How to Save 50% On Your Meal and Get a $5 Voucher at the Same Time

So yesterday wifey and I went to Suntec City with baby M to attend an event. And on the way there we were thinking what to have for our late lunch.

Suddenly I had an epiphany. I have downloaded an app called eatigo for more than a year but have not used it so far.

So I decided to give it a try and search for some ideas for our lunch place.

eatigo is basically an app to make reservation for dining. The app itself is pretty intuitive and there are various criterias for you to base your search on.

Our search for Suntec City turned up a number of choices. Since we do not have any particular craving, we made a reservation with the eatery that provides the most discount. In this case, a whooping 50% discount excluding drinks.

The whole process of reservation took less than a minute.

Now the amount of discount depends on the timing. In our case since it was already 2.30 pm I guess it's the off peak hour hence the 50% off.

Here's the dessert picture of our lunch. The main course is already in my tummy before I realised at least a photo should be taken.

Ok long story short. This is how you get the $5 voucher.

You got to be a first time user of eatigo.

Download the app and register using my referral code: eatiewft

Alternatively, you can register via my link at http://refer.eatigo.com/eatiewft-1v9

After that you can proceed to make your first reservation with an eatery of your choice.

Once you have fulfilled your reservation, 100 points will be credited to your eatigo account.

This 100 points is equivalent to a $10 eatigo voucher, a $5 NTUC voucher or a $5 Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf card.

There are other stuffs that can be exchanged with higher no. of points too. You can check it out in the app.

In all honesty, using the above referral code or link will enable me to earn 100 points too.

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post and I am not related to eatigo. This is purely a post to share some good stuff. 

Recent Transactions & Dividends Update

Dividends Update

Dividends received to date: $5,602.80

Coming dividends: $466.28

From: MNACT, Suntec REIT and Netlink Trust

Total for the year: $6,069.08.

Target hit.

Recent Transactions

Purchased my maiden lots of Mapletree NAC Trust @ $1.11 during the recent bearish trends in the market.

Ever since they made the foray into Japan, I began to take a deeper look into MNACT because I like the geographical diversification taken by the management.

Have been monitoring MNACT for awhile since and when it hit my TP I pressed the trigger.

This is my second purchase of the Mapletree family. The first being Mapletree Logistics Trust.

Why MNACT?

Financials:

Gross revenue, NPI, distributable income and DPU all increased for the first half of this FY.

Gearing is a tad too high for my liking at 39% though it's still below the 45% regulatory limit.

Other Metrics:

Like the fact that 78% of the debt is tied to fixed interest cost. Assuring in the rising interest rates environment.

Also like the reduced forex risk with 80% of FY18/19 distributable income hedged into SGD. Prudent management.

Valuation:

My purchased price is well below the NAV of $1.325.

One of MNACT directors recently bought 200,000 of its shares at $1.12. Since I'm buying at a cheaper price I would like to think this is a price with enough safety margin.

Outlook:

With the exception of Gateway Plaza (98.7%), all other properties in the portfolio enjoy 100% occupancy. Average portfolio WALE of 3 years ensures continuity for the near future.

And with Festival Walk, Gateway Plaza and Sandhill Plaza all contributed higher average rental rates for the first half of the year, it seems that there is no lack of suitors for MNACT's mix of retail and office spaces.

I especially like the fact that GP and SP are located in the tier 1 cities of Beijing and Shanghai.

Finally, contribution from the newly acquired Japanese properties should provide the impetus for the trend of increasing incomes and DPU to continue.

A well-managed REIT with prudent management and >6% yield. Great.

Added Netlink Trust @ $0.77 to my existing IPO holdings. Waited for its XD before buying as I reckoned it should fall further below NAV levels.

My holding price averaged to $0.79 with this tranche. Close to its NAV of $0.792 as of 30 Sept 2018.

Reasons for buying Netlink Trust have been covered in previous post and those reasons have not changed.

I like this counter for its stable and recurring income.

Financials:

Revenue, EBITDA and profit after tax are higher than projection for H1 FY19.

Can't find the gearing in the financial statements so I did a quick calculation using their loans and net assets. The gearing stands at 20.5%.

Annualised DPU of $0.0488 is higher than the $0.0464 projection and yields 6.18% against my cost.

Valuation:

Purchased price is a slight discount to book.

Outlook:

Netlink Trust maintains a strong economic moat as the dominant player in the field of fibre cable laying and associated installation.

In the short to mid term, Starhub's cessation of its cable network and transition of its broadband customers to fibre network by July 2019 provides likely upside.

In the mid to long term, the increasing residential units will continue to spearhead Netlink Trust as the residential connection segment contributes ~60% of its topline.

The low gearing puts the company in good stead if they wish to expand their business beyond the core offerings, though that will require shareholders approval.

If there is one worry it will be a reduction in the regulated returns during the next review period after Dec 2022.

Lower installation revenues highlighted in the financial report ought to be noted for next half (2H FY19) monitoring as well.

Meanwhile let's collect the >6% yield per annum first.

Review of CapitaLand 3Q18 Results

CapitaLand has just released its 3Q18 results this morning.

All in all it is a good set of numbers as expected.

PATMI increased by 13.6% to $362.2 M.

Due to higher operating PATMI and assets recycling.

Operating PATMI increased by 13.3% to $233.7 M.

Due to contributions from newly acquired and opened investment properties.

EBIT increased 0.2% to $796.3 M.

Due to recurring income from investment properties and contributions from development projects, fair value uplift and portfolio gains from divestments.

Topline for the quarter fell 16.9% to $1.26 B.

Due to lower contributions from development projects in China and Singapore, partially mitigated by higher rental revenue from newly acquired and opened properties as well as consolidation of revenue from three entities.

$4.0 B of assets are divested YTD and recycled into $6.1 B of new investments including higher yielding assets that are immediately incoming producing.

Gearing stands at 0.51x (2018 YTD)

Notable Points

1) RMB6.36 B and more than S$71.2 M of sales will be recognised in 4Q18 from China and Vietnam markets.

2) CapitaLand / GIC JV's acquisition of Shanghai's tallest twin towers along the north bund. This iconic landmark will be CapitaLand's 3rd Raffles City in Shanghai and 10th globally.

Property construction is expected to be completed by next June.

