A Review of 2024

 

Happy New Year everyone.

 

Quick review of 2024 and looking forward to a better 2025.

 

Family

 

Overall not a bad year for us. Only thing is jie jie kept falling down and hurt herself. It got so frequent that we are thinking if there is something wrong with her legs or other parts of the body. This is worrying for my wife and I.

 

There was once I saw her fell down in front of me. She just fell to her knees and I thought that was it. But suddenly her body started to lean forward and her head fell to the ground as well. This process is like happening in slow motion right in front of me.

 

The superstitious side of me even started wondering if something unseen is disturbing her. Yes, my worry got to that extent.

Hopefully 2025 onwards will be a better year for both jie jie and didi.

Some personal reflection for me: I realised I have been getting short tempered nowadays and sometimes my reaction can be rather extreme. This is definitely not good and I really got to constantly remind myself to be more chill moving forward.

 

On a bright side, we just came back from a family trip to Bali. Last trip there was 10 years ago with wifey and we didn't have kids then.

 

Had a good time for this 5-days holiday over Christmas although we nearly missed our return flight.

Our hotel is 15 min from the airport. But the trip took nearly an hour because of traffic. Our flight is scheduled for 9.05 pm and we reached the airport around 8.50 pm and the boarding gate at 9.10 pm.

Luckily the flight itself is also delayed and we managed to join the queue.. in waiting. The flight eventually took off around 10.05 pm.

Lessons learnt:

1) I checked-in online the night before and it turned out to be the best decision because by the time we reached the airport, the check-in counter was already closed. Had we not checked-in beforehand, we would not be able to go through the customs, delayed flight or not.

2) Always cater for extra extra time for Bali especially during weekends.

 

Today is also the first day at their new school for both kids. I accompanied didi while wifey accompanied jie jie. New environment, new teachers. Both seem to be coping well.

I hope they enjoy the process of learning and not be fixated on the end results because if they achieve the former, the latter will take care of itself.

 

Investments

 

SGD

 

Have been adding on a monthly basis whenever possible over the past year.

 

Although the plan in the beginning of the year was to diversify and reduce the REITs concentration in my portfolio, only one of the purchases was for a non-REIT - Netlink NBN Trust, which I bought on two separate occasions. The rest of the purchases was for Ascendas REIT, MIT and MLT. I also subscribed and applied for excess for CICT PO.

 

If I have stuck to my plan in 2024, portfolio performance would perhaps, be even better. Really got to be more disciplined and execute my plan this year which is again, to reduce the REITs concentration.

 

I started tracking my portfolio performance in 2016 and hence cumulative dividends is recorded from that year onwards.

 

As of writing, Ascendas REIT is my biggest holding at around 20% by market value.

Best performer is DBS at +119.91% followed by OCBC at +88%.

Worst performer is CLCT at -46.24%.

 

Summary of my holdings and performance as follows.

 

USD / HKD

 

Did some cleaning up of this portfolio in the last two trading days of the year.

Took profit off AAPL (+54.93%)

Took partial profit off MSFT (+47.08%)

 

Got rid of GREE (-99.21%). The speculation of this counter is one of the biggest mistakes of my investing career so far.

 

Cut loss on BABA (-33.73%) because macro outlook remains murky and rounds of stimulus and pep talk by the central government failed to lift the share price. They have also recently did a drastic price reduction on Qwen, which is their AI tool for enterprises. This move is probably meant to gain market share domestically and I believe it will help to a certain extent. I am never a fan of price war and whether this will spark one with other players like Baidu remains to be seen. However one thing is certain, margin for this segment for Alibaba will be compressed by this move.

Portfolio Value (SGD equivalent): $16,626.37

Overall

Total Portfolio Value: S$188,452.35

Business

 

Business so far has been average after the record performance last FY. Still got two more months to go before closing. I am hopeful one of the government contracts we are negotiating will come through soon.

 

Collaboration for the new technology is moving forward albeit on a slower pace than I would like to. We are collaborating with one of the local institutes of higher learning. Maybe that's just how academics work but on and off I need to push them along to move things faster.

 

Nevertheless this is the engine for our next phase of growth and I am determined to make this work.

 

Side Line

Did a tabulation and realised I generated S$19,500 over the past year from my side line as a personal trainer. Not bad considering I dedicated only week day mornings to this hustle. No evenings, no weekends, no holidays. Those are strictly for my family and personal time.

