My Investment Portfolio

Investment Strategy for 2012

2012-01-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

2012 is predicted to be another tough year from analysts. Euro zone problems, US weak economy, China issues etc. But as readers might have noted at the start of 2011, analysts were predicting that the markets will continue to run ahead and the outlook was good then.

Therefore, do take those predictions as a pinch of salt. Yes, there were issues yet to be solved but that is where you can buy cheap from the market. Do not be afraid to buy when things doesn't look good. The key is to spread your investments and don't commit all in one go. Also, do remember to diversify your assets.

What will be my investment strategy for 2012? Well, they can summarized as below:

1. Continue to seek value. Value investing had served me well since the 2nd half of 2010 when I decided to position my portfolio more defensively when the markets had run up substantially after the Global Financial crisis. I will continue to avoid high growth stocks at this moment.

2. Reduce costs. Again, I will try to minimize sell trades to save on costs. I will not hesitate to buy multiple stocks to diversify my portfolio but I can control the sell trades by not engaging in switching or sector rotation activities.

3. Continue to engage in rights issues. Rights issues are good opportunities for investors to continue to increase their stake in companies via excess rights shares strategy without incurring brokerage costs. However, in a weak market, investors must be selective and only commit capital in those companies that are well-managed. Therefore, though I will still employ this strategy, I will be selective in the companies that I will subscribe for excess rights shares.

4. Participation in scrip dividend scheme. Scrip dividend scheme is a good way for investors to re-invest their dividend back into the company at a discounted price, without incurring brokerage costs. In 2011, I have participated in quite a few of these schemes and they had bear fruit, especially for those high dividend paying stocks like SP AusNet and Second Chance Properties. The compounded return of re-investing the dividend payout back into high dividend stocks will yield higher absolute dividend the next time the dividend had been declared, even if the amount declared is the same. Therefore, don't discount the effect of scrip dividend scheme.

5. Continue to overweight better stock ideas. I think readers would have noticed from my stock purchases in 2011 that most of them are my existing stock holdings. This is because since I had became a full-time investor, I have decided to focus my research effort on my existing stocks and also add more capital onto them. This is a slight change in my previous strategy of diversification across all stocks, without concern on their individual weights in my portfolio.

6. Match cash flow with expenses. Since I am now living on my investment returns, I do not have consistent income every month. Though I still receive income in a form of dividend from my investment, they are inconsistent every month. Therefore, I need to preserve some cash during low dividend paying months to pay for my expenses. This will result in cash drag in my portfolio for some months, but that is a tradeoff for matching cash flow with expenses.

7. Work on my CPF stock investment and CPF unit trust investment. Since I had left my day job, I did not receive any CPF contribution every month. Therefore, I had not been buying any stocks using CPF funds since then, as my CPF stock investment limit had not been increased. Also, since I had transferred those dividends received from my CPF stock investment back to CPF-OA, the stock limit has actually gone negative, due to lack of fresh CPF contribution. The CPF stock investment limit has been a pain in the neck for me, as I could not continue to invest in new stocks even if I have funds from dividend distribution. I might need to make some minor changes to my CPF stock investment portfolio. I have also neglected my CPF unit trust investment in 2011, and I need to review those unit trusts again and determine action plans (if any) for them in 2012.

All in, there are a lot of things to be done. Besides managing my own portfolio, I will still actively attend AGMs/EGMs. To all readers, have a great year ahead!

My Investment Portfolio (December 2011)

2011-12-31T20:48:00.000-08:00

December 2011 was another quiet month. Trading volume was also miserably low as most investors are having their year-end holiday. STI lost further ground to finish the year at below 2650 points.

For this month, I have attended the following AGMs/EGMs - SPH, Global Investments, Mirach Energy, Hoe Leong, Unified Communications, Pacific Shipping Trust, Latitude Tree, Armarda, NEL, Asia Water, Miyoshi and Beyonics. It was an emotional farewell at the scheme meeting as Beyonics shareholders bid farewell to Mr Chay and his fellow board of directors after scheme had been approved. There was drama at Miyoshi AGM as the resolution for directors' fee had been defeated by poll.

There are not much changes in my top 30 holdings list this month, due mainly to inactivity in the market.

I have bought the following companies from the open market this month - AsiaMedic, Brothers, Casa Holdings, FDS Networks, HongFok, Lion AsiaPac, Lum Chang, New Toyo, Ocean Sky, Popular, SHC Capital, Tiong Seng, UIS and Wheelock Properties.

I have participated in the following rights issue - GMG Global. I have accepted the following voluntary delisting offer - Pacific Shipping Trust. My shares in Hsu Fu Chi had also been acquired via Scheme of Arrangement.

I have participated in the following scrip dividend schemes - SP AusNet, Tai Sin and Second Chance Properties. I also converted the following convertible bond into shares - WBL Corp.

January 2012 is also expected to be a short month due to the Chinese New Year holidays. There is also not much corporate action expected as companies with financial year ending December 2011 will be finalizing their full-year results. I will seek to re-invest my proceeds from Pacific Shipping Trust and Hsu Fu Chi prudently when opportunities arises.

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

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Jardine C&C
2. F&N
3. SGX
4. Noble Group
5. UIS
6. A-REIT
7. SembCorp Marine
8. Bukit Sembawang Estates
9. CapitaMall Trust
10. Viz Branz
11. Metro Holdings
12. Singapura Finance
13. Sing Investment & Finance
14. SP AusNet
15. VICOM
16. PSL Holdings
17. Wheelock Properties
18. Bonvests
19. Hersing
20. OSIM International
21. The Hour Glass
22. United Engineers
23. APB
24. Transpac Industrial Holdings
25. Fragrance Group
26. Keppel Corp
27. Aspial
28. First REIT
29. ABR Holdings
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. Japan Land - Pending EGM to approve Liquidation
12. Zhonghui - Under Judicial Management
13. FerroChina - Under Liquidation
14. FirstLink Investments

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

Review/Reflections for 2011

2011-12-29T23:16:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-19T22:53:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-11T19:53:00.000-08:00

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.

Company Warrants Expiring in 2012 - Actions Needed

2011-12-11T19:24:00.000-08:00

I need to remind myself all the outstanding company warrants that are expiring in 2012 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.

ASJ W120221, Expiry Date: 21 Feb 2012, Exercise price = $0.04, Conversion ratio 1:1 - No action taken yet.
UPP W120529, Expiry Date: 29 May 2012, Exercise price = $0.36, Conversion ratio 1:1 -No action taken yet.
GOLDAGR EW120723, Expiry Date: 23 Jul 2012, Exercise price = $0.54, Conversion ratio 1:1 - No action taken yet.
ROWSLEY W120921, Expiry Date: 21 Sep 2012, Exercise price = $0.10, Conversion ratio 1:1 - No action taken yet.
NTEGRATORW121011, Expiry Date: 11 Oct 2012, Exercise price = $0.017, Conversion ratio 1:1 - No action taken yet.
SHS W121015, Expiry Date: 15 Oct 2012, Exercise price = $0.23, Conversion ratio 1:1 - No action taken yet.
PAN HONG W121027, Expiry Date: 27 Oct 2012, Exercise price = $0.66, Conversion ratio 1:1 - No action taken yet.
AZTECH W121123, Expiry Date: 23 Nov 2012, Exercise price = $0.20, Conversion ratio 1:1 - No action taken yet.

My Investment Portfolio (November 2011)

2011-12-01T19:35:00.000-08:00

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

My Investment Portfolio (October 2011)

2011-10-31T20:31:00.000-07:00

October 2011 was a decent month. STI finished around 2850 points and markets recovered somewhat as confidence returned to the market. Having said that, fundamental problems like Euro debt crisis etc had yet to be solved and it will take time to see how it pans out. For this month, I have attended the following AGMs/EGMs - SGX, UIS, Guocoland, GuocoLeisure, Silverlake Axis, LippoMalls, Singapura Finance, Maveric, Viz Branz, Creative, Eu Yan Sang, Lum Chang, Olam, Latitude Tree, China Gaoxian and CFM.

There are some small changes in my top 30 holdings list this month. As I've spent most of my time attending AGMs/EGMs this month, I have not been making massive changes to my portfolio. Having said that, value stocks like Orchard Parade and United Engineers etc had appeared in my top 30 list for the first time due to my overweight position in these stocks for the past few months.

I have bought the following companies from the open market this month - Haw Par, Hiap Hoe, Hotel Grand Central, Hong Fok, Lion AsiaPac, Metro, Popular, Sing Investment, Superior Multi-Packaging, Venture and YHI. As usual, no sales transaction was made.

I have participated in the following rights issue - Nobel Design. I have accepted the following voluntary offer - Heng Long International. I have participated in the following scrip dividend schemes - DBS, Foreland Fabrictech, Jardine Strategic and OCBC. I have also converted the following company warrants to shares - 2nd Chance Properties.

Next month, I will conserve some cash for upcoming rights issues - most notably from LippoMalls and K-REIT Asia. With the year coming to an end, I don't think I will be making any major changes to my portfolio. There will also be a list of companies paying out dividends in November, which I will possibly re-invest them mostly into my existing holdings.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 October 2011)

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

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

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

My Investment Portfolio (September 2011)

2011-10-01T08:07:00.002-07:00

September 2011 was a bad month for equity investors like me. STI dropped below 2700 points and markets around the world had been sold down badly. The Euro debt crisis was the main cause of the problem as funds withdraw from the markets as fear of recession was evident. For this month, I have attended Oxley and Tee International AGMs and Pertama voluntary delisting and OUE EGMs.

There are many changes in my top 30 holdings list this month. As I've positioned my portfolio very defensively, stocks like F&N, UIS, Bonvests, Sing Investment & Finance, Singapura Finance, Khong Guan Flour Milling, Guthrie GTS, Wheelock Properties, The Hour Glass etc had hold out quite well during market selldown. I continue to underweight STI index heavyweights like banks, big cap property stocks etc in my portfolio.

I have bought the following companies from the open market this month - Asia Enterprises, Chip Eng Seng, Eastern Holdings, FJ Benjamin, GP Industries, GuocoLeisure, Guthrie, Haw Par, Hiap Hoe, Hong Leong Finance, Hotel Royal, Hotung, K1 Ventures, Lum Chang, MacCookPSF, Metro, Multi-Chem, Orchard Parade, OUE, Pan Pacific Hotels, PM Data, QAF, Singapore Land, Sabana REIT, Sing Investments, Singapore Windsor, Stamford Land, Stamford Tyres, Straco, Thai Village, United Engineers, UIS, United Overseas Australia, Wheelock Properties and Wing Tai. As usual, no sales transaction was made.

I have participated in the following rights issue - CitySpring, China Enersave and EuNetworks. I have also accepted the following delisting offers - Asia Env and C&O Pharm. I have participated in the following scrip dividend scheme - MTQ Corp.

Next month, I will continue to position my portfolio more defensively. As markets had been sold down badly, more value candidates will emerge. The key is still to overweight stocks that will perform well during market slowdown, sit tight and collecting dividends while waiting patiently for markets to recover. I will also be attending AGMs held for many companies with financial year ending June 2011.

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

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Jardine C&C
2. F&N
3. Noble Group
4. SGX
5. A-REIT
6. UIS
7. CapitaMall Trust
8. Bukit Sembawang Estates
9. Singapura Finance
10. SembCorp Marine
11. Metro Holdings
12. Wheelock Properties
13. Hersing
14. Bonvests
15. Sing Investment & Finance
16. KepLand
17. The Hour Glass
18. APB
19. OSIM International
20. VICOM
21. SP AusNet
22. Sarin Technologies
23. Transpac Industrial Holdings
24. First REIT
25. K-REIT Asia
26. Hong Leong Finance
27. Fragrance
28. Khong Guan Flour Milling
29. Parkway Life REIT
30. Guthrie GTS

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

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
12. Japan Land
13. Zhonghui

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

My Investment Portfolio (August 2011)

2011-09-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

August 2011 was the month best remembered for market volatility. Movements intra-day can be as much as 5% and panic was observed during some days. As usual, the issues like Euro debt crisis, US government credit rating downgrade etc are still in investor's mind. For this month, I have attended Popular Holdings and Stamford Tyres AGMs, UIS EGM and Sino-Env Scheme court meeting.

There are some changes in my top 30 holdings list this month. As I have positioned my portfolio more defensively going forward, more volatile stocks will be dropping out of my top 30 holdings. New additions this month include UIS and SP AusNet.

Taking advantage of market volatility, I have made my biggest outlay this month so far this year. I have bought the following companies from the open market this month - Amara, Avi-Tech, BBR Holdings, Breadtalk, Casa Holdings, CDW, CFM Holdings, Chuan Hup, Eastern Holdings, Foreland, Freight Links, GK Goh, Guthrie, Hiap Hoe, Hotel Grand Central, Hotel Royal, Hotung, IFS, Khong Guan, Kian Ann, Koh Brothers, K1 Ventures, LHT, Lion AsiaPac, Lum Chang, MapleTree Commercial Trust, Metro, MSC, Multi-Chem, Mun Siong, New Wave, Novo Group, Orchard Parade, Pan Pacific Hotels, Pertama, Popular, PSC, Singapura Finance, Sing Holdings, Sing Investments, SP AusNet, Singapore Reinsurance, Stamford Tyres, Superior Multi-Packaging, Tiong Seng, Tuan Sing, United Engineers, UIS, WBL and Wing Tai . As usual, no sales transaction was made.

