1128

Cory Diary : Reits 2018-1122

Reits have been stable as a rock generally despite increasing rate. However, not so this week for First Reit. If we remembered, I have cut First Reit exposure twice. If I remember correctly, once before and after a Guru posted on his sales.


First Reit

However I still hold some significant amount of First Reit for diversity of income from Reits. One of the main reason it was sold down is due to rating issue. However my thought is that Lippo is not fly by night company. Secondly on a quick glance, the hospitals are doing financially ok ( Sorry if I am wrong. Still a novice in reading report so DYODD). So chances are they have no issue paying up the rental. On top of that, there is advance payment mechanism in place. Thirdly, you can't just shift hospital operation like food stalls. That could be large impact I think.

Having said all that, I am still a retail investor and no match for expert opinion which is rare in my opinion to be seen. It went as low as 0.92 two days ago and is way oversold, As I do not have a god father who can support me when I am wrong, it doesn't make sense for me to average down. And therefore for prudence and risk mitigation, I have to right size my investment earlier to sleep well.


CapitaMall Trust

As I have blogged many times earlier, CMT is a strong reit. Even when market crashes to dust, this fellow will give good dividend yields. Investors will just have to wait it out and the price logically should return. We also has lesser issue with rights issue as they rarely tap on shareholders for fund. Today hits 2.22. I took some profit immediately for trade as it hits resistance level. I could be wrong and will logically be still very happy.


Parkway Life Reit

The yield looks much better with recent correction. I decide to average down as my exposure to this quality Hospital Properties are low and appear there is a support at this level. This will help improve my income for 2019.


Finally, my dividends have hit above target (updated for privacy)  for this year collection, and this is before Singtel Dividends.


Cheers

Cory
2018-1122

Cory Diary : Market Rout

Many investors have a bruising week and so do I. This year is slightly worst because my OCC 5.1% got redeemed which means lesser buffer. The other is my US Stocks though just small percentage, aren't doing so well. Nevertheless as in the past correction since Global Financial Crisis, I don't really worry much.

Just got my Performance Tracker Comparison updated against STI Index. As a reminder, my returns include dividends on top of realised and unrealised returns whereas STI Index exclude dividends. This is more for ease of tracking than anything else.

Enough said. Here's my performance so far this year. YTD -3.8% whereas STI is at - 12.66%.

Interestingly, most of the Reits are doing quite ok despite increasing interest rates. The only larger dips will be First Reit but this more due to sponsor situation. I decided not to average down due to exposure limit control.

The bank has one of largest fall so OCBC and STI ETF got a hit. I mentioned about US stock JD.com earlier and looks like it will be long term hold.

Currently my theoretical max dividend (updated for privacy)  after collecting those I am -3.8%. STI would probably be around -9% after dividends. So comparison wise I have outperform the index. But seriously is just a referencing purposes. My figure would look even better if I am to include FD, SSB and Treasuries but oh ya that's won't count. :)

Trading will go down for the next 2 months due to business/private travels, new apartment and a "new friend" coming that I have to manage and most importantly my Token battery dies out ... How I wish OneKey can support changing battery DIY. I will try to hold my bullets but I have this feeling is time for rebound ... darn...

Is nice to continue to have a job at current market condition. Cheers !

Cory
2018-1028

Cory Diary : When Family Planning and Financial do not mix ... we have lesser babies

I have an exchange with a guy recently on why Singapore has dwindling birth rate. The reason he gives are cost of living and job security. Not surprisingly this looks common among developed world therefore internally I feel this reasons are derived from common sense logic and need not necessary be the case. We barely scratch the surface of the truth which I think could start from Stress.

Stress can comes from anywhere. Jobless, Insecurity, Lack of Self Confidence, No Money ... . But why mainly developed world ? Because we think too much. As we have better education, ability to plan ahead and see further actually becomes a hindrance to family planning. We also start to procrastinate for life partner as well. On top of this, lifestyle has changed and arrange marriage loses it's tradition and shine.