3) There is 44% drop in portfolio gains comparing YoY. I need to spend some time to further understand this. Nonetheless is still a gain not a loss.

Thoughts

No matter how I look this is a decent set of results from CapitaLand. However it does not seems to provide the catalyst for the uplift of its share price. Same as with previous cases.

In fact CapitaLand was among the top institutional selling last week.

Perhaps the big boys deemed this to be not good enough. Or perhaps there is a deliberate attempt to push down the share price.

My feel is that CapitaLand is always on the radar of the institutional players and therefore will always be subject to the effects of the big boys trade.

With a slew of developments in the pipeline (e.g. new acquisitions, malls management, coliving, coworking, dormitories, etc) the outlook for CapitaLand is exciting to look forward to.

At this point of writing, CapitaLand is trading at an attractive level. Will continue to add.

Why I Feel M1 is a Hidden Dragon

Recently there are a number of happenings surrounding M1.

Firstly is the offer from Konnectivity which everybody would have heard of by now.

And earlier this week it was announced that CEO Karen Kooi will be stepping down on 6th Dec.

It is my belief that the first point stated above is related to what I am going to write as follows.

TL:DR version.

M1's involvement in smart metering will be the next driver for its business.

Previously I have written about how I feel about the potential of M1's new acquisitions and initiatives including the move towards IoT.

Amongst IoT, I personally believe that smart metering will play a major role in the transformation of our country.

With M1's involvement in the smart metering environment, probably Keppel and SPH know how 'big' is the potential (and value) and how much it will benefit M1 in the coming future.

Hence the offer for buyout.

As it stands currently the biggest issues that Singapore face is water and power.

With the trend towards NEWater and desalination both of which requires tremendous amount of power, the water issue is essentially a power issue as well.

Furthermore with the recent power outage which affected more than 140,000 consumers in many parts of Singapore on the night of 18 Sept 18, it is apparent that certain elements of our power generation is not equipped to cope with sudden peak demands.

This is one of the areas where smart metering can comes into play.

What does a smart meter do?

1) A smart meter measures and records energy usage in short intervals.

2) It provides two way communication at the meter. Energy usage is communicated in real time allowing the utilities to be remotely monitored.

3) It can facilitate better electricity supply, better in-home data and better load programs.

4) Remote load control. A smart meter can be programmed so that high usage equipment can be turned on and off based on time or price or other parameters through the communications.

5) Exported power generation can be measured. This is useful with the trend towards solar energy generation in Singapore.

6) Outage detection. Utilities service providers can remotely check the status of any meter.

7) Meter tamper detection. A smart meter can also be monitored to see if it has been accessed without authority.

8) Remote time synchronisation. A smart meter's internal clock can be kept accurate without site visits.

9) Any events e.g. voltage spikes, voltage drops, outages, etc can be recorded by the meter.

Referring to points 1 - 4 above. Imagine if Singapore is already a smart grid nation, the outage on 18 Sept would likely have been prevented or at least rectified more quickly.

Furthermore imagine the man-hours saved! The SP services guys will not need to check the meters outside your house every other month.

How does it helps to improve our national electricity market?

As Singapore moves from centralised power generation towards integration with distributed generation, smart grids with smart metering may be the solution to many problems currently faced.

Firstly the reliability of the grid is always a great concern. Smart grids make troubleshooting grids much easier as information flows digitally from all areas of the grid making it easy to determine the problem source.

Secondly our electricity demand has been increasing and generators may struggle to supply the power required during periods of peak demand. Smart grids with demand side management (DSM) can ease the pressure on the supply by giving consumers incentives to lower their energy consumption and use electricity more efficiently during peak periods.

Thirdly the increased use of distributed generation (particularly from renewable energy sources) poses new problems for utilities companies who must integrate this new source into the grid. Smart grids have the capacity to integrate multiple power flows hence allowing for better integration of these technologies through improved communication.

M1's move into the smart metering segment means that it is directly involved in the transformation of our national electricity market which may well proved to be the game changer or at least a new major driver for M1 business.

My Solo Attempt at Baby Sitting

Since wifey and I are both working, usually we will bring our baby (baby M) to my MIL's place on Sunday night and bring her back on Friday night.

However as the Tuesday that just went by was a public holiday, I decided to leave the baby at home on Sunday which means I will be taking care of her alone on Monday as wifey will be working.

Now this is not a post to brag but I felt compelled to pen this experience down as I really enjoyed it.

I woke up baby M around 8.30 am to bathe her, change her diapers and feed her.

Surprisingly the feeding went well and she finished her milk in one go.

Did the customary burping and off to sleep again for baby M.

After washing the bottle I took the opportunity to work on my laptop and do some studying for an upcoming assessment.

In between also sneaked in to check on her and see her cute and beautiful face at times.

Usually baby M drinks her milk every 3 hours or so. However this time she took a longer than usual nap before waking up for her next feed.

This time it went smoothly too. Did a change of diapers for her too and off to nap again.

Washed the bottle and continued with my studying. Thanks to baby M's cooperation, I had more time than expected to study. Perhaps she knows her daddy has an upcoming assessment?

Seeing her cute face gives me motivation to continue. Haha.

Around 5 pm she woke up again for her third feed. But this time the pushing of bottle and her body contouring started. This is her usual way of telling me 'anything but the milk!'. It wasn't easy feeding her whenever she starts behaving this way. Only managed to feed her half bottle.

By then she has grown increasingly cranky and no amount of cajoling seems to help in calming her down.

So there I was, running between the bed room and living room while pacifying her and preparing the 'necessities' bag as the plan is to bring her to the mrt station to welcome mummy back.

Eventually at 6.20 pm we went out to meet mummy for dinner.

All in all I must say it's not too hard a day for me but it wasn't plain sailing all the way. Baby M was very cooperative and I had more than expected time to do some reading. If she had been in her cranky mood since morning I doubt I would be able to do my work as well as finish my revision for the day.

Baby M, papa loves you.

Fixed Deposit Rates and Singapore Savings Bond

Recently I was looking around for options to park a portion of cash from my corporate account to earn some interest.

Instead of letting my funds 'sit' idly in the existing current account which doesn't gives any interest, I prefer to let them work harder and make additional 'friends'. The returns can be small but must be practically risk-free.

