Review/Reflections for 2011

2011 will always be a year that I remember and it is a milestone in my investing journey. It is the year where I morphed from an employee to a full-time private investor. How time flies! I had been a fruitful few months since I started doing full-time investing. Initially, there were some sceptics out there who doubted my decision. Some said that I was "silly" to give up my job for the uncertain world of investment. Some declared that I did it on impulse and will not last more than two months. Some said that I was too young to "retire" and should continue working.

Despite all the above critics, I pushed on and stayed firm on my decision. I enjoyed investing and it was not a big unknown to me as I had been doing it on the sideline for more than 10 years when I was in full-time employment. Therefore, I know what I am embarking into and it is something that I considered seriously before coming to a decision. I was getting bored and unhappy with my day job in IT. I wanted a change not only in environment but also in form. I wanted full control of my time. I wanted to start to enjoy my life again.

Granted, what I earn now from pure investment is much less than when I was holding a day job. But money is not everything in life. As long as my current mode of operation is sustainable, I will continue to do full-time investing for as long as I can.

2011 was not a good year for investors. Markets had been down and companies not doing well. As I had been quite defensive in my portfolio positioning since last year, I had not been hit very badly by the market sell-down. Also, the rights issue strategy came into play again and I was able to subscribe for some excess rights shares at a good price for some companies in my portfolio. As usual, I met my objective of minimizing sell trades to save on brokerages.

By attending more AGMs/EGMs in 2011 and having more time in hand to go through annual reports and circulars more throughly, I believe that I have a better understanding of the companies in my portfolio now as compared to a few months back when I was in full-time employment. Knowledge is only useful when applied, and therefore I believe that my skill-set will be useful when selecting companies to invest. I also gained more confidence in overweighting my better stock ideas in my portfolio, since I have done more research now and hopefully they can translate into better portfolio performance in the future.

Thanks for all those readers who had visited my blog and also left some comments here in 2011. I believe the sky is darkest before dawn, and hopefully 2012 will be a better year for all investors out there. I hope that all of you can continue your investing journey and enjoy the process, as much as I do. Wishing all of you out there a fruitful and profitable 2012!

Company Warrants Expiring in 2011 - Actions Needed

I need to remind myself all the outstanding company warrants that are expiring in 2011 in my portfolio which I will need to take action. I will update this list accordingly as I go along so that I won't forget about them.

INFORMAT W110107, Expiry Date: 7 Jan 2011, Exercise price = $0.05, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
BUKITSEMW110408, Expiry Date: 8 Apr 2011, Exercise price = $2.30, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
UNIONSTE W110414, Expiry Date: 14 Apr 2011, Exercise price = $0.12, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants expired worthless.
GUANGZHAOW110628, Expiry Date: 28 Jun 2011, Exercise price = $0.07, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants expired worthless.
NATCOOL W110701, Expiry Date: 1 Jul 2011, Exercise price = $0.10, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
PAC ANDESW110722, Expiry Date: 22 Jul 2011, Exercise price = $0.23, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
KSENERGY W110805, Expiry Date: 5 Aug 2011, Exercise price = $1.37, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Accepted Mandatory Conditional Cash Offer from Pacific Energy.
ASIAWAT W110818, Expiry Date: 18 Aug 2011, Exercise price = $0.045, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
METRO W110922, Expiry Date: 22 Sep 2011, Exercise price = $0.63, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
NEXTGENS W111222, Expiry Date: 22 Dec 2011, Exercise price = $0.03, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants expired worthless.

WBL Corp2.5%CB140610

WBL Corp convertible bond is an unique opportunity for investors to participate in the future growth of the company via an equity option to convert to WBL Corp shares at $2.29 for each convertible.

Since I have already collected 5 coupon payouts since its listing, I guess it is time to convert to WBL Corp shares. The convertible bond had been paying 2.5%pa, but as time goes by, more and more investors had converted those bonds to shares and the secondary market for the convertible bond is not liquid anymore.