When the guy is in mid 30s and above, and more financially secure, sadly our lady biological rhythm do not change with time. When she hits 35, fertilization deteriorate rapidly. Women start to have difficulty getting pregnant as years go by. Even if she does, there is higher risk of birth defects and miscarriages.

To add further, Stress impacts on animal and humans alike. Our reproductive systems shutdown and we have more secondary effect like illness. An extract from an article. " In animal populations, as in humans, some individuals have better coping mechanisms to deal with stress, which gives them an adaptive advantage.".

The luckier ones have parent helps.  The much longer route would to be wait for financially security. How many hits it and in time is the problem. Unless one able to climb the corporate ladder quickly or in covert jobs this won't be easy. Personally I feel the easiest route would be not to think too much. Maybe the plan is to forget about family planning and just go ahead. :)


Cory
2018-1024

Cory Diary : Why are we trying to beat the system ?

Apartment loan

When I bought my apartment years ago, I wanted to have more cash flow therefore decided to tap of CPF OA. By then I have some knowledge on Good Debts.  Fast forward now, if I have to go through this again today, I would have leave CPF alone. First of all the amount I tapped is just 5% of the housing value. The hassle is not only unnecessary, and if the amount is to be compounded, I would have less saving in total as I need to pay myself the CPF interests that has been borrowed. In addition for comparison, CPF is AAA rated, backed by Singapore government. If I am to buy a private bond, it would be much lesser returns and unwarranted risk to private companies. This totally do not make sense for myself as my exposure to CPF is not major.


Minimum Sum

By age 55, I could withdraw amount above minimum sum. I would expect a number of people to do that. Let's think about it. Why are we so keen to withdraw the monies. CPF is design to support our retirement and to safe guard our golden years. So it seems illogical why people is rushing out the door once they hit the age. The main reason could be the mistrust of institutions. The other is they just want to spend it before their times are up. Both of which is illogical to me. For one, most of my monies will still be denominated in Singapore dollars. And if there are distress in government debts, even saving bank could be frozen or cut. So is either I have a stake in Singapore future or am I not. The later reason on money available to spend is not only irresponsible but there are high risk of financial difficulties if one reached 70s-90s. The one viable scenario I could think of is when I am much way above the minimum sum that drawing some out will give a better return (Not guaranteed) or lifestyle which I COULD AFFORD.


My CPF Plan

Unlike other segments where there are risks, CPF is safer than bonds of good interests. Personally to me this one of the best available investment tool available to be managed at portfolio level offering stability and respectable growth. Ironically, the lock-in is the best part of the system which provide robust protection to citizen. As most of my assets are Non-CPF it will be unlikely I will ever need to do early withdrawal. This will form a nice retirement portion to supplement my monthly income at 65. If I could exchange off min sum at 55 for higher interests, I would opt-in !















I am sorry if there are dissenting voices due to political differences therefore CPF. To me this is purely my personal judgement on financial standpoint as an average investor to go along with the system available to work with us. At the end, if there are money in my CPF-Life once I passed, that's my legacy to my children definitely but certainly I would't want to be HDB as this could mean I have failed as a parent to bring up my children sufficiently.


Cory
2018-1023

Cory Diary : Saving Rate

Pride

Always pride myself about personal saving because I don't really have to plan for it. Being an engineer before, I always have a better gauge feel of manufacturing cost and the quality of the product before I buy. Even after,  I will still think for a while. I would take a walk around the shop or do something such as striking a light conversation with the sales. Interestingly, I would often decided not to buy after. Quite a number of times I found the specs are not to my expectation. Another major reason is I dread of another thing to manage at home. And every time the thoughts come in this is enough for me to say no many times. Maybe I have this minimalist potential.


Value

Going back to value. There are few things I look out for. One of them is weight. Generally a metal object is more sturdy and harder to produce vs plastic materials. So it will often costly to make. The surface of the product is another factor I look into. The texture, pattern, smooth or old plain design. Some has water flow marks or poor plating. I will give a poor rating for non-branded plastic products use in food.

How the parts are jointed is a good indication of the design and the manufacturing process. If you buy a notebook with gaping holes between parts, and to make it worst, unevenness as well this could give an indication on the overall quality managed by the product team.