I have participated in the following rights issue - MapleTree Industrial Trust. I have also accepted the following delisting offer - AustraLand PG.

Next month, I will spend sometime to read up some books on investment and portfolio management to improve myself. Also, I will continue to search for value in the market.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 August 2011)

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

Top 5 Holdings (US$ Denominated shares)
1. Jardine Strategic
2. Dairy Farm
3. Hong Kong Land
4. Jardine Matheson
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 (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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
12. Japan Land
13. Zhonghui

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

My Investment Portfolio (July 2011)

2011-07-29T23:00:00.000-07:00

US debt crisis was the focus of this month. Markets seem to factor a downgrade in credit rating of US government bonds, or even to the extent of a default. There were AGMs held for companies with financial year ending March 2011. For the record, I have attended Bukit Sembawang Estates, Global Yellow Pages, IndiaBulls Properties, Willas-Array, Metro Holdings and GP Industries AGMs this month.

Not much changes in my top 30 holdings for this month. There are some movements here and there but these are really due to stock price rather than anything significant.

I have bought the following companies from the open market this month - Bukit Sembawang Estates, CFM Holdings, Harry's Holdings, Hiap Hoe, Hong Leong Finance, Hock Lian Seng, Hong Fok, IFS, Intraco, Lion Teck Chiang, Miyoshi, Multi-Chem, New Wave, OUE, Oxley, PM Data, Popular, PSC Corp, Singapore Land, SHC Capital, Stamford Tyres, Straco, Tiong Seng, Wing Tai and UOI. As usual, no sales transaction was made.

I have participated in the following scrip dividend schemes - DBS and Raffles Medical Group. I have converted the following company warrant to shares - Asia Water. I have also accepted the following takeover/delisting offers - Ocean International and KS Energy warrants.

Next month, I will be spending more time to research on companies in my watchlist for investing ideas. I might also attend some company's half-year result briefing for those companies having financial year ending 31 December 2011.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 29 July 2011)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Jardine C&C
2. Noble Group
3. SembCorp Marine
4. F&N
5. SGX
6. A-REIT
7. Bukit Sembawang Estates
8. CapitaMall Trust
9. KepLand
10. OSIM International
11. Metro Holdings
12. Portek International
13. Cosco Corp
14. Sarin Technologies
15. K-REIT Asia
16. Transpac Industrial Holdings
17. Hersing
18. The Hour Glass
19. Singapura Finance
20. Keppel Corp
21. APB
22. PSL Holdings
23. Fragrance
24. CapitaCommercial Trust
25. CDL H-Trust
26. OCBC Bank
27. Wheelock Properties
28. First REIT
29. Aspial
30. Challenger Technologies

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

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

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

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 (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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
12. Japan Land

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

My Investment Portfolio (June 2011)

2011-06-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

June 2011 was another quiet month. Volume was low and STI ended the last day of the month on a high note. On the news front, the usual suspects like Greek financial crisis, US economy etc. I think I have mentioned a lot of times already and I shall stop here.

To my surprise, though the market moved in a tight range, there are some changes in my top 30 holdings. New entries include PSL Holdings, Bonvests, The Hour Glass, Sarin Technologies, Portek International and Aspial. I added onto Bonvests and The Hour Glass this month but the rest are really due to price appreciation.

I have bought the following companies from the open market this month using mostly funds from the dividend cash drag collected in May - Bonvests, Casa Holdings, CDW, CH Offshore, Challenger, Chemical Industries, Colex, Frencken, Heeton, Hotel Grand Central, The Hour Glass, Intraco, Jason Marine, JLJ Holdings, Khong Guan, Kian Ho, Lion Teck Chiang, MacCook PSF, Megachem, MSC, Multi-Chem, OUE, Oxley, TSH Corp and UIS. I have also subscribed to the following rights issues/preferential offers - Ace Achieve, Contel and Olam.

I have participated in the following scrip dividend schemes - Hotel Grand Central, OCBC Bank, Orchard Parade, QAF, SP AusNet, Tuan Sing and UOB. I have also accepted the following takeover/delisting offers - Allgreen Properties and EDMI.

Next month, I will continue to spot value stocks for investment. Going forward, I will be holding some more cash for emergency purposes as I have tendered my resignation and will embark on my journey as a full-time investor soon.

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

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. Jardine C&C
3. SGX
4. SembCorp Marine
5. F&N
6. A-REIT
7. Bukit Sembawang Estates
8. CapitaMall Trust
9. KepLand
10. PSL Holdings
11. OSIM International
12. Cosco Corp
13. Bonvests
14. K-REIT Asia
15. Transpac Industrial Holdings
16. The Hour Glass
17. Sarin Technologies
18. Portek International
19. APB
20. Singapura Finance
21. Hersing
22. Keppel Corp
23. CapitaCommercial Trust
24. VICOM
25. CDL H-Trust
26. Metro Holdings (Note: Bonus shares yet to be credited)
27. ABR Holdings
28. Wheelock Properties
29. OCBC Bank
30. Aspial

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

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

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

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 (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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

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

Zilch - Zero Dollar Shop

2011-06-21T03:59:00.000-07:00

Dear all,

I have known Vijay for quite sometime and he has an entrepreneur mind. He has great ideas and passion for start-ups and he is determined to succeed. He is also a good organizer and he communicates his ideas very well. He is not afraid to get his hands dirty to try out new stuff and doesn't give up easily when things doesn't work well.

I strongly recommend my readers to help him by pledging some amount for his idea in this competition.

Pledge for Vijay's Zilch - Zero Dollar Shop!

http://www.ultimatestartupspace.com.sg/top10/zilch

http://www.zilchsg.com

My Investment Portfolio (May 2011)

2011-05-31T02:40:00.000-07:00

May 2011 was another quiet month. Eurozone crisis was in the news again, but these were really old news rather than new ones.

For my top 30 stock holdings, there is not much changes, except for a new entry - Fragrance Group. News of another round of bonus issue pushed the counter into my top 30 holdings. I have also added onto my stake in Singapura Finance this month.

I have bought the following companies from the open market this month using mostly funds from dividend payout for companies with financial year ending 31 December 2010 collected in May - Bonvests, Chemical Industries, Del Monte, Eastern Holdings, Food Junction, Forland Fabrictech, Hotel Grand Central, Hiap Hoe, Hong Fok, IFS, Intraco, JLJ Holdings, MSC, Multi-Chem, Noel Gifts, OUE, Oxley, PCA Tech, PSC Corp, Singapura Finance, Sakae Holdings, Singapore Reinsurance, Superior Multi-Packaging, Thai Village, UIC and Wing Tai.

I have participated in the following scrip dividend schemes - Jardine Strategic, Jardine Matheson and United Overseas Australia. I have also accepted the following takeover offers - Kim Eng Holdings and JK Yaming.

Next month, I will continue to re-invest my dividend collected in May back into the market. There is a cash drag in my portfolio currently as I couldn't re-invest those dividend collected back into the market as soon as I would have liked.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 May 2011)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. Jardine C&C
3. F&N
4. SGX
5. SembCorp Marine
6. A-REIT
7. CapitaMall Trust
8. Bukit Sembawang Estates
9. KepLand
10. OSIM International
11. Transpac Industrial Holdings
12. Cosco Corp
13. Metro Holdings
14. K-REIT Asia
15. Keppel Corp
16. Hersing
17. Viz Branz
18. CapitaCommercial Trust
19. Singapura Finance
20. CDL H-Trust
21. ABR Holdings
22. Low Keng Huat
23. Wheelock Properties
24. APB
25. Fragrance Group
26. VICOM
27. OCBC Bank
28. ARA
29. First REIT
30. CapitaLand

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

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

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

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 (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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

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

My Investment Portfolio (April 2011)

2011-05-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

April was quite a quiet month in terms of news across the global front. However, election fever hots up in Singapore and trading volumes had been low since Nomination Day. Obviously, investors had been attending rallies and following election news rather than trading the market.

For my top 30 stock holdings, there is not much changes, except for a new entry - OKP Holdings. I had increased my stake in the company due to conversion of its warrants to shares, in anticipation of its upcoming dividend payout.

I have bought the following companies from the open market this month - Casa Holdings, Forland Fabrictech, Hotel Grand Central, Hiap Hoe, Hong Fok, LHT Holdings, Multi-Chem, PCA Tech, PNE Industries, Sakae Holdings, Sing Investments, Straco and Superior Multi-Packaging.

To take advantage of the upcoming dividend payout from companies after the AGMs, I have converted the following deeply in-the-money company warrants to shares - Allied Tech, Juken Tech, Natural Cool, Old Chang Kee and Riverstone. I have also participated in the following rights issues - Cambridge REIT.

Next month, most companies with financial year ending 31 December 2010 will start paying out their final dividend to shareholders. I will continue to adopt value investing to prudently re-invest those dividend payout back into the market.

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

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. Jardine C&C
3. SembCorp Marine
4. F&N
5. SGX
6. A-REIT
7. CapitaMall Trust
8. KepLand
9. Bukit Sembawang Estates
10. OSIM International
11. Cosco Corp
12. Transpac Industrial Holdings
13. K-REIT Asia
14. Viz Branz
15. Hersing
16. Metro Holdings
17. CapitaCommercial Trust
18. Keppel Corp
19. Pacific Andes
20. CapitaLand
21. Wheelock Properties
22. ABR Holdings
23. CDL H-Trust
24. Low Keng Huat
25. Genting Singapore PLC
26. OCBC Bank
27. ARA
28. VICOM
29. APB
30. OKP Holdings

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

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

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

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 (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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

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

My Investment Portfolio (March 2011)

2011-04-01T06:33:00.000-07:00

The month of March was best remembered when earthquake strikes Japan. My heart goes to those affected and hope that Japan can recover from this natural disaster quickly. Markets as expected was volatile but STI demonstrated strong resistance to close around 3100 points at the end of the month, having fallen below 3000 points when earthquake rocks the market.

For my top 30 stock holdings, there is not much changes, except for two new entries - Challenger and APB. Both stocks did well this month.

Sticking to my investment plan despite market volatility, I have bought the following companies from the open market this month - BBR Holdings, Casa Holdings, China International, CSC Holdings, Forland Fabrictech, Hotel Grand Central, Hotel Royal, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Ocean Sky, Sakae Holdings, Soon Lian, Singapore Reinsurance, Singapura Finance, Superior Multi-Packaging and Tiong Seng.

I have accepted the following takeover/delisting offers - Financial One, MAP Tech, Reyoung, Sinomen and Timewatch.

I have also converted the following warrants to shares - OKP Holdings and participated in the following rights issues - Asia Water, Global Investments and Willas-Array.

Next month, I will be subscribing to Cambridge rights issue. Also, I will continue to seek for value in the market and invest prudently using those proceeds from takeover/delisting offers.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 March 2011)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SembCorp Marine
3. Jardine C&C
4. SGX
5. F&N
6. KepLand
7. CapitaMall Trust
8. Bukit Sembawang Estates
9. OSIM International
10. Cosco Corp
11. Transpac Industrial Holdings
12. Hersing
13. Viz Branz
14. K-REIT Asia
15. Pacific Andes
16. Keppel Corp
17. Metro Holdings
18. CapitaCommercial Trust
19. Wheelock Properties
20. CDL H-Trust
21. CapitaLand
22. OCBC Bank
23. Challenger Technologies
24. Low Keng Huat
25. ARA
26. ComfortDelgro
27. Genting Singapore PLC
28. Ascott REIT
29. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
30. APB

Note: A-REIT was halted from trading on 31 March 2011 and therefore no value had been assigned to it

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

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

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

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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

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

My Investment Portfolio (February 2011)

2011-02-28T06:25:00.000-08:00

It was a forgettable month as STI finished just above the 3000 points mark. Most of the stocks had been sold off across the board, with Middle East unrest and high oil price cited as the main reasons. S-chips were also sold off due to auditing problems at China Hongxing and Hongwei.

For my top 30 stock holdings, there is not much changes, except for a new entry - ARA. The stock had done well for the past one month and coupled with lower share price of the other top holdings, it managed to make it into my top 30 list. I remain vested in ARA as I like its asset light business model.

Taking advantage of market weakness, I have bought the following companies from the open market this month - BBR Holdings, BH Global, Casa Holdings, Chosen, Chuan Hup, Conscience Food, Elite KSB, GLP, Guocoleisure, Guthrie GTS, Harry's Holdings, Haw Par, Hotel Royal, Hotung, Lum Chang, Nam Lee, Oxley, PSC Corp, Sakae Holdings, Stamford Tyres, Tat Seng, Teck Wah, Tiong Seng, Tye Soon, Unidux, Wheelock Properties and Zagro Asia.

I have also converted the following warrants to shares - Bukit Sembawang Estates, Pacific Andes and Saizen REIT.