Furthermore, the ordinary shares had been paying 10cts per share for the past two years. Yield on convertible price for the shares is $0.10/$2.29=4.37%pa, which is higher than the yield of 2.5%pa if I choose to hold onto the bond.

I don't anticipate WBL Corp shares falling below $2.29 unless a crisis happen in the world markets.

Granted, I will lose some time value as I am converting the bond before expiry, but illiquid market for the convertibles doesn't help in getting a fair market value.

By converting the bond during this period, I am still entitled to the final dividend of 5cts per ordinary WBL Corp share that had been declared and will go ex-dividend on 17 Jan 2012.

My Investment Portfolio (November 2011)

November 2011 was another quiet month. STI lost about 150 points to finish at around 2700 points as investors are still feeling nervous about the economy and Euro debt issues. For this month, I have attended the following AGMs/EGMs - Chemoil, KepLand, K-REIT, Pacific Healthcare, KXD, Sunright, GMG Global, Vicplas, Datapulse, FirstLink Investments, Beyonics, China Sky and TTJ. Of particular mention was the K-REIT EGM whereby the purchase of Ocean Financial Centre was approved via show of hands. A few retail investors (including me) plus an institutional investor had requested the voting to be conducted by poll, but it was thrown out eventually. There was also drama at Beyonics AGM as some shareholders walked out half-way through the meeting as they were unhappy that chairman called for a poll after a resolution on the directors' pay was defeated via show of hands.

There are some small changes in my top 30 holdings list this month. Noble Group dropped a few places after reporting disappointing 3Q results. PSL Holdings dropped out of the list after its share price suffered because of trading restrictions imposed by a broker.

I have bought the following companies from the open market this month - Asiasons Capital, Casa Holdings, Comm Design, Great Eastern, Hiap Hoe, Hotel Grand Central, Isetan, Kian Ann, PNE Micron, TTJ and Wing Tai. I have also made my first sale trades for this year - K-REIT rights and GMG Global rights.

I have participated in the following rights issue - LippoMalls. I have accepted the following voluntary offer - Unidux. I have participated in the following scrip dividend scheme - United Overseas Australia.

Due to my bad experience at K-REIT EGM, I have decided not to take up its rights issue and sold away all my rights entitlements. The reserved fund for K-REIT rights issue had been re-invested into small cap value stocks like Casa, TTJ etc instead. For next month, I will still take up some of my GMG Global rights entitlements and also do some reflections on my investment journey in 2011.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 November 2011)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Jardine C&C
2. F&N
3. SGX
4. A-REIT
5. Noble Group
6. Bukit Sembawang Estates
7. UIS
8. CapitaMall Trust
9. SembCorp Marine
10. Viz Branz
11. Metro Holdings
12. Singapura Finance
13. Sing Investment & Finance
14. Wheelock Properties
15. Bonvests
16. VICOM
17. Hersing
18. SP AusNet
19. United Engineers
20. The Hour Glass
21. APB
22. KepLand
23. Transpac Industrial Holdings
24. Aspial
25. First REIT
26. ABR Holdings
27. Orchard Parade
28. Keppel Corp
29. Fragrance Group
30. Khong Guan Flour Milling

Top 5 Holdings (US$ Denominated shares)
1. Jardine Strategic
2. Dairy Farm
3. Jardine Matheson
4. Hong Kong Land
5. Mandarin Oriental

Top Holdings (HK$ Denominated shares)
1. Fortune REIT
2. Tan Chong International

Top Holdings (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings

Top 5 Holdings (CPF OA investment)
1. Keppel Corp
2. Streettracks STI ETF
3. CapitaMall Trust
4. A-REIT
5. Challenger Technologies

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio
1. Peace Mark Holdings - Under Voluntary Liquidation

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited
4. China Printing & Dyeing Holdings
5. General Magnetics
6. Fastech Synergy
7. Beauty China
8. Memory Devices
9. Jurong Tech
10. FM Holdings
11. Oriential Century - Under Voluntary Liquidation
12. Japan Land
13. Zhonghui
14. FerroChina

My Unit Trust Portfolio:
http://www.fundsupermart.com/main/community/Portfolio_View.svdo?id=P199