To go deeper, I would looks for design, durability and usability. But I would rather exchange for "disposable" products which is like 2 to 10 times cheaper rather than getting an expensive pen of high reliability that I hardly ever use unless the purpose is for decoration purposes or significance. The final is servicing. A recognize brand do command a better premium that I am willing to have more cash to let go. How large is up to individual.

Of-course is not always the same exact criteria. But this habits and what to look out for helps to contain my spending habits. Year 2018 is special because of a number of big ticket items. Excluding Pension/CPF and Stock dynamics into the equation, just take home salary, is about 30% saving rate. This is markedly down from 40% to 50% range previously but is all worth it because is for Immeasurable Value.


Cheers

Cory
2018-1021

Cory Diary : Passive Income Plan with recent volatility

STI Index has corrected about 10% this year. From 3402.92 on 29th Dec'17 down to 3069.17 last friday. Yield improved from 3.3% to 3.68%. For people who invest now, that's $3,380 more dividends for a million dollar portfolio in STI Index. I would be celebrating on the increase value.

We can said similarly for Reits as well. While existing investors are still nursing capital loss this doesn't really matter as long the investment is stable type because the price will return long term. If is not, and fundamental yet change in the company performance, this shouldn't be bad anyway.

My next challenge will be when I should increase my stake. Since we have hit a 10% reduction, I think is time we could explore some sizable injection. But I won't use up all my reserve. Good news for those still on salary. Your reserve will continue to grow as long your expense is managed.

I would avoid growth stocks since I am not so sure about the bottom. I only know the market is cheaper for my dividend strategy. So if the market goes lower I would still be ok. As for dividend stocks, I would focus on more robust counters. STI Index if I am not so particular with higher yields and lack of ideas. And probably 6% range on Reits. The next question will be which will fit better to my portfolio.

First Reit recent change while neutral do pose some anxiety. I wouldn't want to add more. Maple families are still on the lower yield range. So are ParkwayLife. FCT and Fraser L&R doesn't looks like corrected enough. The issue I have with FCT is the yield doesn't meet the cut and I have CMT. Fraser L&R still has 7% though. So this could be a candidate and I already has some stake in it. The other is Aims Reit. But I have Ascendas Reit which provides better coverage.


Cory
2018-1018

Cory Diary : CapitaMall Trust and WestGate

Manage to sit down and do a quick read on the circular regarding the acquisition of Westgate. It has been a long while holding to an investment report physically. I think CMT have done well in providing good investment knowledge on this.

One of the key variables provided is the gearing dependency on Debt funding ranging at 70%, 85% and 100%. Gearing shifts from 31.5% to 34%, 35% and 36% respectively. What is more interesting is the DPU gains which increase from 11.16 cents to 11.18, 11.25 and 11.33. The most will be 1.5% increase in DPU. Another to know is the interest rate used to compute the above is 3.25% for the additional debts. For a 3.5% it will be about 0.2% impact to DPU.

The main impact is the gearing if is total debt funded. I would think they may maximize private placement amount first to mitigate gearing to the point where DPU gains from existing operations do not cause reduction in dpu level to be not accretive. The other possibility is that valuation up largely from existing property which could help mitigate the gearing space.

Interesting item I found is that the agreed value is much lower than other properties nearby even though the yield is only 4.4%. The key is the strategicness of the asset long term. The other positive is the portfolio overall improvement which is where CMT strength is. A similar learning could be FLT. If FLT emerges better, why wouldn't CMT which has even more stable income and stronger sponsor ?

We could see more exciting future for shareholders.

Cory

2018-1003

Cory Diary : Reits 2018 Updates

Started writing on this last Friday night and then i broke off from my usual routine to finish it in one go. Too many things going on in my mind recently. One of them is work where we need to plan for mitigation plans due to tariff. Is sure going to be more costly for Americans but considering the significant amount of jobs created, looks like it could be a net plus for average folks. I will be expecting companies to start to move some of their production at least to other countries to reduce their cost from operating in China. Pace could speed up if the tariffs increases some more. From the looks of it, businesses in China will not look good as America is a Consumer Market of the world.