Having said that, options are not much. The first thing that comes to mind are interest-bearing current accounts and corporate fixed deposits (FD).

I went online to do some comparison work. Surprisingly some foreign banks are offering pretty attractive interest rates for their current accounts and FDs.

Some of the offers are for personal deposit only but I will list it down as well for readers' reference.

For ICBC FD

Validity: Till further notice
Caveat: Not sure whether it's applicable for corporate FD.

For ICBC FD + Current Account

Validity: 31st Oct 2018

For RHB FD

Validity: 31st Oct 2018
Caveat: For personal FD only. Not for corporate.

For CIMB FD

Validity: 31st Oct 2018
Caveat: For personal FD only. Not for corporate. 

For CIMB FD + Current Account

Validity: Till further notice
Caveat: For corporate FD only. Not for personal.

12 months FD only Rate: 1.65% P.A.
12 months FD + Current Account Rate: 1.83% P.A. (FD) + 0.78% P.A. (Current Account, Min. S$30k)

I also did a comparison with the upcoming Singapore Savings Bond (SSB) with issue date of 1st Nov 2018.

Again it's not applicable for corporate but just sharing for reference sake.

The offerings from CIMB actually compare favourably with the SSB if I take up the FD + current account bundle. However that might affect my cash flow since a minimum of S$30k has to be maintained in the account on top of the amount that I want to put into the FD.

Readers with extra personal cash wanting to park somewhere for risk-free interest, you might want to consider the FD offered by CIMB. At 1.84% interest, it is slightly higher than the 1.80% from the SSB.

However if you are going for longer tenor like 2 years and more, the SSB is still a more attractive option.

The Best 'Coin' I Ever Had

This post has to start off with a picture. There's simply no other way.

On a wet rainy afternoon yesterday, wifey and I were in the car pondering where to go for a bite. As fate has it, we decided to go to a place which I have long wanted to go but have not so far.

The recommended dish here is the coin prata which we ordered together with a kosong and egg prata.

The moment I had my first bite of the coin prata I was overwhelmed. This has got to be the best that I've ever had. The sound of crispiness when my molars pressed down can almost rival that of a potato chip.

That's how crunchy it is on the outside. However the inside retains the fluffiness that a prata should have.

The accompanying curry is fantastic too. I finished the entire plate which surprised wifey. Haha.

On the flip side (pun intended), it is not cheap. 6 coin pratas cost $4.00.

Nevertheless I think it is worth every cent.

There are few eateries that I would purposely drive all the way down. This is one of them.

SIC location for interested foodies like me: Blk 24 Sin Ming Rd

Disclaimer: we are not related to the stallowner except for being a very satisfied customer.

M1

It was nice seeing the share price of M1 opening at above $2 the day after trading halt is lifted. It has been a long time since M1 crossed over that mark.

By now everybody would have known this is due to the offer from Keppel and SPH. Some have already sold their shares amidst the run up these few days. Some are still waiting to see if a better offer or price comes up.

How about me?

On one hand I'm glad my previous thesis (suspicions) about M1 being a prime candidate for M&A has proven to be right.

On the other I am still excited to see how the various initiatives and ventures implemented by M1 will work out.

Anyway back to the purchase offer by Konnectivity Pte Ltd, at $2.06 I feel the downside is fairly limited. Also I believe the upside offers further magnitude with Axiata considering joining in the fray too.

Hence for now I will continue to hold and monitor for further news which I reckon we should be hearing within these couple of weeks.

Baby Has Arrived!

Was pretty busy recently hence hasn't been active on my blog for awhile.

My daughter has safely arrived on 17th June 2018 Father's Day!

What a meaningful gift to me.

Wifey underwent an emergency C-section after about 24 hours of pain. I really owed it to her. My heart broke when I saw her lying on the bed suffering.

I was with her nearly throughout the entire period. That's the least I could do.

We wanted to go for natural delivery as far as possible but doctor decided to go for the C-section for safety reasons.

For those interested, total bill for our birth journey is as follows. It's not a small sum but what's important is that both wifey and daughter are safe and sound.

We went to SGH as a private patient.

Pre-delivery consultation visits and tests: $2,100

Medications and vitamins: $273

Labour and hospitalisation charges: $10,273.31

Baby hospitalisation charges: $3,489.63

Less Medisave claims: -$7,550

Net Payment: $8,585.94

May and June 2018 Updates

Dividends Received

CapitaLand: $480.00
OCBC: $4.25
Mapletree Logistics Trust: $141.40
Netlink Trust: $129.60
RHT Health Trust: $114.00
Suntec Reit: $97.32
Viva Industrial Trust: $91.90

Total: $1,058.47

Counters Purchased

CapitaLand: 5 lots

Counters Sold

Nil

March and April 2018 Updates

Dividends received for these two months:

1) RHT Health Trust $122.00
2) M1: $744.00

Portfolio value as of now: 

$113,149.50

Extraordinary expenditure: 

Fine for waiting at unloading bay: $110.00

Thoughts: 

Will continue to work hard to build up my income portfolio though warchest has definitely been affected due to lesser income available as I started my own company last year.

What I'm drawing now is about half of what I was getting when I was a partner at the previous firm. I intend to keep it that way until business has stabilised.

Jiayou, gambatte JASS. You can do it!

Takeaways from CapitaLand AGM 2018

CapitaLand AGM 2018

Date: 30/04/2018

Duration: 10.00 am - 12.20 pm

Turnout: ~40%

Even before the AGM starts, while people are still strolling in to get seated, the screen is already playing a video presentation with catchy music on CapitaLand's (CPL) developments.

And it's my first time seeing two rows of company representatives on stage for an AGM.

First row comprises of the board members while the second row comprises of CEOs of the various CPL business units.

 No wonder they chose Stars Theatre as the venue.

Great.

You know the AGM is a serious business when it starts with a briefing on the emergency evacuation route (I thought I am back to my army days).

That is followed by a presentation on the group's overview, business updates and what's looking ahead for them.

After that comes the usual Q&A. I took the questions and replies until my pen ink ran out.

Questions from the floor

Q: Is the group going global apart from the areas they are in now?

A: Yes. Ascott is now in Europe, USA, Australia, Ghana, etc.