This figure should be higher in 2025 as more private clients are starting to sign up with me. They are mainly referred through word of mouth as I do not actively advertise my service.

I would say most if not all the clients are either c-suite or rich tais tais who are generally not bothered by the price and would not haggle over it so that makes things easier. I just need to focus on helping them achieve their goals.

My current allocation for this side income is:

50% goes to investment

25% goes to SA top up

25% goes to discretionary spending

Moving forward this will remains.

Donation

 

Personal donation is a yearly ongoing affair for me. Other than the monthly GIRO contribution to certain charities, I will usually make ad hoc donations towards year end as well.

 

Same as previous years, this year I have chosen to donate to causes close to my heart - the young and the elderly.

Hopefully this post will inspire readers too.

 

Other than personal donation, I have also donated on a company-level with the latest one in July 2024. This will continue as long as the business continues to be profitable.

Summary of May 2024

Collected dividends from OCBC and DBS. 

Syfe portfolio finally turned in a small profit after so many years although it gave up the gains towards end of the month. 

Added 1,700 units of Netlink NBN Trust @ $0.84.

This is my second purchase in recent months and at the same price. 

On my sideline as a personal trainer, this month is the record in terms of income as I took on a number of new clients. 

As usual, 75% of this income stream goes to my portfolio along with any dividends collected for the month. 

Family-wise, the kids have finally gotten better from their cough and phlegm. However the PD has recommended didi to see the specialist as he is exhibiting signs of sleep apnea.

We are now waiting for the appointment date. Hopefully everything turns out fine.

June 2022 Updates

June 2022

 

Local Portfolio Value after market close (excluding USD and HKD)

S$135,610.18

Purchase

 

1,900 units of CLCT @ $1.13

Sold

None

Dividends

 

Netlink Trust @ $205.60

MLT @ $263.09

 

Total: $468.69

Short-Term Transactions

  

Sold 4 x SE 220624 Calls at $92 strike with $0.43 premium. Expired.  

 

Summary

SGD portfolio:

  

Portfolio value dropped by about $6K month on month mostly due to the banks.

 

Mentioned that I was eyeing Ascendas Reit and CLCT in last month's update.

 

Since the latter tested $1.13 couple of times in recent weeks I decided to add a small bit to my portfolio.

Current holding for CLCT stands at 14,000 units which bring it to the top 5 counters in the portfolio in terms of market value.

Syfe Core Growth portfolio:

 

Portfolio loss has widen from last month's figure.

 

Will probably close this experimental portfolio when the value recovers. It has not been as resilient as I would like it to be.

 

A bear market is a good way to see a portfolio manager's performance. In this case Syfe Core Growth has not met my expectations.

Current TWR at -7.18%.

USD / HKD portfolio: 

 

Made a net profit of US$166.63 (~S$231.77) from selling 4 call options in SEA this month.

 

Nothing added or sold from the portfolio holdings.

Quick Review of My Portfolio (Oct 2021)

Found time to do some quick glancing and do a quick review for the counters in my portfolio since this is reporting season.

Mapletree Logistics Trust

 

 

MLT has always performed admirably since I first bought into them four years ago. The management is a forward-looking one with a record of shrewed yield-accretive acquisitions over the years.

 

This quarter is again an excellent one in my opinion.

 

Apart from the low 38.2% leverage which means much room for further acquisition and growth, I like that their average interest rate is low at 2.2% and their 5.2x ICR.

Mapletree NAC Trust

 

 

Results have improved over 1H last year.

 

I also like their low interest rate of 1.84% and their 4.1x ICR.

 

Yield is still above 6% against cost. 

Festival Walk's contribution to revenue and NPI remains below 50% which is good but can be better. A figure of ~25% would be more ideal.

This can be achieved with future acquisitions though investors ought to keep a close eye on the leverage which is pretty high at 41.4% currently.

 

One thing I noticed is that Festival Walk and Gateway Plaza continue to have negative rental reversions which no doubt will be a drag to coming results. 

Furthermore there is a possibility that a major tenant of Gateway Plaza might not extend the lease beyond December 2023.

 

With the visible hurdles ahead, i will probably maintain my existing holdings and not add further.

CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust

 

 

 

All metrics - revenue, NPI, portfolio occupancy & WALE, leverage, ICR, cost of debt, look healthy.

 

Clarke Quay's occupancy suffered due to government's regulations on nightlife. However I'm not too worried about this since this should be a passing phase.