I will continue to position my portfolio defensively going into March. Selective buying in value stocks will continue to be my main strategy. I will also keep a look-out to add bombed-out high beta stocks into my portfolio if the opportunity presents itself.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 28 February 2011)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. SembCorp Marine
4. Jardine C&C
5. F&N
6. A-REIT
7. KepLand
8. Bukit Sembawang Estates
9. CapitaMall Trust
10. Cosco Corp
11. OSIM International
12. Transpac Industrial Holdings
13. Hersing
14. K-REIT Asia
15. Metro Holdings
16. CapitaCommercial Trust
17. Pacific Andes
18. Keppel Corp
19. Wheelock Properties
20. CapitaLand
21. CDL H-Trust
22. ARA
23. ComfortDelgro
24. OCBC Bank
25. Raffles Education Corp
26. Low Keng Huat
27. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
28. VICOM
29. Ascott REIT
30. First REIT

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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

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

My Investment Portfolio (January 2011)

2011-01-31T01:29:00.000-08:00

STI started the new year with a bang but lost its momentum towards the end of the month. Middle East unrest was the main reason for traders to sell off their positions, but as a value investor at heart, I took this opportunity to accumulate some small cap value stocks on weakness towards the end of the month.

For my top 30 stock holdings, there is not much changes, except for a new entry - First REIT. It appears my top 30 list for the first time due to my subscription to its rights issue.

For this month, I have accepted the delisting offers for ASA Holdings and China Angel. My holdings in Thomson Medical Centre had also been compulsory acquired by the offeror. I have also participated in the following scrip dividend scheme - MTQ Corp.

I have bought the following companies from the open market this month - Casa Holdings, Chosen, Chuan Hup, Colex, Food Junction, Harry's Holdings, IFS, Kian Ann, Tat Seng, Tiong Seng and Wing Tai. I have subscribed to the following rights issues - Aspial and Shangri-La Asia.

February will be an interesting month as companies with financial year ending 31 December 2010 will be reporting their full-year results. I will be looking at some of these results in details. Wishing all my readers many more returns in the Year of the Rabbit. Gong Xi Fa Cai!

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 January 2011)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. F&N
4. SembCorp Marine
5. Jardine C&C
6. A-REIT
7. KepLand
8. CapitaMall Trust
9. Cosco Corp
10. Bukit Sembawang Estates
11. OSIM International
12. Viz Branz
13. K-REIT Asia
14. Hersing
15. Transpac Industrial Holdings
16. Metro Holdings
17. CapitaLand
18. Raffles Education Corp
19. CapitaCommercial Trust
20. Keppel Corp
21. Pacific Andes
22. CDL H-Trust
23. Wheelock Properties
24. OCBC Bank
25. ComfortDelgro
26. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
27. Genting Singapore PLC
28. First REIT
29. Hong Leong Finance
30. Ascott REIT

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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

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

The Year Ahead - Review/Reflections for 2010 and Investment Strategy for 2011

2010-12-31T18:20:00.000-08:00

2010 had been a decent year for stock market investors, though not as good as 2009. It has also been a stock-picking year and investors had been rewarded handsomely if they had picked the right stocks. Personally, for my portfolio, I had done quite ok this year. So, here is my review for 2010.

What has done well:

1. Adopt value investing strategy and overweighting undervalued stocks. I had bought in more small and mid cap value stocks this year, while also adding onto existing ones. This strategy did paid off in the 2nd half of the year as STI peaked and the market re-rated some of these value stocks. The downside of this strategy is of course, being unable to participate fully if growth stocks rallied further.

2. By avoiding IPOs and participating in rights issues, I had been adding more into existing stocks rather than introducing new ones. Rights issues are normally priced at a discount from the market, and I managed to add onto some of my core existing holdings like MapleTree Logistics Trust, Ascott REIT, First REIT etc via excess rights shares as well.

3. Minimize sell trades. I have only done one sell trade this year and that reduces turnover rate of the portfolio and in turn reduces brokerage costs.

What has not done well:

1. Only attended a few AGMs. I started the year aiming to go for more AGMs, but it didn't turn out well as I was occupied with work.

2. Less time to go through annual reports. I did not allocate more time to go through some of the annual reports this year and as a result, I didn't finish some of them. I also did not have a system to keep track of those reports that I had not finished going through, until I realized it when doing some random checks.

3. Minimize buy trades. I had a lot of buy trades in different stocks at different times throughout the year and that had got to do with limited budget and dividend payouts at different times. I might want to reduce these small buy trades to save further on brokerages.

Investment strategy for 2011 - I do not like to predict where the market will move. Rather, I would like to position my portfolio accordingly so that it can adopt to different market conditions. I had been positioning my portfolio defensively since the 2nd half of 2010 and will continue to do so in 2011. I suspect 2011 will also be another stock-picking year whereby stock selection will play an important role. I will continue to overweight companies that are undervalued, delivered good cash flows and reward shareholders consistently. Rights issues had been one of the strategy that I adopted in 2010 and I will continue to apply for excess rights shares on selected issues in 2011. I may also want to add onto some of my STI component stocks in the portfolio if opportunity presents itself.

My Investment Portfolio (December 2010)

2010-12-30T22:56:00.000-08:00

How time files! It is the last day of 2010.

STI is quiet this month and it is expected as most investors are closing their books. Not much news flow too in the market.

For my top 30 stock holdings, there are not much changes this month except for a new entry - Metro Holdings. I have converted its warrants to shares near the end of last month. Thomson Medical Centre had been removed from the list, pending compulsory acquisition by the offeror.

For this month, I have accepted the delisting offer for IDT Holdings. I have also participated in the following scrip dividend scheme - SP AusNet, Tat Sin Electric and 2nd Chance Properties.

I have bought the following companies from the open market this month - AsiaMedic, Aspial, BBR Holdings, BH Global, BRC Asia, Casa Holdings, Chosen, Chuan Hup, Dynamic Colours, Guthrie GTS, Hotel Grand Central, Intraco, Isetan, LHT Holdings, Lion Teck Chiang, Matex, Metro Holdings, Miyoshi, Nam Lee, Noel Gifts, Ossia, PCI, PM Data, Stamford Tyres, Superbowl and TMC Education. I have subscribed to the following rights issues - BioTreat, First REIT, ISDN, LC Dev, Pan Asian Water and Transcu Group.

I have converted the following company warrants to shares - Goodpack and Informatics.

Wishing all readers a Happy New Year!

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 December 2010)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. Jardine C&C
4. F&N
5. SembCorp Marine
6. KepLand
7. A-REIT
8. CapitaMall Trust
9. OSIM International
10. Cosco Corp
11. Bukit Sembawang Estates
12. Viz Branz
13. K-REIT Asia
14. CapitaCommercial Trust
15. Metro Holdings
16. CapitaLand
17. Transpac Industrial Holdings
18. Pacific Andes
19. CDL H-Trust
20. Wheelock Properties
21. Keppel Corp
22. OCBC Bank
23. Genting Singapore PLC
24. Low Keng Huat
25. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
26. ComfortDelgro
27. Ascott REIT
28. Hong Leong Finance
29. Raffles Education Corp
30. VICOM

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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

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

My Investment Portfolio (November 2010)

2010-11-30T05:13:00.000-08:00

STI is weak this month and that is to be expected as it had ran up quite a bit for the past few months. Tensions between North and South Korea, problems in Ireland financial system etc are among the worries that investors have to grapple with. Positioning my portfolio defensively seem to be the way going forward as the year draws to a close and I would try as far as possible to avoid buying high beta stocks and IPOs.

For my top 30 stock holdings, there are not much changes this month except for a new entry - Thomson Medical Centre. The stock rallied on news of a cash offer from Peter Lim. I will continue to hold onto my shares in TMC unless Mr Lim decides to take the company private.

For this month, I have accepted the delisting offers for Eastern Asia Tech, MCL Land and Soilbuild Group. My remaining stake in Parkway Holdings had also been compulsory acquired, since the offeror have decided to delist the company. I have also participated in the following scrip dividend scheme - OCBC Bank.

I have bought the following companies from the open market this month - BBR Holdings, CH Offshore, Colex Holdings, Elite KSB, Food Junction, Forland Fabrictech, Guthrie GTS, Hiap Hoe, Hong Fok, Hotel Royal, IFS, Innotek, Intraco, Isetan, LHT Holdings, Lian Beng, PSC Corp, San Teh, Singapore Reinsurance Corp, Superbowl, Tuan Sing, Tye Soon and Zagro Asia. I have also subscribed to the following rights issues - Allied Tech, Guocoland and HMI.

I have converted the following company warrants to shares - A-Sonic, Metro Holdings, Serial System and Technics Oil & Gas.

As the year draws to a close, it will be good to look back and reflect on my investment portfolio this year. Also, I would like to look ahead to 2011 and draft out my investment portfolio management strategy. A lot of things had been on my mind as I pen out this post, and I will need another post in my blog to do this.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 November 2010)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. Jardine C&C
4. F&N
5. SembCorp Marine
6. KepLand
7. A-REIT
8. CapitaMall Trust
9. Bukit Sembawang Estates
10. Cosco Corp
11. OSIM International
12. Hersing
13. K-REIT Asia
14. CapitaCommercial Trust
15. Thomson Medical Centre
16. CapitaLand
17. Transpac Industrial Holdings
18. Wheelock Properties
19. CDL H-Trust
20. OCBC Bank
21. Pacific Andes
22. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
23. Keppel Corp
24. Raffles Education Corp
25. Low Keng Huat
26. Hong Leong Finance
27. ComfortDelgro
28. Ascott REIT
29. Genting Singapore PLC
30. Ascendas India Trust

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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

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

Company Warrants Expiring in 2010 - Actions Needed

2010-11-25T20:57:00.000-08:00

I need to remind myself all the outstanding company warrants that are expiring in 2010 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.

LINAIR W100118, Expiry Date: 18 Jan 2010, Exercise price = $0.09, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants expired worthless.
CHALLENG W100408, Expiry Date: 8 Apr 2010, Exercise price = $0.10, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
ETIKA W100408, Expiry Date: 8 Apr 2010, Exercise price = $0.095 , Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
JAPANLANW100416, Expiry Date: 16 Apr 2010, Exercise price = $0.75, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants expired worthless.
TIH W100511, Expiry Date: 11 May 2010, Exercise price = $1, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
HOSEN W100625, Expiry Date: 25 Jun 2010,Exercise price = $0.03, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
AZTECH W100716, Expiry Date: 16 July 2010,Exercise price = $0.47, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants expired worthless.
ADV SCT W100819, Expiry Date: 19 Aug 2010, Exercise price = $0.87, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants expired worthless.
ASIATIC W100902, Expiry Date: 2 Sep 2010, Exercise price = $0.03, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
LEEMETAL W100910, Expiry Date: 10 Sep 2010, Exercise price = $0.05, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
QIANHU W100919, Expiry Date: 19 Sep 2010, Exercise price = $0.035, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
JIUTIANC W101015, Expiry Date: 15 Oct 2010, Exercise price = $0.80, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants expired worthless.
VIKING W101116, Expiry Date: 16 Nov 2010, Exercise price = $0.08, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
Asia Water W101118, Expiry Date: 18 Nov 2010, Exercise price = $0.02, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
ECOWISE W101121, Expiry Date: 21 Nov 2010, Exercise price = $0.035, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
PACIFICHCW101126, Expiry Date: 26 Nov 2010, Exercise price = $0.39, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants expired worthless.
TECHNICOEW101126, Expiry Date: 26 Nov 2010, Exercise price = $0.40, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
SERIAL W101220, Expiry Date: 20 Dec 2010, Exercise price = $0.09, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
A-Sonic W101230, Expiry Date: 30 Dec 2010, Exercise price = $0.0325, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.

Scrip Dividend Scheme - The Details

2010-11-04T20:48:00.000-07:00

Dear all,

I am sure for long term investors like me, one will encounter the scrip dividend scheme from time to time. Basically, scrip dividend scheme is intended to give shareholders a choice to convert their entitled dividend payout to more shares in the company. The subscription price of the scrip dividend scheme is normally given at a slight discount from the market price, in order to make it more attractive for shareholders to subscribe to the scheme and for the company to retain cash for its usage. One do not need to pay any brokerage/transaction charges in order to convert the dividend into shares. There are basically four common options for shareholders when it comes to this scheme:

1. Election to participate in the scheme for this dividend payout only. All dividend entitled will be used to participate in this scheme.
2. Permanent election to participate in the scheme, whenever it is applicable.
3. Election to participate in the scheme for this dividend payout only. Part cash, part share option.
4. Do nothing. That is, one choose not to participate in this scheme at all and dividend will be paid fully in cash.

Option 2 to me is a "blank cheque" issued to the company. Basically, one is confident of the company and decides to participate in any scrip dividend scheme that comes along, regardless of its subscription price. It actually meant that one has no control as to whether they think that the subscription price is overvalued or not. Once a shareholder selects this option, he will automatically be given shares for each dividend payout declared. He can, however, opt out of this option in writing anytime if he wishes to.