For the retail unit, CPL is looking at managing beyond CPL's own portfolio. In other words they are expanding to manage other companies' malls too.

Q: Is CPL's operating platform not going for acquisition?

A: The operating platform will stay asset-light. Instead they will leverage on technology to deliver what the retailers and customers want.

But for the investment platform, yes they are looking out for suitable asset classes.

Q: How did CPL achieved the 50% gross profit (G.P.) and is that sustainable?

A: Consolidation of the trusts.

At the G.P. level there are many contributions from the associates and subsidiaries.

Q: CPL is currently undervalued and its share price seems to be under performing compared to City Developments's. What is the board's take on that?

A: CPL do share buyback to enhance share holders' value.

CPL cannot be compared to City Developments as the business profile is different.

Q: Can the dividend payout ratio increase from the current 33%?

A: CPL will give dividend on a sustainable basis.

Q: How does CPL defend itself against Wechat and Alibaba in China on the online space?

A: CPL wants to stay in both online and offline spaces. Currently they have 5.8 M users on the Capita Stars platform.

CPL works with Wechat and Alibaba as well to leverage on their payment system and to provide a seamless experience.

Q: Township development by CPL.

A: CPL has been doing that in China. Other than that CPL is also into master planning.

They will continue to do that and that is one way they acquire land bank in China.

And importantly this is a way they build up reputation and network with the who's who in China.

Q: What is the impairment on page 77 of the annual report?

A: This is actually a write back related to 2 projects with previous impairments but which are not used eventually.

Q: What is the chairman's feel about Singapore's property market?

A (by the CEO): The property market is a proxy to the economy.

Basing on the Q1 preliminary data, the market looks good. And going forward the next 3, 4 quarters are optimistic too.

Comment from one of the share holders: CPL is quite well covered in many areas and in recurring income streams. Hope the board can consider a more generous dividend payout than 33%. That will give confidence to the share price too.

Another share holder concurred and commented the board should give share holders the money and they do the share buyback themselves.

A: The board will take that into consideration.

Resolutions: All passed.

Observations

CapitaLand's AGM is one of the AGMs that I was looking forward to attend this year. And it didn't disappoints ~ in another way.

Drama unfolded early into the Q&A. Better than the Taiwanese soap operas on TV. Stars Theatre indeed.

Two shouting uncles wasted time by talking about irrelevant things and asking irrelevant questions so much so that they were booed by others from the floor with shouts of "Don't waste time" and "Get out" heard from several quarters.

One of them the legendary Mr Sunny, even turned aggressive this time when the security officers came up to him. I've seen him shouting at several AGMs before but this is the first time I have seen him on the verge of turning violent.

To be fair to him, he did gave a good suggestion which is for the board to implement a 'floating system' for directors' fees. In bad times board takes a lower fee or in the form of shares and vice versa for good times.

I find that worth consideration.

Summary and my thoughts

2017 is a record year for CapitaLand in several aspects.

Its total PATMI achieved $1.55 B. The highest since 2008. It's also a record year for them in Vietnam which is a very fast growing market. Malls in China achieved 8.6% NPI growth.

I am personally very looking forward to the opening of Raffles City Chong Qing in the near future.

Ascott is also on track to achieve 80,000 serviced residence units by this year. On this front they have also made their first foray into Africa, Ghana.

CPL is gunning for $100 B AUM by 2020. This is another mile stone worth looking forward too.

Previously I have also written about CPL's online mall on Lazada and their venture into e-payment which is their StarPay platform.

On the social responsibility front, CPL donates up to 0.5% of their net profit yearly to Capital Hope Foundation to help under privileged children.

You might recall I have mentioned in other posts that one of the aspects I look out for in a company is the quality of its management.

I have always been a fan of Mr Lim Ming Yan, Group CEO and President of CapitaLand.

In CPL's board of directors, quality is in abundance as well.

Chairman Mr Ng Kee Choe is the former vice chair of DBS. Few of the other directors are chairman-calibre in their own right such as Ms Goh Swee Chen (Chairman of Shell Singapore) and Mr Stephen Lee (Chairman of SIA Engineering).

It would be too long winded to write about the other board members but you can flip the annual report or go into CPL's website to read through their extensive experience.

With $6.1 B cash, CPL has sufficient head room to grow and to grow big. This will serve them (and the share holders) well in the years to come.

Despite all the good points stated above, there are aspects that I have reservations about CPL too.

It seems like the management is very cautious about acquisitions and expansion. So much so that it seems to be the limiting factor in their growth story. I have said many times that something seems to be stopping CPL from realising its full potential. Perhaps this is the reason.

However I'm not complaining since it appeared to serve them well so far.

Another aspect is the dividend payout which definitely has room to grow. However the payout amount has been growing for the past 5 years so kudos to them too.

If you aren't a share holder of CapitaLand yet, perhaps it's time to seriously think about it now considering it is still trading below its net tangible asset value of $4.20.

In fact half way through the Q&A I was already calculating my average price if I were to add more now at a particular price and the impact to my dividend yield against cost.

Good luck and cheers always!

Takeaways from ComfortDelGro AGM 2018

ComfortDelGro AGM 2018

Date: 26/04/2018

Duration: 10.00 - 11.55 am

Turnout: ~80% of the auditorium

Chairman Mr Lim Jit Poh opened the meeting with an introduction of the board and a speech on ComfortDelGro's (CDG) performance and business overview followed by a summary of 2017 financial results presented by the CFO.

Questions from the floor

Q: With regards to the current disruptions to the businesses, what are the approaches by the board to deal with these? So far CDG is using defensive moves. Can CDG be more proactive?

A: CDG is always actively looking forward though they did not say it publicly. Management and board are looking actively at autonomous vehicles and electric vehicles (EV) for now.

They are also talking to Singapore Power to set up electric charging stations.

In London their buses are already electrically charged.

They are also bringing new directors including one with artificial intelligence (A.I.) expertise to the board*.

* News of this have been announced publicly this afternoon

Q: CDG has acquired vehicle fleet from Uber. How does it impact CDG and what is the ROI?

A: The vehicles are not purchased yet. Money is not spent yet. The acquisition proposal is now at Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS).

CDG recognise that the sharing economy is here to stay and partnering with an existing player is the best and fastest way to go into this market.