 

Six Battery Road's relatively low occupancy rate is due to the ongoing AEI which I have covered in previous review. Again nothing to worry about as the AEI should be completed by end of this year.

 

CapitaSpring has achieved TOP for the office component. More importantly, they have achieved committed occupancy of 83.1% with another 7.2% under negotiation.

 

This is good to see as I was having some concerns on the occupancy rate of this property back in my May 2021 review.

 

CapitaLand China Trust

 

 

As mentioned previously, I like that Minzhongleyuan has finally been disposed. Though it's a small portion of the portfolio, it has been a drag for long.

 

I like that CLCT has gone into logistics and business parks right after getting the expanded mandate from unitholders.

 

The WALE by GRI and NLA for the business parks is relatively short at 1.9 to 2 years. This can be a double edge sword though if positive rental reversion can be achieved.

Yield is still above 6% against cost.

 

Upcoming quarters should see even better results with the addition of the 4 logistics assets.

ESR Reit

 

 

Performance this quarter is a good improvement over the last.

However if there is one metric that I don't like, it is their cost of debt which is high at 3.41%.

Another thing to take note of is the continual negative rental reversions (-2.2%).

 

It has been a busy quarter for ESR Reit with the divestment of non-core asset, a round of equity fundraising and inclusion into the FTSE EPRA NAREIT Global Real Estate Index.

 

The addition to the index last month is good news to existing unitholders as this will makes the Reit more relevant to funds and more visible to investors.

 

Of course the latest big news is the proposed merger with ARA LOGOS Logistics Trust. Honestly I have expected this ever since ESR Cayman acquired ARA Asset Management.

 

Overall I would say this merger makes sense considering the synergy and potential advantages from the enlarged Reit.

Suntec Reit

 

 

 

  

Good set of results driven mainly by their overseas portfolio with maiden contributions from Minster Building in UK.

 

Leverage is high at 44.3% which means less room for growth through acquisitions with borrowings.

Suntec City Mall continues to have negative rental reversions.

Suntec Convention continues to be a drag though quarterly loss has decreased.

Ascendas Reit

 

 

Continues to be one of the most well-run Reit in Singapore with constant portfolio rejuvenation through asset disposals and acquisitions.

 

Well diversified in terms of geography and asset type.

 

Good portfolio WALE of 3.8 years.

Netlink NBN Trust

Results will be announced on 3rd Nov 2021 after trading hours.

SingTel

 

Results will be announced on 11th Nov 2021 before trading hours.

June 2020 Updates

June 2020

Portfolio Value after market close

S$129,668.98

Wifey's Portfolio Value after market close

S$83,003.98

Purchase

3,000 shares of SingTel @$2.48

Sold

None

Dividends

1) Netlink NBN Trust @ $202.40

2) OCBC @ $146.72

3) MLT @ $153.95

4) MNACT @ $19.84

5) ESR Reit @ $50

Short-Term Transactions

None

Summary

Local market turned green after two days of red, reflecting the continuous tussle between the bulls and the bears. Took the chance to add a small position.

Received a total dividend of $572.91 this month from Netlink NBN Trust, ESR Reit, MNACT, MLT and OCBC.

Portfolio value increased slightly with the addition of another 3,000 shares of SingTel, bringing my holdings to 8,000 shares.

Remaining funds will be used to focus on the three counters identified previously and another three which I am monitoring closely every day.

SingTel

Have been monitoring SingTel for awhile and noticed it has been well supported at the $2.50 region. When the share price dipped below the level I took the opportunity to enter a small batch to average down.

At this price point, I'm comfortable to hold it in my long term income portfolio.

If dividend payout remains depressed at 12.25 cents, yield is about 4.9%. Still good enough for me to collect while waiting for SingTel to rebound.

Bharti Airtel's spectrum charge is finally settled and Amazon is speculated to be eyeing a $2 billion stake in Airtel.

Key Thai associate AIS is also recently ruled not liable to a $324 million claim.

With these issues out of the way, the management can finally focus on the business proper.

I suspect this year and next will see a turnaround in SingTel's fortune with the digital bank license* and sale of Optus assets as possible catalysts.

Returns from the latter will prove useful for the 5G CAPEX.

SingTel has a history of gradual dividend increment over the last 10 years even without factoring the occasional special dividend.

If the payout reverts to 17.5 cents, my yield against average cost will be around 5.4%.