Option 1 is a more common option and most investors that I encountered tends to prefer this option. I gives them the flexibility to decide whether to subscribe for the scheme every time it comes along. However, flexibility comes at a price. Some investors tend to be forgetful and might not have submitted the form before the deadline, thereby missing out on that particular scrip dividend subscription. Also, option 1 is not foolproof. It gives the company a leeway to decide how much shares they wish to allocate to you on your full entitled dividend payout based on a given formula. Normally, the computation will result in decimal places and your number of shares allocated might be:

i. Rounded to the next whole number. Which means, even 2.01 is rounded to 3 shares. This is of course to your advantage at all times.
ii. Rounded up or down to the nearest whole number. This is of course can be to your advantage or disadvantage (depending on whether you are rounded up or down), but at least it is mathematically reasonable.
iii. Take the whole number, ignore the decimal places, even if it is 0.99. For example, 2.99 is considered only 2 shares in this case. This is not to your advantage in almost all cases, unless of course the computation results in a nice whole number.

The residue sum after the above computation (for ii and iii only) might be given out as dividend payout or simply ignored for some companies. Which means, a shareholder can "lugi" a few dollars or even up to more than $10, if the residue amount are not paid out as dividend after computation.

Option 3 is a good option and this is my preferred option. What this means is that you decide how much cash you want to receive and how many shares that you wish to convert for every scrip dividend payout. It also avoid the computation formula problem that I had stated earlier as I decide how many shares that I want to use for computation and the rest I take as cash. I would not have a problem of having to "lugi" the residue sum after computation for companies who do not payout those residue amount. Common mistakes I see investors committing in this option:

i. Putting decimal places in the boxes for part cash and/or part share.
ii. The total number for part cash and part share doesn't tally with the total number of shares one is holding at book close date. For example, you hold 100 shares and you put 50 shares for part cash for 49 shares for part cash. What happened to the remaining 1 share? Doesn't make sense.
iii. Putting in the number of scrips that you are entitled to for the scrip dividend scheme in the part share box. Remember that you need to fill in the number of shares that you are holding at book close date that you wish to convert into scrip, and not the scrip that you will be given.

All the above will result in your application for scrip dividend scheme to be rejected so please check carefully before you submit.

Option 4 is of course self-explanatory. Doing nothing meant that you don't get any scrip and you get to keep the dividend. Your stake in the company will be diluted by the new shares being issued under the scrip dividend scheme for the other shareholders.

As they said, "the devil is in the details". But once you understood all the options available and select the correct one, scrip dividend scheme can be a fruitful exercise for long term shareholders like me who prefer to be almost fully invested at all times.

My Investment Portfolio (October 2010)

2010-10-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

STI gained further ground this month as it closed above 3100 points. However, due to the lack of corporate results this month, most of the attention had been focused on IPOs, in particular mega ones like GLP and MapleTree Industrial Trust. I didn't participate in any of these IPOs though as I have decided to focus my attention on purchasing value stocks for my portfolio in order to position it more defensively as the market continues to scale new heights.

For my top 30 stock holdings, there are not much changes this month except for a new entry - Ascott REIT. I have added to it due to its rights issue and I have also applied and allocated some excess rights shares as well. I am quite familar with the Ascott brand as I was a former shareholder of Ascott Holdings before it was taken private by CapitaLand. Its rights subscription price was attractive and I like its portfolio of service residences.

For this month, I have accepted the delisting offer for Hyflux Water Trust as its delisting resolution had been approved by unitholders. The proceeds from the delisting offer will come in handy for some rights issues next month. I have also participated in the following scrip dividend schemes - DBS, Jardine Strategic, UOB and United Overseas Australia.

I have bought the following companies from the open market this month - Allgreen Properties, Aspial, Bright World, Chosen, Hong Fok, Hotel Royal, Kian Ho, Koh Brothers, Lion Teck Chiang, MCL Land, MI Tech, Nobel Design, PCA Tech, PSC Corp, Sing Holdings, Singapore Reinsurance Corp, Superbowl and Tye Soon. I have also subscribed to the following preferential/rights issues - AIMSAMP REIT, China Healthcare, Ezra Holdings, Federal, MapleTree Logistics Trust and Sinwa.

I have converted the following compay warrants to shares - Asia Water, EcoWise, Ellipsiz, Hai Leck, Tee International and Viking Offshore And Marine. I have also attended three AGMs this month - Singapura Finance, HMI and Creative Technology.

With only two months to go for this year, I guess I have more or less met the objectives set out at the start of the year - i.e. position my portfolio more defensively and add onto it consistently every month regardless of market movements. So far, I have done only one sell trade for this year and that can be said to be a "forced" one as Sunway International was delisted from SGX without an exit offer. Other than that, I have more or less stick to my strategy. I do not forsee much changes to this strategy for the remaining two months of the year.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 29 October 2010)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. Jardine C&C
4. F&N
5. SembCorp Marine
6. A-REIT
7. KepLand
8. CapitaMall Trust
9. Bukit Sembawang Estates
10. Hersing
11. Viz Branz
12. Cosco Corp
13. K-REIT Asia
14. CapitaLand
15. Transpac Industrial Holdings
16. CapitaCommercial Trust
17. CDL H-Trust
18. OSIM International
19. Wheelock Properties
20. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
21. Raffles Education Corp
22. Pacific Andes
23. Genting Singapore PLC
24. Low Keng Huat
25. Ascott REIT
26. Ascendas India Trust
27. Hong Leong Finance
28. Keppel Corp
29. OCBC Bank
30. ComfortDelgro

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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

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

'alpha' and 'beta' - Analog Electronics and Portfolio Management

2010-10-07T21:54:00.000-07:00

I remember during my poly days that one of my favourite subjects had been Analog Electronics. And the study of BJT (Bipolar Junction Transistor) bring much insights to me when managing my investment portfolio. Yes, transistor equations are quite complicated sometimes, but the basic concepts are quite simple to understand.

One of the basic concepts in transistor theory is DC basis, which analyzes the BJT when it is operating in DC. And to measure DC efficiency, we often use 'alpha' and 'beta', which is basically the ratio of DC collector current over emitter current and the ratio of DC collector current over base current respectively. 'beta' can actually varies widely while 'alpha' is almost equal to one in most cases. By looking at 'alpha' and 'beta', we can actually have an idea of whether the BJT is operating normally or not. We can then do the necessary adjustments to the design of the BJT to correct its mode of operation.

In investment portfolio management, we also need to understand 'alpha' and 'beta'. In fact, the key to successful portfolio management is to manage 'alpha' and 'beta' plus the other greeks well. When we add stocks into our portfolio, we need to have an idea whether we are adding it for 'alpha' or 'beta'. If let's say I think the market will be volatile and will go up, I might want to have more 'beta' in my portfolio. If that is the case, I will add more volatile stocks like NOL, Genting S'pore etc into my portfolio so that my portfolio will track the market up. However, if I am not sure about the market and think that there might be more risk of a downturn, I will want to add more 'alpha' into my portfolio by adding stocks like Bonvests, Hour Glass etc to protect my downside risk since these stocks don't actually track the overall market well. In either case, it is not about consistently buying and selling stocks to manage one's portfolio, but rather to adjust the "design" of the portfolio to reflect its risk profile with respect to your market outlook and investment objective.

My investment portfolio is my BJT transistor. 'alpha' and 'beta' are my indicators to make sure that my transistor is operating normally.

My Investment Portfolio (September 2010)

2010-09-30T07:04:00.000-07:00

STI was strong for most part of the month as it crossed 3000 points convincingly. It ended the month near 3100 points as investors bought stocks across the board. Obviously, the market is quite confident of corporate earnings going forward.

For my top 30 stock holdings, there are two new entries in the list this month due to price appreciation - Genting Singapore PLC and Singapura Finance. Genting S'pore had performed well this month, mainly due to its recent set of result which surprised the market. Singapura Finance is more of a "quiet" stock in my portfolio but it had surprised on the upside this month. I have shared some of my views on this company at sgfunds.com some time back and those interested can visit the site to read more about this company.

For this month, I have exercised my right under Section 215(3) of the Company Act and tendered part of my Parkway Holdings shares to the offeror in order to generate some funds for some upcoming rights issues and new IPOs. However, I still hold the remaining shares in hand just in case they decided to keep Parkway listed. I have accepted the offers for my Pine Agritech and Swissco International shares. I have also participated in the following scrip dividend schemes - Cambridge REIT, Hour Glass and Mercator.

I have bought the following companies from the open market this month - Asia Enterprises, BBR Holdings, Bonvests, Cogent, Del Monte, Guthrie GTS, Hotel Royal, Hour Glass, Jacks International, LHT Holdings, Orchard Parade, Sin Heng, Singapore Reinsurance Corp, Stamford Land Corp, TCT, UIS and Wheelock Properties. I have also subscribed to the following preferential/rights issues - Ascott REIT and China Paper.

Next month, I will reserve some funds for upcoming rights issues and IPOs. I will continue to invest back into the market on selective stocks defensively, as the market had ran up quite a bit in September.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 September 2010)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. Jardine C&C
4. F&N
5. A-REIT
6. CapitaMall Trust
7. SembCorp Marine
8. KepLand
9. Bukit Sembawang Estates
10. Hersing
11. Viz Branz
12. CapitaLand
13. Cosco Corp
14. K-REIT Asia
15. CapitaCommercial Trust
16. Transpac Industrial Holdings
17. CDL H-Trust
18. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
19. Wheelock Properties
20. Raffles Education Corp
21. Pacific Andes
22. Low Keng Huat
23. Hong Leong Finance
24. ComfortDelgro
25. Ascendas India Trust
26. OSIM International
27. OCBC Bank
28. Genting Singapore PLC
29. Keppel Corp
30. Singapura Finance

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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

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

How to Exercise Your Company Warrant (SGX)

2010-09-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

For those who still have questions, below is a good guide:
http://wealthbuch.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-exercise-your-warrant-options.html

My Investment Portfolio (August 2010)

2010-08-31T03:38:00.000-07:00

STI ended this month on a weaker note, with investors dumping property stocks as the Singapore Government introduced measures to cool down the local property market. Counters with exposure to the local residential market got hit more badly. Nevertheless, 2Q2010 results released by most listed companies had been good, and that might provide support for the market as there had not been a major panic sell-off.

For my top 30 stock holdings, not much changes actually except Parkway Holdings as the share is suspended after the VGO as its free float is less than 10%. Since there is no market price for the stock, I have decided to take it off the list at this moment.

For this month, I have accepted the VGO for all my RSH shares. I have rejected offers for my Parkway Holdings and Design Studio shares, since the offeror did not state whether they are going to delist the companies from SGX yet. I have bought the following companies from the open market - Colex, Eu Yan Sang, Guthrie GTS, Isetan, Latitude Tree, Jason Marine, Koh Brothers Group, Noel Gifts, Portek International, PSC Corp, Qingmei, Singapore Reinsurance Corp, Stamford Tyres, Transview and YHI International.

I have subscribed to the following rights issues - New Toyo, Old Chang Kee and Superior Multi-Packaging. I have also converted the following company warrants to shares - Wee Hur Holdings.

Next month, I will reserve some funds for upcoming rights issues. I am still considering to tender some of my Parkway Holdings shares as it is likely that it will be suspended for quite sometime and I might wish to take the opportunity to re-invest those funds back into market if it weakens further.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 August 2010)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. Jardine C&C
4. F&N
5. A-REIT
6. CapitaMall Trust
7. SembCorp Marine
8. KepLand
9. Hersing
10. Bukit Sembawang Estates
11. CapitaLand
12. Viz Branz
13. K-REIT Asia
14. Transpac Industrial Holdings
15. Cosco Corp
16. CapitaCommercial Trust
17. CDL H-Trust
18. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
19. Low Keng Huat
20. Raffles Education Corp
21. Hong Leong Finance
22. ComfortDelgro
23. OSIM International
24. Wheelock Properties
25. Ascendas India Trust
26. OCBC Bank
27. Pacific Andes
28. VICOM
29. Keppel Corp
30. SingTel

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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

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

WEE HUR HOLDINGS LTD W121027

2010-08-22T23:45:00.000-07:00

For those holding the above company warrant, maybe it is time to consider converting them to shares. The record date for their upcoming dividend entitlement is as follows:

WEE HUR HOLDINGS LTD. - 3 Sep 2010, 5pm. Interim dividend 1cts per share

Though the warrant expires on 27 OCT 2012, there seem to be no time value in it as it currently trades at around 30cts below the mother shares, which is almost the same as its exercise price (i.e. 30cts).

The main reason I guess is because the warrant is currently deeply in the money, the time value of the warrant is almost zero. Which means, the intrinsic value of the warrant is simply market value of the warrant + exercise price.

For long term investors of Wee Hur, I guess it is time to convert.

My Investment Portfolio (July 2010)

2010-07-30T20:04:00.000-07:00

It had been a good month as STI moved closer to 3000 points, but ran out of steam at the last moment. Nevertheless, volume in the market is still not strong enough which might explain that most investors are still in the sidelines. Investors might be waiting for more companies to announce their 2Q2010 results before deciding what to do.