Another thing that keep me busy is Mew Two is now available in Raid. For those who is not familiar, is Pokemon Go game. Yup, I am still in it. The game keeps me busy with some exercise but just be careful on the roads. The other problem is if I am too near to garden or vegetation, there may be mosquitoes. Is still quite amazing that the game attracts a crowd. To take this Pokemon will need about 10 players and indeed a team effort until a lady came up with 4 phones at one go on the raid. Anyone need a new friend please message me. I need to complete a mission ....

Back to investment. I have shown my portfolio of equities previously. This time round I am writing about each of the reit/trusts as I can. My thoughts, fear, wish, dream ... whatever. Don't say what the hell this guy blogging on Friday night. I always could do and anytime whenever I feel the urge and when time permit. The first 2 Reits are the blood vines of Singapore and the other 3 are tapping E.Asia/Australia. As long the country and East Asia do well. So I do have a stake to ensure Singapore continue to prospers at least. In REIT investment I have the opinion that I do not have to max out my earning. I would prefer 有钱大家赚. So as long they perform well consistently, Management / Employees or private placement shareholders are welcome to earn form it.


ASCENDAS REIT, CAPITAMALL TRUST

This stocks have long history of dividends. If I can remember, there maybe some placements along the way. What I focus is the growing DPU. And that's what all matter isn't it ? I remember the former one hits 8% yield years ago. Now the yield has come down to 6% (give and take....) so there is nice capital gains on top of dividends. Is it attractive now ? Well, we can have some financial crisis and money got suck out of the system and stock price could drop to 6% price level. Will it really really happen? I dunno but I do know there is a lot of cash out there. A 2% yield drop could mean more than 20% reduction in stock value. Will take 3 years to recover if the stock continues to stay low. But I can wait while collecting the dividends. I would think is best to size my investment appropriately as there is some fluctuations over the years. I am not too worry if it goes lower. This is provided fundamentally the business has not changed to bad. If we have added up all the DPU and Capital gains over the years, the returns are in many times that we have invested.The thing is we need to have skin in it and forget about trying to time a perfect entry. The dpu would cover them over time.


ASCENDAS-HTRUST, MAPLETREE IND TR, MAPLETREE NAC TR

This is another class of reits that is well managed so far. The hospitality sector has seen it's dynamics so able to grow consistently is not easy.  Industrial reit is not cheap I would say. But the growth is there. Maple family has been on growth path so there will be rights issue along the way. My wish is that they stay within private placement sphere. Able to attract this class of private money is like giving confidence to the companies. If we are to issue rights to existing shareholders, I am not sure is it because they have problem to raise money without giving significant discounts. And this may be worrying. I use such indication to reinforce my judgement. So I am ok to earn lesser as long the path is right and make the company more powerful. The Maple managed malls is recent addition. There seems good potential to provide strong DPU. The gearing is high though so I am only comfortable to add only some for now. This 3 reits performance are more dynamic than CMT and Ascendas in my opinion.


FIRST REIT, PARKWAYLIFE REIT

Both Medical Reits. They don't manage the hospital operations. Both if we are to use P/B to value them, will be relatively expensive. The reason I believe is the stable earning it provides at constant growth and the properties. Their moat is high. Really high. Let put it this way. If my wife is pregnant, and need to do NIPS test. And the facility recommends say NIPS+ and the cost increases from $2000 to $4000. The additional $2000 can detect down syndrome much more accurate from 90% to 99%. Will you pay ? Happily, I will. And if there is a invasive test which cost only $500 with 100% accuracy but there is 1% chance she will miscarriage, will you choose this option ? I think most will say no way ! That's how safe is Medical Reit as their tenants have wider ability to pay.