Definitely CDG is moving into the private hire segment.

Q: What does the agreement with Uber entails?

A: Partnership with Uber app but this is ending on 7th May 2018.

Signed an agreement with Lion City Rentals (LCR) to buy 51% of LCR subject to regulatory approval.

Q: Since there will be no more Uber Flash after 7th May, what is the next step for CDG?

A: CDG will be using only CDG's own app after that. But they are actively looking around for partnership with other apps.

Q: Is Vicom ready for EV?

A: Yes.

Q: Why has CDG's inventories gone up?

A: Because of the rail business.

Q: Is CDG collaborating with Grab to put CDG's taxis on their platform?

A: Currently Grab is tying with other operator with 40% market share. If CDG also tie up with Grab, will CCCS agree? (this question is posed back by the chairman as a response)

Q: How much further will CDG push down the taxi rental fare to attract more drivers?

A: Drivers attrition rate has in fact gone down. This month might even see a net gain of drivers. So the answer to this question depends on the attrition rate.

Q: CDG has a large fleet of taxis idling. What is the current idling rate compared to last year?

A: To date the idling rate is 2 - 3% which is about 400 vehicles.

CDG downsized the fleet by swapping older taxis with newer taxis for the drivers. Scrapping older taxi is cheaper.

Q: What is the rationale for buying LCR when CDG is already trying hard to retain drivers?

A: If CDG buy LCR, they will only buy hired vehicles not unhired ones.

Q: What is the FX impact for this year?

A: 2017 FX positive impact from the AUD but pound and RMB dropped. For this year, it is the reverse so far.

Q: What is the chairman's comment on his recent interview on Straits Times about CDG having to contend with lower margin business in the future?

A: CDG has to be realistic about today's market. For example they lost the last two bus contracting model (BCM) contracts because they only dropped a little bit of margin.

Q: 9 year rule by MAS - Director who has served for more than 9 years is no longer considered independent director. CDG has 9 directors who have served for > 9 years.

A: CDG is renewing the board.

Q: Will CDG consider buying over Uber?

A: No. These tech companies are losing billions of dollars.

Resolutions: All passed.

Snippets

1) After the registration of my attendance, I had wanted to get myself a drink before going into the auditorium. However I was stopped by a lady.

I told her I just want some water but she replied if she allows that the floodgate will open. Ok reasonable enough.

Then I asked if they have bottled water inside the hall she said no as they are environmental-friendly. Ok fair enough too.

2) As for the buffet after the AGM, I did not queue for that as I did not want to join the snaking queue.

Summary and my thoughts

Chairman Mr Lim Jit Poh, is a former top civil servant and an experienced businessman whom I believe most of us would have heard of his name.

CEO and MD Mr Yang Ban Seng, is of course an old hand in the land transport business having joined the group in 1989.

I find both of them to be direct, jovial and candid when answering questions from the floor.

Both of them knows what they are saying and are sincere in doing so.

This is one of the best AGMs I have attended in terms of the Q&A.

Many good questions are asked during the AGM though many are related to the LCR acquisition.

Importantly I see the chairman took a keen interest in answering the questions from the floor. He also showed that he is a hands on person by the way he made the effort to personally explained what the individual resolutions are about instead of just reading from the notes on resolutions.

I like that.

What do I feel about CDG?

Business-wise, big challenges await CDG in the land transport sector. However they have not been sitting idly. This is evident in their aggressiveness on the M&A front with 3 acquisitions in 2017 and 8 this year so far.

From what I see, these are synergistic businesses. Whether these are profit-accretive, I'm sure the management would have done their homework.

Moving forward in the near term, the key is how they manage the private hire challenge and how they can turn that into an advantage instead.

On the longer horizon, we have to see how the recent acquisitions work out. Meaningful contributions might not take long I suspect.

Finance-wise, cash flow remains strong. Net cash position of >$590 M is no joke (though probably that has been reduced with the most recent acquisitions).

Dividend amount has been increasing every year with dividend payout from the net profit increased from 70.1% in 2016 to 74.6% in 2017. There is still room for growth.

Personally I am interested in adding ComfortDelgro at prices translating to at least 5% dividend yield for my income portfolio.

Takeaways from Viva Industrial Trust AGM 2018

Viva Industrial Trust AGM 2018

Date: 20/04/2018

Turnout: Full House

Time: 10 am

I was given a voting slip upon registration. That means the voting and counting of votes will be done manually. A rarity these days.

The AGM started with a presentation by the CEO followed by the Q&A.

Before the Q&A proper, the floor was requested by the chairman to refrain from asking questions about the merger with ESR. This is understandable considering the confidential nature of such deal.

I only captured some of the Q&A as follows.

Q: There will be a 10% vacancy to be filled at UE Bizhub next year. And the rental support will be terminated in Nov 2018. What does the board intends to do?

A: The management and board are taking steps to deal with the above. 10% vacancy sounds alot but it only represents 3 units of the property.

The current rental is $5/sqft. They are trying to increase the rental but need to find balance with trying to retain tenants.

Maximum rental in the area is $5.50/sqft.

Q: Will Viva Business Park still continues to contribute positively to the performance of VIT?

A: Going forward the management will continue to upgrade the park to make it attractive and relevant to tenants.

Regarding the relatively short land lease left, JTC has a policy to extend land lease and VIT's management is in talk with them regarding this issue.

One good thing about AGMs is that I always learn new things from attending these meetings.

So land lease expiry is not the end of everything for JTC property owners since JTC has a policy to extend the land lease if necessary.

Q (this question was asked by yours truely): Is there any plan in place by the management regarding Jackson Square since the remaining land lease for this property is only about 11 years left and the relatively low occupancy is causing a drag to the overall portfolio occupany rate?

A: The management is also discussing about this land lease issue with JTC. The plot ratio which can go up to 2.5 for this property, is still not maximised yet.

Jackson Square is still classified as a B1 zone.

Q: Is VIT planning to expand overseas?

A: Yes, they are looking at places such as Australia and Malaysia. But they need to find earnings accretive properties. Since their current yield is about 8%, this hampers their acquisition plans as they need to find properties that can match or enhance the yield.

Resolutions: I left before the results due to other appointment.

Summary and Observations

Both Chairman and CEO of VIT are candid and appear sincere when replying to the shareholders. I don't see any attempt to brush off questions asked.