For my top 30 stock holdings, not much changes actually except Keppel Corp and SingTel returned to the list mainly due to no price transacted for Viz Branz on the last trading day of this month. Keppel Corp also announced a decent 2Q2010 results which might explain why investors bought into the stock.

For this month, I have accepted the voluntary unconditional cash offer for all my Eng Kong Holdings shares. Armed with the proceeds from that offer, I have bought the following companies from the open market - Asia Food & Properties, BBR Holdings, Bonvests, Colex, CSC Holdings, Engro Corp, Guthrie GTS, Hiap Hoe, Hotel Royal, ITE Electric, King Wan, LHT, Nippecraft, Oniontech, Orchard Parade, OUE, Shangri-La Asia, Singapore Land, Tat Seng, Transview, UIC and UIS.

I have participated in the following scrip dividend schemes - QAF and DBS Group Holdings. I have also subscribed to the following rights issues - Berlian Laju, Hotel Royal, Riverstone and Swing Media.

I have also converted the following company warrants to shares - Asiatic and KSH Holdings. Unfortunately, I didn't get to convert any of my Metro warrants to shares as I have identified better investment opportunities and had invested the funds reserved for the warrant conversion back into the market instead.

Next month, I will reserve some funds for New Toyo and Old Chang Kee rights issue. I am still considering the offer by Khazanah for my Parkway Holdings shares and it is most likely that I will continue to hold onto it.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 July 2010)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. Jardine C&C
3. SGX
4. F&N
5. A-REIT
6. Parkway Holdings
7. CapitaMall Trust
8. SembCorp Marine
9. KepLand
10. Bukit Sembawang Estates
11. Hersing
12. CapitaLand
13. Transpac Industrial Holdings
14. Cosco Corp
15. K-REIT Asia
16. Raffles Education Corp
17. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
18. CapitaCommercial Trust
19. CDL H-Trust
20. ComfortDelgro
21. OSIM International
22. Wheelock Properties
23. Hong Leong Finance
24. Low Keng Huat
25. OCBC Bank
26. Pacific Andes
27. Ascendas India Trust
28. Keppel Corp
29. Cheung Woh Technologies
30. SingTel

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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

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

METRO HOLDINGS LIMITED W110922 and KSH HOLDINGS LIMITED W120402

2010-07-07T02:35:00.000-07:00

The above two companies will be giving out dividend soon and therefore I will be exercising their warrants and convert them to shares before record date in order to be entitled to their dividend payout. Their record date for dividend entitlement are as follows:

1. METRO HOLDINGS LIMITED - 2 Aug 2010, 5pm. Final dividend 2cts per share, Special dividend 1cts per share.
2. KSH HOLDINGS LIMITED - 17 Aug 2010, 5pm. Final dividend 1cts per share.

Warrant exercise form must reach the warrant agent before 5pm on the record date to be entitled to the dividend payout. Therefore, do remember to act early for those who wish to exercise their warrants. If you want to send by post, you would have to send in the completed warrant exercise form (with cashier's order attached of course) latest on the day before record date in order reach them on the record date itself. Otherwise, you will have to visit the warrant agent on the record date personally in order to lodge your warrant exercise form on time to be entitled to the dividend payout.

My Investment Portfolio (June 2010)

2010-06-30T06:17:00.000-07:00

It had been a quiet month due to the World Cup going on in South Africa. Therefore, there is not much activity in the market this month and there had been a lack of news flow as well. Instead of deciding which teams to place my bets on, I have decided to concentrate on the market and decide what stocks to buy.

For my top 30 stock holdings, Transpac Industrial Holdings (i.e. TIH) had been a big mover after announcing that they are going to dispose one of their top investment - Foodstar Holdings Pte Ltd.

For this month, I have bought the following companies from the open market - Action Asia, AsiaMedic, Cache Logistics Trust, DBS Group Holdings, Food Junction, Haw Par, Hengxin Technology, Jacks International, Kian Ho Bearings, Multi-Chem, Pan Pacific Hotels Group, Singapore Land, Singapore Reinsurance Corp, Sin Ghee Huat, Tan Chong International, Tiong Seng, Transview, Tuan Sing and UIS.

I have also participated in the following scrip dividend schemes - Cambridge Industrial Trust, Hotel Grand Central, OCBC Bank, SP AusNet, UOB and United Overseas Australia. I have also subscribed to Lafe Corp rights issue. There are also two new entries into my portfolio this month via distribution in specie - Bund Center Investment (From Asia Food & Properties) and K-Green Trust (From Keppel Corp).

I had made my first sell trade of the year this month - Sunway International Holdings after the company decided to delist from SGX but did not provide an exit offer for existing shareholders.

Next month, I will reserve some funds for Hotel Royal and Swing Media rights issue. It is also very likely that I will accept the voluntary unconditional cash offer for my Eng Kong Holdings shares and I will be looking to re-invest those proceeds back into the market as well.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 June 2010)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. Jardine C&C
4. F&N
5. CapitaMall Trust
6. A-REIT
7. SembCorp Marine
8. Parkway Holdings
9. KepLand
10. Bukit Sembawang Estates
11. Hersing
12. CapitaLand
13. Viz Branz
14. K-REIT Asia
15. Raffles Education Corp
16. Transpac Industrial Holdings
17. Cosco Corp
18. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
19. CapitaCommercial Trust
20. Wheelock Properties
21. Hong Leong Finance
22. Low Keng Huat
23. ComfortDelgro
24. Pacific Andes
25. OCBC Bank
26. CDL H-Trust
27. Ascendas India Trust
28. OSIM International
29. Cheung Woh Technologies
30. Sarin Technologies

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited
4. China Printing & Dyeing Holdings
5. FerroChina Limited
6. General Magnetics

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

My First Sell Trade of the Year - Sunway International Holdings Limited

2010-06-21T00:17:00.000-07:00

It had to come and it did came. I did my first sell trade of the year after holding onto my portfolio tightly and adding funds back into the market this year.

I did have a long struggle before deciding to do this sell trade, as it is not my intention to sell any of the stocks in my portfolio at this moment as I am a long term investor. But Sunway International Holdings Limited decided to delist from SGX without making an exit offer to existing shareholders and though it is maintaining its listing in HKSE, I have decided to sell away my small stake in this company.

The reason is really cost other than anything else. For one, I will be receiving a share certificate after its delisting from SGX if I continue to hold onto its shares. And in order to trade on HKSE later on, I have to pay for the costs to deposit the share certificate and then incur brokerage charges to sell it off. The cost to deposit a share certificate is not cheap especially for a small shareholder like me.

I guess it is better for me to sell it off at this moment rather than incurring extra costs later on to transact the counter on HKSE.

My Investment Portfolio (May 2010)

2010-05-31T02:19:00.000-07:00

The market finally underwent a minor correction as worries on various fronts had finally managed to bring it down to an attractive level. Major worries include depreciation of Euro, worries about PIIGS, North-South Korean tension, Germany's ban on short selling, China property market overheating etc. My portfolio had not been seriously hit in this latest round of sell down, as I have adopted a defensive strategy for my portfolio construction since early this year.

For my top 30 stock holdings, ABR Holdings appeared in it for the first time. Certainly, investors finally began to appreciate this small F&B play. Some insider buying also managed to support its share price as it outperformed most of my other holdings this month. Parkway Holdings also moved up a few places after Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah launched an $835 million partial offer for it.

For this month, I have converted Viz Branz company warrants to ordinary shares. Aqua-Terra and SSH Corp had also been taken over via Scheme of Arrangment by KS Energy. I have re-invested the proceeds back into the market and also continue to hold onto my KS Energy shares from the SOA.

Taking advantage of market weakness and the dividends received from companies having financial year ending 31 December 2009, I had made my biggest capital outlay into the market this month for year 2010 so far. I have bought the following companies from the open market this month - Action Asia, Afor, AsiaMedic, Asia Enterprises Ltd, Aspial Corp, Auric Pacific, CFM Holdings, China Gaoxian, Del Monte Pacific, FJ Benjamin, Fuxing, GK Goh Holdings, ITE Electric, Koh Brothers, Lee Kim Tah, Nam Lee Holdings, New Toyo, Pacific Century, PSC Corp, Roxy Pacific, Ryobi Kiso, SingTel, SMB United, Thai Village, Tuan Sing, UIS and Wheelock Properties.

Next month, I will continue to re-invest dividends received from my holdings back into the market. I will also be looking to convert some of my outstanding company warrants to ordinary shares if there is no new investment opportunities in the market.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 May 2010)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. F&N
4. Jardine C&C
5. A-REIT
6. Parkway Holdings
7. CapitaMall Trust
8. SembCorp Marine
9. KepLand
10. Bukit Sembawang Estates
11. Raffles Education Corp
12. CapitaLand
13. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
14. K-REIT Asia
15. Low Keng Huat
16. Cosco Corp
17. Hong Leong Finance
18. CapitaCommercial Trust
19. Wheelock Properties
20. ComfortDelgro
21. CDL H-Trust
22. Transpac Industrial Holdings
23. Pacific Andes
24. Ascendas India Trust
25. OCBC Bank
26. Keppel Corp
27. VICOM
28. PSL Holdings
29. ABR Holdings
30. Cheung Woh Technologies

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited
4. China Printing & Dyeing Holdings
5. FerroChina Limited
6. General Magnetics

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

My Investment Portfolio (April 2010)

2010-04-30T02:25:00.000-07:00

The story of this month had been the debt problems with the PIIGS, with Greece’s debt crisis been very much in the news. STI finished this month below 3000 points, and not much had been happening actually with most of the companies conducting their AGMs this month.

For my top 30 stock holdings, it is "as it is" as usual. Not much changes, a boring portfolio I must say. But Cheung Woh Technologies had managed to squeeze into my top 30 list for the first time. This Precision Engineering firm had a good cash flow, nice little balance sheet and easy to understand business. With most of the technology stocks having outperformed the market recently, the gems are out there for investors to pick them up to ride on the expected technology cycle upside.

General Magnetics is a new entry in my unlisted companies list. Unlike most of the companies in the list, General Magnetics certainly have value to be unlocked. I shall wait for more updates from the company with regards to their future plan and whether they are going to offer an exit for minorities. They have also yet to hold their AGM, and I wait for their annual report as well.

For this month, I accepted two exit offers - China Lifestyle and Jurong Cement. Their proceeds had been re-invested back into my portfolio. I have also participated in Anwell rights issue and converted my Lee Metal company warrants to ordinary shares.

I have also bought the following companies from the open market this month - AsiaMedic, Aspial Corp, Heatec Jietong, Intraco, LHT Holdings, Nippecraft, PNE Industries, PSC Corp, Sin Ghee Huat, SP Corp and UIS.

I have went through quite a number of annual reports this month. This is to obtain some re-investment ideas for next month, whereby there will be a lot of companies with financial year ending 31 December 2009 giving out dividends.

Next month, I will convert my Viz Branz warrants to ordinary shares. I will also start to re-invest back my expected dividends collected from my portfolio prudently back into the market.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 April 2010)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. Jardine C&C
4. F&N
5. SembCorp Marine
6. CapitaMall Trust
7. A-REIT
8. Parkway Holdings
9. KepLand
10. Bukit Sembawang Estates
11. Hersing
12. Raffles Education Corp
13. Cosco Corp
14. CapitaLand
15. Pacific Andes
16. K-REIT Asia
17. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
18. Low Keng Huat
19. Transpac Industrial Holdings
20. CDL H-Trust
21. ComfortDelgro
22. Ascendas India Trust
23. Hong Leong Finance
24. CapitaCommercial Trust
25. Keppel Corp
26. Wheelock Properties
27. OCBC Bank
28. PSL Holdings
29. VICOM
30. Cheung Woh Technologies

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited
4. China Printing & Dyeing Holdings
5. FerroChina Limited
6. General Magnetics

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

VIZ BRANZ LIMITED W110630

2010-04-28T02:20:00.000-07:00

For those who are holding this warrant, it might be a good time to convert them to shares. It seems to me that the company is now declaring dividends four times a year, having declared one special dividend of 0.75cts per share in January this year and an interim dividend of 1cts per share in March this year, it is declaring another special interim dividend of 0.75cts to be paid in May.

Although there is still one year from expiry for this warrant, it suffers from low liquidity mainly due to the fact that a lot of shareholders had been coverting the warrants to shares, making it very difficult to trade at a premium although it still has around one year in time value.

I will be converting this one to shares soon, hopefully in time to be entitled to the special interim dividend that had been declared.

LEE METAL GROUP W100910

2010-04-16T01:43:00.000-07:00

I will be converting Lee Metal Group warrants around 4.5 months before expiry. Normally, I don't like to convert warrants way before expiry as I will lose time value for the warrant in question. But for this case, I will be paying 5cts per share to convert each warrant to share and getting back 2cts dividend in May. I guess it is worthwhile converting since I will be getting back 40% of my investment within one month.

I guess most of the other Lee Metal Group warrant holders will agree with me that the above is a good deal.

What Stocks to Buy? Have You Been Buying Stocks?