The reverting of payout to 17.5 cents is not far fetch considering the total payout is much within their free cash flow and the cutting of dividend this year is due to prudent measures.

I wrote a short piece on this in last month's update too.

Furthermore if the Optus deal indeed goes through, it will generate close to $1.9 billion for SingTel. Just to put things into perspective, this amount can easily maintain the 17.5 cents dividend for the next few years not to mention the possibility of a special dividend.
 

* Talking about the digital bank license, up to two full licenses will be awarded by this year. However I suspect one of the licenses will go to the consortium including Heliconia.

Reason is because there is Heliconia if you know what I mean.

If I am right about this, that leaves one other license to be competed by the other contenders among which, I feel the partnership between Grab and SingTel stands a good chance considering their existing platforms and current endeavours in using digitalisation.  

Singlife

I have also signed up for a Singlife account this month to take advantage of the 2.5% interest rate for up to $10,000.

Signing up is easy and relatively fuss free.

Interest rate is higher than banks' and the money deposited is protected by SDIC so no brainer here.

At this point of writing I have already earned an interest of $14.94. Not bad considering it's less than one month.

Work

On the work front, business is starting to pick up slowly. I'm seeing new enquiries and a previous potential project has resumed discussion.

Hopefully the economy recovers soon.

Taking Stock of 2018

Leaving 2018 and entering 2019, time for a quick roundup of my 2018 and my little wishes for the new year ahead.

Work

This year is my company's 2nd year of operation. 

Results so far are a tremendous improvement over last year in terms of revenue, profits and scale of projects secured.

Although revenue is still about $75,000 shy of the target I set for myself, I have two more months to 'chiong' before end of my financial year. Hopefully I can close the FY even more beautifully.

In terms of business offerings, I have added the Design, Installation and Maintenance of Solar Photovoltaic (PV) system to my products and services recently.

This is actually synergistic to the other portion of my business which is environmental engineering, particularly in pollution control systems.

As I mentioned before, one of my investment guidelines is to ride along with the macro trend.

I believe Solar PV system is the way to move forward especially in a country like Singapore. Hence I made a deliberate effort to take up a course in this field and graduated from it recently.

This also means I have achieved my aim of adding a new capability to the company by this year.

Moving forward, my focus continues to be growing the business and if possible purchase an office space as part of my recurring income plan.

Other Incomes

Previously I have set a target of achieving S$7,832.88 for my side and passive incomes in 2018.

Actual passive income achieved for 2018: S$6,069.08

Actual side income achieved for 2018: S$3,042.86

Result achieved for 2018: S$9,111.94 (Target met)

For 2019 I am going to target another 20% growth in my dividend income as I will probably be drawing down a portion of my portfolio for some expenses.

For the side income in 2019, there is actually a much higher room for growth. I am in the midst of discussing a venture which if materialised, will contribute a significant amount to this category.

However I do not want to count my chickens before they hatch. Hence targets for 2019...

Targeted passive income for 2019: S$7,200

Targeted side income for 2019: S$3,000

Equities and REITs

My holdings as of 31/12/2018:

With the exception of M1, all the counters in my portfolio closed at a lower price this year end compared to last's.

In 2018, I've added another 5,000 shares of CapitaLand, added another 4,000 shares of Netlink Trust and bought 4,000 shares of Mapletree NAC Trust. Total capital injection is $25,820.

Excluding the capital injection, my portfolio value returned -13.7% compared to last year. A loss of more than $15k.

I really ought to read more, learn more and relook into my investment style especially in the technical analysis to time my entries better.

What a humbling experience. It shows how much of a fool I am in the stock market.

In summary,

1) Yield of Portfolio 2018: 4.30%

2) Cumulative Yield of Portfolio: 8.10%

Similarly, wifey's portfolio also dropped in value ($41,431.98) compared to last year ($41,919.78) if capital injection is excluded.

 

Personal

Baby M who arrived on Father's day 2018, never fails to bring a smile to our face. She is making lots of funny sounds and lots of movement nowadays.

Really a different kind of joy.

Our biggest wish is for her to grow up happily and healthily.

I always believe we should not forget to help others if we can.

Though my investment portfolio performed less than admirably, I donated $550 to a selection of charities in 2018. This is on top of my monthly Giro donations to Community Chest and NKF.

Thanks to giving.sg, it is so convenient nowadays to make donations and volunteering.

Last but not least, I wish everyone a happy new year ahead. Good health and good wealth!

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.