In fact the chairman commented the questions asked are good quality questions.

I find it heartening that the board is looking beyond Singapore as the market here is really restrictive for growth as compared to overseas. And it is assuring to hear from the CEO that the acquisitions must be yield accretive.

Last year was a great year in terms of performance by VIT. I reckon it should continue this year.

Share price should return to the $0.9+ levels (at least) once the talk with ESR is a done deal.

I'm looking to add more to my holdings.

Last but not least, the additional 'dividend' from the AGM :  )

Takeaways from Suntec REIT AGM 2018

Suntec REIT AGM 2018

Date: 16/04/2018

Duration: 2.05 - 3.10 pm

Turnout: About 90% (At least half are whom I can call aunties and uncles despite me being an uncle myself. This is a testament to Suntec's popularity as a stable REIT among this group of investors.)

AGM started with a 20 min presentation of the REIT's results in 2017 and recent progress by Mr Chan Kong Leong, CEO and Executive Director.

Questions from the floor

Q: Regarding its overseas expansion, have Suntec consider the tax implications involved such as capital gain tax and withholding tax?

A: Suntec receive advice from experts and structure their business for the most tax efficiency. However certain taxes due to regulations, are unavoidable.

Q: The same unit holder also suggested using big data and artificial intelligence for future property acquisitions to stay ahead of the curve.

A: Suntec is currently using big data for business enhancements but not A.I. at the moment.

Q:What is the board's stance on improving tenant retention ratio to 80 - 90% as compared to the current 64%?

A: Suntec do not want that high of a ratio because they and the shoppers want something new and fresh regularly.

Suntec is guided by what they and the market wants at the end of the day.

Q: How much capital distribution is left and how will future distribution payout be affected once the capital distribution is exhausted?

A: More than $100 M is left for distribution. When this is exhausted, income from the new properties such as 9 Penang Road will comes in.

Q: Suntec's rental or occupancy (I didn't catch this properly. Apologies.) is lower than that of heartland malls. How is Suntec handling that?

A: Suntec is trying to improve the fundamentals. When the fundamentals are improved, rentals will come back. This can already be seen in the latest results.

Q: Why is Suntec not investing in China?

A: Suntec is choosing to invest in Australia because of the political stability, good returns, good quality of properties, etc.

Resolutions: All passed.

Observations

The last question in above Q&A was answered by the Chairwoman, Ms Chew Gek Khim. She only replied with the above one liner and when the questioner probed further, she just said a thank you and wanted to proceed to the next agenda.

I thought that was pretty rude and came across as insincere and impatient.

Sentiments from the floor seem to concur as the resolution to endorse the appointment of Ms Chew Gek Khim (Resolution 3) only garnered 50+% approval. In other words 40 over % voted against her.

This is the lowest I've seen in the AGMs that I've attended.

On the other hand, CEO Mr Chan answered well to the questions from the floor and he came across as being candid. I thought he did quite well.

Summary and my thoughts

In my opinion Suntec REIT remains an attractive REIT trading below its NAV.

Having office, retail and MICE elements in its portfolio, it is a good proxy to these 3 sectors for an investor wanting to invest in all three instead of either one.

Forward distribution yield should remain comfortably above 5%. Although this is not the best among REITs, I like the stability this REIT offers with its high quality assets in the CBD.

Distribution yield against my cost remains above 6%.

Another assuring factor for me is the quality of the REIT manager. I have happy memories with ARA previously when they were still listed.

Among the overseas properties, 177 Pacific Highway has a 100% committed occupancy with no lease expiring until 2023 onwards.

Most importantly there is earnings visibility coming in from the new properties namely 9 Penang Road and Olderfleet. Contributions from these two properties should be meaningful from 2020 onwards.

CapitaLand: To Sell or Hold

CapitaLand's dividend has been on the uptrend in recent 5 years, albeit in small incremental steps. Based on the latest dividend declared, dividend yield has surpassed 4% which is the minimum I set for a stock to enter my income portfolio.

Hence CapitaLand has officially join my income portfolio as its newest member. While it's nice to see the dividend growing, I actually consider CapitaLand as a growth stock too and I'm waiting to see its much delayed upward trajectory of the share price happening.

It has been doing so many things right such as the recent Ascott's deals, the launch of its own StarPay e-payment service, management deal for the Phnom Penh mall, etc.

Yet the share price doesn't reflect it.

This can probably be explained by the fact that the investments need time to reap the rewards. However the stock market is a forward looking one. I'm sure we will see a stunning run up of CapitaLand's share price soon.

I'm in no hurry to sell.

Why Say No to Free Money?

Recently someone asked me whether I have PayLah app and I told her no. After that I started to think why not? I have OCBC's 'Pay Anyone' for a long time so why not DBS's PayLah too?

I went ahead and downloaded the app. Registration is a breeze with only a few steps. And on the last screen we can enter a promo code if we have one.

So I googled for PayLah's promo code online to try my luck. Surprisingly there is indeed one that can be used. I will come to that later.

After I have completed the registration with the promo code, a $5 was immediately credited into my PayLah account. I was pleasantly surprised it's so fast. And apparently I have my own referral code as well. This is nothing new. Other apps also have this feature.

So if I may ask, you can use my referral code GTPJMM158 for your PayLah registration. By doing so both you and I can get $5 each.

If you don't want me to earn that $5, you can use another promo code STEADYLAH, which is the one I mentioned earlier. Using this code also earns you $5.

Take note that the latter code is limited to the first 40,000 successful new sign ups between 10 Aug 2017 to 31 Dec 2018.

So why say no to free money?

Disclaimer: This article is written on my own accord purely for sharing. I have not been approached by DBS or OCBC to write about their products.

Takeaways from M1 AGM 2018

M1 AGM 2018

Date: 11/04/2018

Duration: 2.30 - 3.55 pm

Turnout: Full house (I nearly couldn't get a seat until an M1 staff led me to an empty seat at the 2nd row.

Questions from the floor

Q: Explanation for the higher EBITDA and lower net profit.

A: This is due to higher amortisation* for new investments such as narrow band internet of things (NBIOT).

* rightfully EBITDA should be before amortisation.