2010-04-05T22:58:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,

I always get these two questions - "What Stocks to Buy?" and "Have You Been Buying Stocks?" lately from some of my friends and I am getting sick of answering them. Basically, my answer is very simple nowadays - "Read my blog". Yes, I will not be answering these questions directly at my blog here too. :)

These kind of questions often pops out when one does not have an investment plan. It is very risky to buy based on other people's recomendations, because each person have different investment objective, holding period, experience in selecting stocks etc. What is good for me might not be good for you, and it is best that one does his/her own homework and invest based on his/her investment objective. I can share with you my views on a certain stock, but I will not be recommending people to follow me. Because eventually, you are the one who will be putting money into that investment and you have to be responsible for your own actions.

I guess it is good to really have an investment plan because it serves as a guide for your investment action. And if one can relate his/her investment action back to the plan, then it is the first step towards successful investing.

So readers, do take action now and secure your own financial future through prudent investing.

My Investment Portfolio (March 2010)

2010-03-31T07:23:00.000-07:00

As I was writing this blog entry, I saw an annual report lying in front of me on a stack of them which I haven't gone through yet. Entitled "Great Expectations" from the latest Great Eastern Holdings annual report, it certainly sets me thinking for a while. I mean, everyone have great expectations of their investment portfolio, themselves, the people around them, their colleagues at work etc. But sometimes, we must take a step back to take stock of what we have currently, before demanding great expectations. Because if we set too high an expectation, we might be set for more disappointments. Why am I saying these in this month's portfolio review writeup? Because when markets goes up, many investors have higher expectations of return and demanded more from their investment. In order to do that, they started to take more risk, which actually should be the other way round. Which is why I have been adopting a more defensive approach in my stock investment portfolio recently as I felt that value investing is more safer in the current market.

For my top 30 stock holdings, there are two new entries this month - Sarin Technologies and OSIM International. I had been a long term shareholder in both companies, and their recent price appreciation meant that they are in my top 30 list this month. Despite its setback in recent years, I have remained faithful with OSIM International all these years and I hope that it will pay off eventually.

China Printing & Dyeing Holdings and FerroChina Limited are the new entries in my unlisted companies list. They had been delisted without an exit offer. Diversification saves me again as their allocation in my portfolio is quite insignificant. As they said, "You win some and you lose some".

For this month, I accepted two takeover offers - Hongguo International and China Video. Their proceeds had been re-invested back into my portfolio. I have participated in Pacific Andes, China Fishery and Cambridge scrip dividend scheme. I have also converted my Challenger, Etika and Qian Hu company warrants to shares and participated in Asia Water's NRO.

I have bought the following companies from the open market this month - New Toyo, LHT Holdings, Lee Kim Tah, Food Junction, Haw Par, Apex-Pal, CapitaMalls Asia, PSC Corp, Tye Soon, Singapura Finance, GK Goh Holdings, SHC Capital, Hock Lian Seng, CFM Holdings and General Magnetics.

Next month, there will not be much dividend payout for me to re-invest back to the market. Nevertheless, I will continue to position my portfolio defensively going forward and search for more value mid/small cap stocks to invest.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 March 2010)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. Jardine C&C
4. F&N
5. SembCorp Marine
6. A-REIT
7. CapitaMall Trust
8. Parkway Holdings
9. KepLand
10. Bukit Sembawang Estates
11. Hersing
12. Raffles Education Corp
13. CapitaLand
14. Pacific Andes
15. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
16. K-REIT Asia
17. Low Keng Huat
18. Transpac Industrial Holdings
19. ComfortDelgro
20. Hong Leong Finance
21. CDL H-Trust
22. Ascendas India Trust
23. Wheelock Properties
24. OCBC Bank
25. Cosco Corp
26. Sarin Technologies
27. Keppel Corp
28. CapitaCommercial Trust
29. Ho Bee Investments
30. OSIM International

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited
4. China Printing & Dyeing Holdings
5. FerroChina Limited

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

Agile Software Development Approach to Investment Portfolio Management

2010-03-11T20:15:00.000-08:00

Most people in the software development field would have heard or used Agile Methdology, which is basically an iterative and incremental framework for software development with envolving requirements. Fans of Agile would love it so much that the traditional waterfall method is often cited as uneffective. I disagree with this view but that is left for another day as this is an investment blog.

However, basically what I am going to share here is that Agile methdology can be implemented for investment portfolio management, especially when using the concept of buy and hold strategy and adding new funds into the portfolio with limited funds every month. There are few reasons to this. Agile is an interative process and portfolio management is also an iterative process. Attractiveness of a stock can change and one's investment portfolio needs to be re-visited regularly too. One's capital to invest every month can also change, and if one subscribes to the buy and hold strategy with RSP, they are doing incremental additions to the portfolio every month. So, in a sense, Agile fits well into buy and hold strategy.

In Agile, we have a backlog which consists of a series of stories. Similarly, we have a list of selected stories in the backlog for investment portfolio management. These stories are changing every now and then in the backlog, based on what you have in your shortlist. The stories in the backlog are ranked, which means the first one on the list is the most attractive in your view, and the next one the second most attractive and so on. Basically, one should have already done the necessary fundamental analysis and diversification consideration on these stocks before you rank them in stories. The stories can be for example: "Buy 1 lot of SIA", "Buy 2 lots of Colex", "Buy 1 lot of Innotek" etc.

In each sprint/iteration which lasts for example, one month, an investor will decide on how much velocity (i.e. money) that he wants to invest for that month. After that, he will do an estimation of the stories that he could fit in for this sprint and draw them out from the backlog, starting from the highest ranked one. Let's say your velocity for this month is $1000, but Story 1st in the backlog is "Buy 1 lot of SIA". Obviously, your $1000 is not enough for Story 1st although SIA is the most attractive stock at this moment, based on your FA. Therefore, you give Story 1st a miss and move on to the next story, i.e. "Buy 2 lots of Colex". The process goes on until all your velocity (i.e. $1000) had been used up. So, there it is, you have done your planning on what to invest for your $1000 this month. Repeat the process for the next sprint. Remember to update your backlog regularly too.

The above is just one small example on how you could utilize Agile for investment portfolio management. Practically, there can be several variations like shortening your sprint cycle to let's say two weeks to cater to a portfolio which can be more responsive. One could also set up a few scrum teams - One for Cash Investment Portfolio, another one for CPF Investment Portfolio, another one for SRS Investment Portfolio etc. Each of these scrum teams should consists of different backlogs.

Eventually, it is up to the investor to define all these, and a well-groomed backlog of stories is critical for sucessful implementation. Which means, your FA skills is still the most critical part. Agile only helps in planning what stories to commit to complete every month based on your available velocity, but it doesn't help you to select your stocks.

JUST ASK: 'Why doesn't ghchua track his investment returns?'

2010-03-06T01:20:00.000-08:00

JUST ASK: 'Why doesn't ghchua track his investment returns?'
Written by The NextInsight Team
Saturday, 06 March 2010

In this weekly series titled JUST ASK, we invite readers to send in questions on stock investing, and personal finance. We will ask an expert (or experts) to provide answers. Below is a set of questions from a reader after we published last Saturday's topic "Is it silly to just buy and hold, instead of trading?"

The reader was intrigued about some investment details of ghchua, who is well-known among some investing websites. 'ghchua's' investment holding period is unusually long (for retail investors).
http://www.nextinsight.net/content/view/2153/60

JUST ASK: 'Is it silly to buy and hold (instead of trading)?'

2010-02-28T18:33:00.000-08:00

I have been asked to give my two cents at NextInsight's JUST ASK weekly series. Below is my reply to one of the reader's question:

JUST ASK: 'Is it silly to buy and hold (instead of trading)?'
Written by The NextInsight Team
Saturday, 27 February 2010

In this weekly series titled JUST ASK, we invite readers to send in questions on stock investing, and personal finance. We will ask an expert (or experts) to provide answers. Below is a question from a reader on a topic which must be playing on a lot of investors' minds. It is answered by ghchua, a value investor and a long-term investor who is well-known among some investing websites. His investment holding period is unusually long (for retail investors), which makes his views all the more intriguing. Read on!
http://www.nextinsight.net/index.php/story-archive-mainmenu-60/903-2010-/2114-just-ask-is-it-silly-to-buy-and-hold-instead-of-trading

My Investment Portfolio (February 2010)

2010-02-26T21:03:00.000-08:00

This month is quite short actually due to the Chinese New Year holidays and also there is only 28 days. As a result, the stock market doesn't seem to go anywhere.

For my top 30 stock holdings, not much changes as basically most of the companies announced results that is within expectation. The activities is actually outside my top 30 list, as some of those mid cap stocks like Eng Kong, OSIM, Old Chang Kee etc moved up quite a few places. Hopefully, they will become one of my top 30 holdings one day.

Main cash inflow for my portfolio this month had been dividend from my REIT holdings near the end of this month. They had been re-invested back into the market via mid and small cap stocks, as value is now in this segment of the market as it can be seen that some of these companies actually announced results that are above expectations, with good dividend that comes along with it. For this month, I have bought New Toyo, Thai Village, Dynamic Colours, Colex, Casa Holdings, LHT Holdings, Advanced Holdings, AEI Corp and Innotek. I have also utilized my CPF-OA funds to add onto my existing unit trusts this month.

I have accepted the exit offer for my Giant Wireless Technology shares. I have also voted against the delisting resolution for my Full Apex shares via proxy, and the company managed to stay listed as minorities get together to throw away delisting offer, which doesn't seem fair in my opinion.

I have also participated in a few rights issues - Popular Holdings, ASJ Holdings, Juken Technology, TSH Corp, TEE International and UPP.

Next month, there will be some rights issues as usual for me to participate in and the main one will be Fraser Commercial Trust's Series A CPPU. I will also continue to buy mid/small cap value stocks from the market.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 26 February 2010)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. A-REIT
4. F&N
5. Jardine C&C
6. CapitaMall Trust
7. SembCorp Marine
8. Bukit Sembawang Estates
9. Raffles Education Corp
10. KepLand
11. Parkway Holdings
12. CapitaLand
13. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
14. Low Keng Huat
15. K-REIT Asia
16. ComfortDelgro
17. Hong Leong Finance
18. Transpac Industrial Holdings
19. Ascendas India Trust
20. Pacific Andes
21. Wheelock Properties
22. CDL H-Trust
23. OCBC Bank
24. Cosco Corp
25. CapitaCommercial Trust
26. PSL Holdings
27. SP AusNet
28. Rotary Engineering
29. Keppel Corp
30. WBL Corp

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited

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

Control System Analogy of My Investment Portfolio

2010-02-18T20:30:00.000-08:00

Having written a piece on Stock Market vs Control System last time at http://ghchua.blogspot.com/2008/11/stock-market-vs-control-system.html, I was tempted to write another piece on control system analogy. So here it is.......

A few people asked me - Since you viewed the stock market as a control system (most possibly a closed loop one), could you gave an analogy of your investment portfolio using Control Engineering concepts as well? My answer is yes, since Control Engineering concepts are applicable in physical systems, including one's investment portfolio.

I view my investment portfolio as an open loop control system, which means no feedback as compared to the stock market. If you view my portfolio as a system itself, then the input to the system would be stock market volatility and the output is portfolio volatility. By observing the output of my portfolio with respect to the input, I can do some adjustment to system by using compensation. Which is essentially what all control system strive to do - To make it stable by applying compensation.

So when my portfolio output is more volatile than the stock market, I added compensation to my system by introducing more value stocks into my portfolio. If it is less volatile than the stock market, then I may be tempted to add some growth stocks. Essentially, what I am trying to do is not to achieve a almost risk-free portfolio (i.e. low risk, high return), but rather making the system stable and not to oscillate into an unstable state which can cause chaos. I am taking risk by holding my portfolio throughout market cycles, but I am not taking high risk by doing consistent and regular investment back into the portfolio throughout any market condition.

Since Engineering is Applied Science, we are not looking at creating a perfect system (i.e. Making money in the stock market all the time). Rather, we strive to solve problems and make things work. There might be some imperfection here and there, but it is ok to me as long as it works most of the time.

My Investment Portfolio (January 2010)

2010-01-29T21:08:00.000-08:00

The month started on a good note but ended on weakness. Markets exhibit volatility and fear is again in play. Reasons had been given for the market weakness, but having such a good run since last year, certainly the markets are ripe for a correction.

For my top 30 stock holdings, Low Keng Huat and PSL Holdings had a good run, which explains why they had moved up quite a lot in the list. My new entry PSL Holdings had been amazing, and having added to it since their rights issue last year, it had been performing pretty well. Keppel Corp also done well after announcing that they will be giving out new shares in yet to be listed K-Green Trust to shareholders.

Main cash inflow for my portfolio this month had been the proceeds from accepting the offer for my Furama Ltd shares. They had been re-invested back into the market defensively. They include Afor, CM Pacific, Colex, Craft Print, Engro Corp, Hotel Grand Central, PM Data, Spindex, Tuan Sing and United Overseas Australia. These are mostly stocks that are not widely followed and can be classified as value stocks. I have also participated in two rights issues - Samko Timber and Novena. Also, I started to use my CPF-OA funds to add onto my existing unit trusts this month.