But not all reits are the same. I am always wary of First Reit sponsor. If you have been following this reit, the Sponsor has not been in strong financial position due to over expansion in other businesses. However there are still many hospitals along the pipeline and they have been able to maintain strong DPUs. Is pretty hard to fake giving out money if they aren't making money out of it. The recent event is a case to watch more closely as the sponsor find innovative way to raise money without losing control of the reit. That's how I read it. I don't get to be sleepless over but need to watch it. I feel is unlikely to be a "Sabana Event". I did reduces my exposure a little bit from it and as a result took some losses from it YTD since is reference to end of last year price. Some analysts are positive over the deals. I take it with pinch of salt. The dpu is still good for now.

As for ParkwayLife Reit, I have size it such that I can be relax on it. The 4+ dividends is low but I can accept it as it helps spread my exposure with stable returns long term.


FRASERS L&I TR

Australia currency has not been doing well for couple of years. So I think it does has some impact on the returns. As long the DPU growth able to covers it, the Reit should be ok. They have freehold assets over there so this do make up for long term. They do has rental reversion but I feel it is not a surprise as there is clause within the contract that up the rental fee annually which can move it past the market rate.So not surprisingly when is up for renewal, there is reversion to mean at least. The European acquisition is something I do not really like as it draw away the future funding space so I sold all after. However the current yield is good and do not see reduction of it near term after rights issue. Another concern I have is that they aren't maple. I returned with smaller position nevertheless due to the strong yield.


NETLINK NBN TR

This is not "HPH Trust" or many Trusts out there in my view. Their asset has long term value and good moat.
Singtel hold the max they could on this one which tell me something. The G5 future rest on even more Fibre optics. Down side is that charges are regulated from my read in the internet. The DPU will be stable but I will not be surprise to see fluctuation. Some people hope for deeper correction before they go in. I do not think this make sense. The annual dividends is about 5.8% yield from the top of my head. If we park the money temporarily in SSB is about 2% short term. Opportunity cost is 3.8% yield. The waiting time outside could be expensive.If I am to part my money in other equity, I lose my opportunity fund.

If the Trust is indeed stable even $0.90 to $1.0 is not expensive. Here's the growth I hope for. But then will I sell ? Not if I have enough stake in it to do partial. Will the price go lower and lower. I feel is unlikely to happen unless manhole get obsoleted. They have good profitability improvement from cost cutting. How much can this go without affecting the operation or future growth is unknown but there is limit. I hope to see management take some stakes from the market. So far yet seen.


Cory
2018-0928

Cory Diary : Radar Chart 2018-0920

There are currently 24 stocks in my portfolio. Reit/Tr allocation about 51%. They help to support the portfolio yield to 4.7% at least for now. Probably 5% if we includes the US stocks tracked here. Hardly need to monitor many of my stocks in the portfolio now. Primary focus or should I say most of my investment time spend is for new stock, and for the 9 Reit/Trusts for special announcements other than counting dividends received. haaaa

Keppel added. Sold ST Engineering on sudden spike. No longer vested in Sheng Siong. Has seen awesome returns for the pass few years.  Moving forward, I would probably find time to up my stakes in existing Reits/Trusts which has lower exposure but timing has to be right.

5% yield portfolio is nothing to shout about. There are room to improve with stability in mind. Capital gains are much harder for me. Well, maybe except Creative which I enjoy large gain in a day contra. I like to use this logic. If a stock able to give 4%-7% yield annually without much DPU reduction or maybe some increase, and there aren't fundamental deterioration in the business, stock price doesn't matters. I like to repeat to myself again ... STOCK PRICE doesn't matters !

Will I ever get it ?


Cory
2018-0920

Cory Diary : PRC Market Crash 2.0

Shanghai Composite Index closed 2702. The last time we see this level was in 2011. Trade War certainly takes it tolls on them while DJIA is at the opposite 26,000 high range. STI Index is impacted as well. The last time this happens  was in 2015 when PRC market crashed. So if PRC market decides to have major shake up next time, I should know what to do. Don't blur for the 3rd time ... well I dunno  :)

That's the risk of market. We just have to manage it. Now, if STI index is to pickup, where should I be in ? Banks I think. And what I should avoid ? Probably Property related counters. The curb this time is 一針見血.

Cory

20180909