NBIOT is largely for B2B. Earnings from this segment takes time as things like smart meterings, smart lamp posts, smart flood monitoring, etc takes time to develop.

Q: How will M1 defend against the new Telco entrant?

A: M1 will continue to invest in their Telco business. However they do not intend to engage in price war.

Q: Can M1 diversify from its traditional source of income to reduce its vulnerability?

A: M1 is actually quite glad that they are not in the pay-tv segment due to players such as Netflix.

M1's fixed services grew 24.5% and M1 is pushing on that area.

M1 is not sitting just on mobile. They are looking for opportunities such as acquisitions.

Q: Can M1 lower their CAPEX than that of TPG's?

A: TPG stated their CAPEX as $250 M. However M1 estimated the figure should be $500 M instead.

Moving forward M1's CAPEX will be around $100 - 120 M.

Q: How does M1 intends to deal with the ~$200 M spectrum fee paid?

A: Amortise it over 15 years.

Q: How will M1 handle the high cost of interest payments to avoid affecting the dividends payout?

A: M1 has short term facilities to use.

Rights issue is not likely unless it's a last resort.

M1 used bank loans as those have the cheapest cost among all options including bonds.

Q (interesting as it tells us the operational readiness of TPG): Status of TPG now?

A: TPG has 200 base stations now. Some of them are interconnected.

M1 has 2,500.

Q: M1 already has a $450 M bank loan. How does M1 intends to fund the new spectrum?

A: M1's gearing is still low compared to the Telco industry. They can still borrow from their short and medium term facilities.

Q: How does M1's board feels about M1's future in the next 5 years which are challenging?

A: Acknowledged that next few years are indeed challenging.

They will be controlling costs.

M1 also has avenues to increase revenues but these take times.

The suffering revenue from mobile segment can hopefully be covered by these new sources of revenues, which might even be more than that of the mobile segment.

Q: How does M1 retains customers instead of them porting around?

A: Through sunrisers for high spenders, sunperks points and multisaver discounts.

M1 is also the Telco of choice for MPA due to their superior 4.5G network.

Q (this is my favourite question among all): What is the growth plan of M1? Does M1 intends to venture overseas? There's only one new entrant and yet M1's share price has fallen by half from its peak.

A: M1 is apprehensive about the start up costs of venturing overseas.

Telco industry is high cost, not like setting up a bank overseas.

Telco industry is also a highly regulated one to enter.

M1 has to be realistic about their financial capability. To raise funds for overseas venture, M1 has to ask money from the shareholders and the 3 major shareholders have to agree first.

However there are many ways to expand abroad. One way is through partnerships. E.g. to bring M1's IoT capability to the overseas market.

Q: CAPEX is high last year. How does M1 intends to arrest that?

A: M1 is investing for the future. And that is reflected in the high CAPEX and acquisitions.

Moving forward, estimated CAPEX will be lowered to $100 - 120 M per year.

Comment from one of the shareholders: M1's website is old-fashion and doesn't appeal to the younger generation.

Resolutions: All passed.

The above are what I have garnered. I have probably missed out some questions as I was focusing on the replies from the board. I have also left out some which I feel is not that important.

Summary and my thoughts

M1 is reluctant to expand overseas to be a full fledge Telco like what TPG has done in Singapore. This is due to their financial capability.

This in my opinion, is a double-edge sword. 

By doing so they are limiting their growth as Singapore is only this big. However this also limits their risk to external environments of which a single mistake might wipe out all the cash generated so painstakingly especially since their financial capability is not big.

For M1, their focus now is controlling costs and continue to build on to their mobile base. Growth comes from their new initiatives such as the IoTs which I personally find promising in terms of being a new revenue driver for M1.

Personally I will continue to stay vested in M1 since the dividend yield is still attractive while I awaits the contributions from the new sources.

US and China Trade War

In an unsurprising move, China has published its own list of 128 US products on which it will impose tariffs ranging between 15 - 25%.

The full list can be found here.

This is obviously a retaliation against US which recently announced tariffs on US$50 billion worth of Chinese products - a true business man fashion by Trump.

The effect of this trade war between the top two economies in the world can be seen in the jitteries felt among the various markets in this week.

Our local STI has dropped 72 points to close at 3,339.70 at this point of writing after hovering around the 3,400 region.

While this has caused a drag on my portfolio, it has also presented opportunities to pick 'durians' cheaply. Some of my targets have already fallen to attractive prices.

So what does that spells for me?

For now I will continue to monitor the news on this topic which I don't think will end anytime soon. Staying on the side line before taking the plunge is my strategy now.

Jan and Feb 2018 Updates

Investments

Received the first round of dividends for this year as follows.

SingTel dividends S$490

Suntec dividends S$104.16

CCT dividends S$164

Viva dividends S$92.85

MLT dividends S$152.42

Total dividends received: S$1,003.43.

Career

Just closed the accounts for my new company after venturing out on my own last year. Managed to achieve ROI within the first year of operations. Shall continue to work harder to grow the business.

Happy Lunar New Year 2018

To all readers, here's wishing you and your family a very Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year. May you and your loved ones stay Healthy and Happy always!

Those with the dog zodiac sign are not having the best of luck this year apparently. And I'm one old doggie too. Luckily I don't believe too much in the zodiacs.

To all fellow doggies I wish you the best of luck. For myself I look forward to another fruitful year ahead.

Woof woof.

Portfolio Review: Suntec REIT

Suntec turned in a respectable overall set of FY2017 results amidst a challenging year in terms of retail.

Y-o-Y,

Gross revenue up by 7.8%
Net Property income up by 8.9%
Distributable income up by 3.7%

Latest dividend yield based on my bought price is around 6%.

In terms of office space, Suntec has done well particularly from their 2016 acquisition, 177 Pacific Highway.

However their retail segment continues to be weak. Revenue contribution from the retail space dropped last year.

Will I continue to hold? Yes.
Will I add more? Maybe.

How Do I See the Possible Merger of ESR-Reit and Viva Industrial Trust

Although the combined entity will be the 4th largest industrial REIT by asset value and 5th largest by market cap in Singapore, I hope the deal doesn't materialise.

The figures above sure look impressive.

However in my opinion the future outlook, portfolio quality and the performance of the REIT management are equally, if not more important.

Take a look at the following table.