Next month, there will be a few small rights issues to participate. I will still position my portfolio defensively, which means selective buying into value stocks while holding my portfolio tightly to ride out the expected market volatility.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 January 2010)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. A-REIT
4. Jardine C&C
5. F&N
6. CapitaMall Trust
7. Raffles Education Corp
8. SembCorp Marine
9. Bukit Sembawang Estates
10. KepLand
11. Parkway Holdings
12. CapitaLand
13. Low Keng Huat
14. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
15. ComfortDelgro
16. K-REIT Asia
17. Pacific Andes
18. Hong Leong Finance
19. CDL H-Trust
20. Ascendas India Trust
21. Wheelock Properties
22. Transpac Industrial Holdings
23. Cosco Corp
24. PSL Holdings
25. CapitaCommercial Trust
26. OCBC Bank
27. WBL Corp
28. Keppel Corp
29. Ho Bee Investment
30. Rotary Engineering

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited

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

An Engineer's Mind For Investing

2010-01-06T22:18:00.000-08:00

A lot of people asked me why I am investing in the stock market. After all, I am an Engineer by training and my day job had nothing whatsoever to do with finance and investing, let alone the stock market. Furthermore, I do not have any academic qualifications related to business, economics, finance, accounting or investment. They said that without any background in finance, economics or accounting, I will not be successful in my investment. They claimed that it is better for me to outsource my investment to finance industry experts out there.

Well, I do not agree with most people out there. There are many things in Engineering that can be applied in investment and finance. In fact, many theories in finance actually came out from Science and Engineering. There is not much difference in analyzing companies, Electric Circuits and Computer programs, just that you need some basic Accounting knowledge as a base. After that, most of the stuff is really based on how you can understand and make your own personal judgement. All these logical analysis skills are actually taught in schools. It is a matter of whether you can apply it in practical case studies or not and one's field of study is actually training for your working life. But there is no rule to say that you cannot apply it in other areas as well.

There is no one golden rule to follow in investments. Similarly, there is no one rule to analyze a circuit or debug a computer program. Yes, you need to know the available options, but you do not need to understand each and every one in detail. You just need to know when and how to apply those rules in each circumstances given one's limitations like time, experience etc. Unless one is writing a thesis on the subject, there is no need to go into great details in these rules.

I have embarked on this investment journey. And I am glad to say that it is my Engineer's mind that actually contribute much to my investment portfolio, rather than my limited finance, economics and accounting knowledge.

The Year Ahead - Review/Reflections for 2009 and Investment Strategy for 2010

2009-12-31T20:19:00.000-08:00

I remember I wrote this same reflections and strategy piece at around the same time during last year with a heavy heart. During that time, many critics appeared in the "comments" section of this blog, questioning my investment strategy and approach. However, I stand firm on my investment approach and I can say that I had came out of this recent financial crisis in one piece. You might not be able to see it, but having gone through various crisis since I started my investment journey, I can certainly relate back and learn from every lesson.

2009 had been a great year for equity investors. There is no doubt about it. Staying almost 100% invested throughout the year meant that my portfolio had participated in full the market upside since March 2009. I have not made a single sell trade in my portfolio throughout 2009 except for some rights entitlements. Basically, I hold my portfolio dear to ride out 2009 and also added more funds into it via subscription of rights issues, scrip dividend scheme, warrant conversions and direct purchases from the market using dividend payouts, proceeds from M&A activities and of course income from my corporate life.

What will be my strategy for 2010? No change, I am afraid. I am not one person who likes to change often. This also relates back to my personal life as well. I am not comfortable making big changes and I normally like to stick around with a plan if it continues to work. 2010 will still be a year whereby I continue with my diversification and Buy/Hold strategy. However, there will be some minor changes with respect to the stocks that I will bring in or add into my portfolio. I will be using more value investing approach in 2010 as I suspect this year will be a stock picking market. Not all stocks will perform well in 2010 and it might be a year whereby stock picking skill counts. With that in mind, I will try to overweight those stocks which I think are undervalued and has potential to do well in 2010.

I shall end this post by wishing all readers a Happy, Healthy and Wealthy 2010!

The UIS Story - Closed-End Fund vs Open-End Fund

2009-12-30T22:28:00.000-08:00

The EGM held by UIS yesterday had set me thinking about Closed-End Fund vs Open-End Fund. I mean, most investors are familar with open-end funds as there are many out there like most unit trusts. Basically the difference between the two is that closed-ended funds are not available for creation/cancellation of units/shares after IPO. Effectively, the fund is "closed" after listing and shareholders will have to sell their shares in the market after listing if they wish to liquidate their holdings. They cannot go to the fund manager and redeem their units. Similarly, the fund manager of a closed-ended fund is not likely to issue new units for subscription for interested unit holders after IPO.

So what is the advantage of a closed-ended fund like UIS over open-ended fund ones like most unit trusts/ETFs?

1. Fund manager do not have to worry about subscription and redemption of units/shares. This basically saves them the headache of managing fund inflows and outflows due to investors' actions. They can avoid selling assets during market downturn in order to meet redemptions from panic sellers. They can also avoid huge cash inflows during market bull runs and having being "forced" to invest in a heated market or hold too much cash due to no investment ideas.

2. Fund manager will have to increase the asset in the fund via his stock picking and investment skills and not via attracting new investors into the fund. The skill of the fund manager thus become an important factor in growing the fund, rather than by cash inflow from new investors.

Of course, the main problem of closed-end fund is that it seldom trade near its NAV. It usually trades at a premium or discount from its NAV, and in UIS case a discount of around 15% to 25% most of the time. Another problem is its liquidity might be an issue for someone who wants to buy/sell quite a substantial amount of its shares.

All in, it is hard to say which structure is better. If I am looking for a fund to invest, I will have to see its cost structure and how much value the fund manager is giving me. Buying something at a discount from NAV might be a good deal for me and not a good one for the seller. However, if the fund manager is a good one, its NAV and share price should increase progressively throughout the years even if the share price is consistently trading at a discount.

As to how to narrow the discount to NAV for UIS, various suggestions had been tabled but in my own view, none is better than seeing an increasing NAV plus decent dividend payout throughout the holding period for a long term investor like me.

My Investment Portfolio (December 2009)

2009-12-30T01:35:00.000-08:00

This is my last portfolio review of the year. As tomorrow is a half-day trading, I shall do my review one day earlier. This month, the market generally moved up and there had been a few changes in my top 30 holdings.

TIH (i.e. Transpac Industrial Holdings) is in my top 30 list for the first time due to the fact that I exercised their warrants early before expiry and converted them to shares, in order to be entitled to the interim dividend that had been declared. SP AusNet is also back in the list as I continued to participate in their scrip dividend scheme. I have also participated in the following rights issues this month - AIMS-AMP Capital Industrial Reit (formerly known as MI-REIT), Pteris Global and OKP.

As the market had ran up quite a lot, I have added onto my existing defensive counters with the proceeds from TIH interim dividend to reduce my portfolio risk. These are mostly mid cap value stocks purchased from the unit share and board lot markets. Names that I had added this month include K1 Ventures Limited, Noel Gifts, IFS Capital, UIS, UOI, Great Eastern Holdings and Singapore Land.

I have continued participating in Olam's scrip dividend scheme and converted my St James company warrants to shares before expiry. I have also accepted the delisting offer for my Iconic Holdings shares.

Next month, there will be a few rights issues to look out for but mainly small ones. Therefore, my strategy will still be defensive and invest prudently into the market with my spare cash.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 December 2009)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. A-REIT
4. Jardine C&C
5. Hersing
6. CapitaMall Trust
7. F&N
8. SembCorp Marine
9. Bukit Sembawang Estates
10. Raffles Education Corp
11. KepLand
12. Parkway Holdings
13. CapitaLand
14. K-REIT Asia
15. ComfortDelgro
16. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
17. Hong Leong Finance
18. Wheelock Properties
19. CapitaCommercial Trust
20. OCBC Bank
21. Transpac Industrial Holdings
22. Ascendas India Trust
23. CDL H-Trust
24. Pacific Andes
25. Cosco Corp
26. Rotary Engineering
27. Ho Bee Investment
28. Mermaid Maritime
29. WBL Corp
30. SP AusNet

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited

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

Furama Ltd and Jurong Cement Ltd - Value Investing Examples

2009-12-20T19:09:00.000-08:00

The recent two voluntary unconditional cash offers for two low profile companies in my portfolio - namely Furama Ltd and Jurong Cement Ltd sets me thinking for a while. Both offers quite a huge premium over their last traded price - i.e. 36.99% for Furama Ltd and 64.1% for Jurong Cement Ltd respectively.

What does this mean? It means that there are still undervalued stocks in the market to be picked. The key is to spot them before controlling shareholders decided to take them private. Which industry to look at then? Well, Furama Ltd is in the hotel industry while Jurong Cement Ltd deals with cement and ready mixed concrete. What stocks to look at? Both Furama Ltd and Jurong Cement Ltd are neither big or mid cap stocks. They are thinly traded and both have low liquidity. Both are loss making year to date. Both did not paid any dividends this year. Both are not covered by any stock analyst out there.

Well, the above are certainly not reasons to pick a stock in any books out there that you read. I mean, buying a stock that is loss making and pay no dividends this year? Buying a stock with low liquidity? But both exihibits characteristics that you might wish to consider - trading below NAV before the offer was made.

The above shows that buying these stocks paid off, provided one is willing to hold them for long term. Value will eventually be found when time is ripe. In both cases, value had been rewarded when controlling shareholders said that enough is enough and decided to call it a day.

If you ask me, both companies are good case studies for value investing at our very our own SGX. One can pick up their annual reports and have a read. Better learning experience than any other investment books out there.

How to Start Investing?

2009-12-13T19:25:00.000-08:00

Dear readers,

I received a few PMs lately on how to start investing and I thought it might be good to share some of my views with all of you out there.

Frankly speaking, I have not commented much on Technical Analysis (TA) strategies since I am a Fundamental Analysis (FA) investor. So, I shall answer this question with a FA perspective.

I started with unit trust investing and therefore I encourage beginners with no prior experience in investment to start with unit trusts. It is not that unit trusts are superior investment product than others out there. It is just that it is quite simple product to understand and more easy for a novice to start building his/her portfolio. One can also start a simple regular saving plan (RSP) with unit trusts by contributing small amount of money every month and buying into his portfolio of funds. It is a disciplined way of staying invested throughout market cycles, without worrying about daily market movements and taking advantage of dollar cost averaging.

As one gets more experienced in investing, he might wish to venture out and beyond unit trusts to ETFs, stocks, bonds etc. Stock investment is not so easy as one would need a bit of business sense, accounting knowledge and ability to interpret numbers. It would need some homework in reading and understanding annual reports, looking at industry prospects, value companies and risk management when building a portfolio of stocks.

All said, the investment journey is not an easy one. There will be ups and downs. Not everyday will be a sunny day. But if one come prepared with a plan in mind to win wars rather than small battles, one will be successful in his/her investment in the long run. Trust me, I have my fair share of misses in investment but as long as I learn something from my mistakes and try not to repeat it the next time, I think I have benefited from it.

Investment is not only about return. Try to focus on the process instead. With the right attitude, right implementation and right execution, the return will come automatically.

Wishing all of you readers out there all the best in your investment journey!

Company Warrants Expiring in 2009 - Actions Needed

2009-12-03T22:20:00.000-08:00

I need to remind myself all the outstanding company warrants that are expiring in 2009 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.

ELITE KSBW090109, Expiry Date: 9 Jan 2009, Exercise price = $0.05, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
S'PURA F W090301, Expiry Date: 1 Mar 2009, Exercise price = $1, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
FRTLINKS W090303, Expiry Date: 3 Mar 2009, Exercise price = $0.05, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants expired worthless.
TEE W090409, Expiry Date: 11 Apr 2009, Exercise price = $0.13, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
LEEDEN W090417, Expiry Date: 17 Apr 2009, Exercise price = $0.25, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
HOE LEONGW090530, Expiry Date: 30 May 2009,Exercise price = $0.16, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants expired worthless.
DAYEN W090703, Expiry Date: 3 July 2009,Exercise price = $0.18, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants expired worthless.
GOODPACK W090716, Expiry Date: 16 July 2009, Exercise price = $1.38, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants expired worthless.
ENGKONG W091113, Expiry Date: 13 Nov 2009, Exercise price = $0.05, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.
SHANGTUR W091120, Expiry Date: 20 Nov 2009, Exercise price = $0.32, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants expired worthless.
ST JAMES W091224, Expiry Date: 24 Dec 2009, Exercise price = $0.075, Conversion ratio 1:1 - Warrants exercised and converted to shares.

My Investment Portfolio (November 2009)

2009-11-30T01:47:00.000-08:00

We are coming near the end of the year, and it will be time to take stock again and reflect on 2009 and of course, plan for the coming year. The Dubai World credit incident had reminded us to be prudent when investing, as there is always risk out there that might upset one's plan. However, as I have said a few times before in this blog, having a plan and following through your plan is important in investing. Try not to speculate. Rather, have a long term investment plan in hand and ignore short term market noises.