 

Gross revenue, NPI and DPU have been decreasing Y-o-Y for ESR whereas that of Viva Industrial Trust (VIT) have grown Y-o-Y. This is a testament of the REIT's manager strength.

Apart from the WALE and occupancy rate which are higher, ESR is going to be a drag on VIT.

Numbers don't lie. Though in some cases they do tell a different story. For example, the REIT's rental reversion depends on what type of leases they take into account. But this is topic for another day.

Since we are at rental reversion, let's look at the negative rental reversion of ESR and think about how this will impact the REIT price performance and dividend payout.

In the most direct manner, the DPU will be negatively affected going forward. The overall value of the REIT portfolio will also be negatively impacted since the collective value of the assets will go down.

Comparing to ESR, I would say VIT performed much more admirably. Whether it's the distribution yield, revenue, NPI or rental reversion.

I also prefer the portfolio of VIT more than that of ESR. Except for 7000 AMK, the rest of the latter's portfolio doesn't conjure any excitement in me when I glanced through.

On the contrary I prefer the outlook for the two crown jewels of VIT: Viva Business Park and UE BizHub East.

Having said that, I do see something interesting for ESR with the Tuas mega port coming up in 2040.

ESR has a number of properties in Tuas among which one of them was acquired last year with 36 years remaining land lease.

If they can position themselves to make use of the mega port development, it should change the dynamics for them.

In summary unless there's something very positive that I missed out in ESR, I hope the deal doesn't goes through.

Portfolio Review: Viva Industrial Trust

Managed to find time to review the performance of my holdings.

For Viva Industrial Trust (VIT), the FY2017 results are nothing short of stunning and vindicated my decision to pay a premium to purchase the units three months ago.

The glowing result is mainly contributed by the post-AEI Viva Business Park and the logistics property at 6 Chin Bee Avenue. UE BizHub East also shows marginal increase in revenue contribution.

The following slides show it all.

 

In a span of one year (2016 end - 2017 end), share price of VIT ran up from S$0.755 to S$0.94. An increase of nearly 20 cents. This is justifiable.

As an income investor, one of the criteria I look out for when adding a stock into my long term portfolio is the dividend payout. In this aspect VIT remains one of the best among the industrial REITs.

I do have a concern regarding the WALE of 2.6 years though I won't be losing sleep over this as VIT is doing quite well in terms of tenancy retention. However this shall be a point of monitoring for me.

Fundamentally, VIT remains solid. Outlook in my opinion, is looking good especially for both business parks.

Will I continue to keep VIT in my portfolio? Absolutely.

Will I add more? Yes.

Now comes the golden question. How do I see the possible merger of ESR and VIT?

I will answer this in the next post since the reply will not be a short one.

Giant Has Done It Again

Around 2 weeks ago I wrote a post about some money-saving tips among which one of them is to always check your bill.

Subsequently 4 days after the post, I followed up with a comment after I discovered that Giant Hypermarket at Tampines has overcharged on an item that I have purchased.

Well, they have done it again. This time it was at Giant supermarket, Loyang Point. They have again overcharged me on one of the items purchased.

And apparently my family members have also encountered this issue at Giant supermarkets before.

Now these are not the first instances from Giant. The first time was some years back though I can't remember the amount anymore.

For the latest two instances, the amounts overcharged are 25 cents and 30 cents respectively.

These are small amounts. But if you multiply that by the number of customers who overpaid unknowingly, Giant would have made a handsome profit over the years.

It is easy to overlook the wrong charges on a bill especially if you have several purchases in the receipt.

However I urged all readers to take some time to check through your bill after shopping.

Who knows how much you might save over the years.

Update on My Healthy Living

This is a follow up to this post written last year. Surprisingly I have ran marginally more in 2017 than I did in 2016.

 

Surprise, because I felt that I wasn't as disciplined as in 2016 and some of my workouts were replaced with swims in 2017.

Nevertheless the total mileage is still far from my target. Hopefully in 2018 I can clocked at least 480 km by year end. That's a modest target that translate to 10 km a week. Not too much but better than last year.

On the dietary side, I have stopped my low carb / no carb week days dinner. Simply because it's hard to think of a good variety of meals that can fulfill this criteria. Most importantly, there's too much temptation in Singapore!

Give You a Drumstick, Take Back a Chicken

Couple of days ago wifey cooked a dish of soy sauce chicken for our dinner. It was her first ever attempt and I was pleasantly surprised.

Though the chicken was good, it is not the main point of this post. However it coincides with what I have been thinking about these few days.

Somehow in our current society, the adage "Give you a drumstick but take back a chicken" seems to be taking shape judging from the news from recent years.

From the removal of certain goodies to the increment of certain charges, there have been several such news in these 2 years so much so that I can't help but took notice.

For the general public,

1) Water tax increased by 30% (15% from July 2017 and 15% from July 2018).

2) Electricity tariffs increased by 6.3% for first quarter of this year.

3) Service and conservancy charges (S&CC) increased from June 2017 at 15 town councils.

For vehicle owners and those looking to own vehicles,

1) Vehicle registration and other related fees increased from December 2017. The former increased by 57% in one shot.

2) Public car park parking charges increased from December 2016 to $0.60 for half an hour and $1.20 for an hour.

3) Season parking charges increased from December 2016 to $110 for sheltered car parks and $80 for surface car parks.

4) Parking fee hike from December 2016 for some car parks at peak hours.

5) Not to mention the numerous ERP fee hikes such as this.

For couples waiting to get married,

1) Marriage fee increased from $26 to $42 from July 2017 for Singaporeans.

For parents,

1) PAP Community Foundation (PCF) and My First Skool, the two biggest pre-school operators in Singapore are raising their fees in January 2018.

For the elderlies,

1) The public transport council has scrapped the $40 monthly unlimited travel pass for our seniors above the age of 60.

How much can the seniors travel? Why the need to do this to them?

Meanwhile...

1) Travellers MAY soon have to pay extra fees to fly out of Changi airport. This is to help fund the new Terminal 5, scheduled to complete in around 2030. What? Really?

2) Guys, the news doesn't ends here. I'm sure most of you would have already heard about the possibility of GST hike. Brace yourself.

Very soon our plate of char kway teow is going to cost $8 in hawker centres?