This month, my portfolio had been positioned defensively as markets had ran up quite a bit since March. I have received quite a decent sum of dividends near the end of the month, courtesy of some REITs in my portfolio. Those dividends had been re-invested back into the market, mostly via rights issues.

I have participated in the following rights issues this month - Aztech, Centillion, Goodpack, Hai Leck, K-REIT Asia, Linair, Mermaid Maritime and Plato Capital. I have also attended MI-REIT EGM this month. It was indeed a good experience for me as this EGM was well covered by the media.

I have also accepted the offer from CPT International Limited for my China Precision Technology shares. The proceeds from this offer had been used to add onto my existing two holdings - i.e. Lee Kim Tah and PNE Industries. As for my top 30 holdings, there is no significant changes but K-REIT Asia is in the list this month due to my participation in its rights issue.

Next month, I will reserve some funds for early warrant conversion for my Transpac Industrial Holdings (i.e. TIH) warrants, as explained in my earlier post. I will also participate in some rights issues, with the MI-REIT rights issue being the main one.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 November 2009)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. A-REIT
4. Jardine C&C
5. CapitaMall Trust
6. Raffles Education Corp
7. F&N
8. SembCorp Marine
9. Bukit Sembawang Estates
10. Hersing
11. KepLand
12. CapitaLand
13. Parkway Holdings
14. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
15. ComfortDelgro
16. K-REIT Asia
17. CapitaCommercial Trust
18. OCBC Bank
19. Ascendas India Trust
20. Hong Leong Finance
21. Wheelock Properties
22. Rotary Engineering
23. Pacific Andes
24. CDL H-Trust
25. Keppel Corp
26. Cosco Corp
27. WBL Corp
28. Low Keng Huat
29. VICOM
30. SingTel

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited

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

Transpac Industrial Holdings Warrants

2009-11-15T22:25:00.000-08:00

Normally, I don't exercise company warrants way before expiry date since it makes no sense to do so, as one would be losing the time value (if any) of the warrant and also locking in the money into a stock when there might be better investment opportunities. Since company warrants (American style ones) allows one to have the option to buy the underlying share at exercise price on or before expiry, one can hold onto it while still be able to participate in the company's share price appreciation.

But Transpac Industrial Holdings (i.e. TIH) warrants gives me something to think about. The company had declared a interim dividend of 40cts per share, which means I will lose out on this big dividend payout if I don't exercise those TIH warrants that I am currently holding in my portfolio. There had been no news from the company about adjusting the warrant exercise price to reflect the big dividend payout, therefore I assume that there will be no change in the warrant exercise price or warrant conversion ratio.

Such a big dividend payout meant that by exercising the warrants, I am paying $1 per share and getting back 40cts per share within a month.

With the above thoughts in mind, I have decided to exercise my TIH warrants way before expiry and convert them to shares before ex-dividend date.

Creative Technology AGM - 29 Oct 2009

2009-11-01T22:24:00.000-08:00

The AGM was not very well-attended as there were a lot of empty seats in the auditorium. Considering the company having nearly 14,000 shareholders in the list (Based on the latest annual report), it was indeed a very poor turnout.

The focus of the AGM was on the Zii platform and how much the company is going to burn cash in supporting this new product line. Questions had been asked when the company can break-even and how they are going to execute their strategy going forward. Mr Sim gladly took most of the questions and explained in detail his strategy for Zii going forward. He also recalled the difficulty when he started to market Sound Blaster years back but succeeded in convincing the US market and became the authority for PC sound. He sounds confident that he can duplicate the success this time with Zii in China.

As for the question for the fear of the chip being copied, Mr Sim assured shareholders that the Zii chip will not be able to be duplicated by other manufacturers. Meanwhile, to sustain Zii, he is diverting the cash flow from the other businesses into it.

Shareholders are obviously concerned about the burn rate with one citing $10 Million burn-rate per quarter, but with US$250 Million cash in the balance sheet and bascially debt-free, Mr Sim was confident that he can make it through this time round. He also expect Zii to start contributing to the bottom-line in two years time. He said that Zii is not only a chip, it comes with a SDK (Software Development Kit), OS (Operating System) etc. Developers can choose to customize their own applications by using the SDK provided. Zii also support Android, a great news for Google fans.

The future of Creative is certainly with Zii. With cash from selling their headquarters building (Creative Resource) and from their other businesses, it remains to be seen how long the company can sustain with Zii yet to be profitable. Shareholders like me will be hoping Mr Sim can pull out the rabbit out of the hat from Zii this time round.

My Investment Portfolio (October 2009)

2009-10-31T22:45:00.000-07:00

Nothing much is happening in the market this month, as it started to pull back a bit after an amazing run since March this year. As I've said in my previous monthly portfolio post, I have positioned my portfolio more defensively since last month. Therefore, there had not been much aggressive buying from me in the market, especially in the small cap space. My strategy for the remaining two months of this year will still be defensive - i.e. Entering via rights issue and buying blue chips and value stocks on weakness.

I have participated in a few rights issues this month - i.e. Fortune REIT, Genting Singapore, Indiabulls, See Hup Seng warrants and Wee Hur warrants.

I have also accepted the takeover offer for my Sihuan Pharmaceutical shares. The proceeds had been re-invested into some of the above rights issues. I have also participated in the scrip dividend scheme for Jardine Strategic, OCBC and United Overseas Australia shares. Finally, I have exercised my Eng Kong company warrants and converted them into shares.

I have also attended two AGMs this month - HMI and Creative Technology. Will pen some of my thoughts on these two companies after attending their AGMs.

Next month, there will be some more rights issues to subscribe to, the big ones being K-REIT and Mermaid Maritime. Again, I will possibly reserve most of my funds for rights issues, so there would be minimum purchase from the market.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 October 2009)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. Raffles Education Corp
4. A-REIT
5. Jardine C&C
6. SembCorp Marine
7. F&N
8. Bukit Sembawang Estates
9. CapitaMall Trust
10. CapitaLand
11. KepLand
12. Parkway Holdings
13. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
14. ComfortDelgro
15. Ascendas India Trust
16. Hong Leong Finance
17. CapitaCommercial Trust
18. Wheelock Properties
19. Rotary Engineering
20. CDL H-Trust
21. Cosco Corp
22. OCBC Bank
23. Keppel Corp
24. Low Keng Huat
25. Pacific Andes
26. SP AusNet
27. WBL Corp
28. Tiong Woon Corporation
29. VICOM
30. Ho Bee Investment

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited

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

My Investment Portfolio (September 2009)

2009-09-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

There is not much changes in my top 30 holdings list this month, probably due to the fact that markets had been less volatile lately after a sharp run-up since March. Value is now a little difficult to find, but there are still some good stocks to pick. Going forward, I will position my portfolio more defensively and also try to enter the market via rights issues so as to give myself a margin of safety to play with.

I have participated in a few rights issues this month - Rowsley, MAP Tech, GMGGL, Global Yellow Pages, Federal, China Sports and CitySpring Infrastructure Trust. Again, rights issues provided me a good chance to enter into these stocks at a discounted price from the market. This strategy is especially useful if the market is not undervalued.

I have also accepted the delisting offer from Keppel Land for my Evergro Properties shares. I have elected to receive the proceeds in Keppel Land shares so as to participate in any upside potential of Evergro Properties, though in a smaller exposure. This also saves me the headache of having to decide where to re-invest those proceeds back into the market.

Next month, there will be some more rights issues to subscribe to, the big ones being Fortune REIT and Genting Singapore. Again, I will possibly reserve most of my funds for rights issues, so there would be minimum purchase from the market.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 September 2009)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. Raffles Education Corp
4. A-REIT
5. CapitaMall Trust
6. Jardine C&C
7. Bukit Sembawang Estates
8. F&N
9. SembCorp Marine
10. CapitaLand
11. ComfortDelgro
12. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
13. Parkway Holdings
14. KepLand
15. Rotary Engineering
16. Tiong Woon Corporation
17. Cosco Corp
18. Hong Leong Finance
19. Wheelock Properties
20. Ascendas India Trust
21. CapitaCommercial Trust
22. Low Keng Huat
23. Pacific Andes
24. OCBC Bank
25. Keppel Corp
26. WBL Corp
27. CDL H-Trust
28. SP AusNet
29. SingTel
30. Ho Bee Investment

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AustLand PG
2. AV Jennings

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited

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

Where is the Value?

2009-08-31T21:50:00.000-07:00

A friend had commented recently to me that STI had moved up too fast during this short period of time and therefore, he decided to get out of the market as blue chips are now fully valued. According to him, he does not wish to consider mid/small cap stocks as they are risky.

I did try to change his way of thinking but he decided not to heed my advice.

The above is just one extreme. The other extreme is a group of punters who buy/sell small/mid cap stocks everyday for price movements.

I do not wish to be in any of the above two groups of extreme investors.

Of course, I agreed with my friend that STI is not undervalued anymore. The easy money had already been made. But that doesn't mean that one should not buy any more stocks. The value is now in the mid/small cap segment of the market, and that is where I had been adding recently.

As a value investor, your scope of knowledge in the market should not be restricted to only big cap stocks. You should have a wide range of companies under your radar, which also include many small/mid cap names. Companies in the small/mid cap segment are not necessary risky stocks, it really depends on your margin of safety when you purchased it and also using the diversification strategy to reduce single company risk at any one time.

Make no mistake. The value is now in the small/mid cap segment of the market. Pick the correct stocks and you should be rewarded if you are patient enough for Mr Market to re-rate them. Meanwhile, you will be rewarded with dividend from your holdings.

My Investment Portfolio (August 2009)

2009-08-31T02:25:00.000-07:00

STI ended the month on a weak note, but still managed to remain around 2600 points. The highlight of the month is definitely the recovery in mid and small cap segment of the market, as big caps appeared fairly valued at this moment.

There is a new name in my top 30 portfolio list this month - CDL H-Trust. Among the REITs, this trust is one of those with low gearing and a strong portfolio of hotels. It should benefit if the economy continues to recover. Tiong Woon Corporation and VICOM returned to my top 30 list this month mainly due to share price recovery.

I have particpated in a few rights issues this month, including Dayen Enviornmental, Frasers Commercial Trust, LifeBrandz, PSL Holdings and StarHill Global REIT. I have also accepted the delisting offer for Man Wah Holdings and the takeover offer from PetroChina for SPC. I have also bought a few small cap names this month, as the market begins to re-rate all these companies.

Next month, I will continue to participate in rights issues. The big one include CitySpring Infrastructure Trust. Therefore, I shall reserve some fund for these upcoming rights issues. Also, I shall seek to buy more attractive value stocks in the mid/small cap segment of the market as opportunities present themselves.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 August 2009)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. SGX
2. Noble Group
3. Raffles Education Corp
4. Jardine C&C
5. A-REIT
6. CapitaMall Trust
7. F&N
8. SembCorp Marine
9. Bukit Sembawang Estates
10. CapitaLand
11. Rotary Engineering
12. ComfortDelgro
13. Parkway Holdings
14. KepLand
15. Hong Leong Finance
16. Cosco Corp
17. Wheelock Properties
18. Pacific Andes
19. Low Keng Huat
20. Ascendas India Trust
21. OCBC Bank
22. CDL H-Trust
23. Keppel Corp
24. Kingsmen Creatives
25. CapitaCommercial Trust
26. Tiong Woon Corporation
27. SingTel
28. WBL Corp
29. KS Energy
30. VICOM

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AustLand PG
2. AV Jennings

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited

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

My Investment Portfolio (July 2009)

2009-07-31T03:14:00.000-07:00

STI closes above 2650 points at the end of this month. Some investors had been saying about STI hitting new lows a few months back and now some are coming out to say that a "bubble" might be happening in the market. As a long term investor, I will continue to ignore all these noises and concentrate on building my portfolio instead.

I have subscribed to a few rights issues this month - namely NOL, Pacific Andes, Europtronic, Golden Agriculture, Berlian Laju and KS Energy. Other than that, I also bought some small cap names from the market as blue chip stocks seem to be fairly valued to me at this moment.

As for my top 30 holdings portfolio changes, Rotary Engineering had a great run this month which means a place in my top 30 for the first time. Their ability to secure contract in the Middle East certainly impresses investors. Kingsmen Creatives also appeared in my top 30 list for the first time. I like their good cash flow and exposure to big MICE events.

Next month, it will be more rights issues for me. The big ones include StarHill Global REIT, Frasers Commercial Trust and Global Yellow Pages. As usual, I will reserve some cash for these rights issues which means I might not be able to purchase much from the market.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 July 2009)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. SGX
2. Raffles Education Corp
3. Noble Group
4. F&N
5. Jardine C&C
6. A-REIT
7. CapitaMall Trust
8. SembCorp Marine
9. Bukit Sembawang Estates
10. CapitaLand
11. Hersing
12. Parkway Holdings
13. SPC
14. ComfortDelgro
15. KepLand
16. Cosco Corp
17. Hong Leong Finance
18. Wheelock Properties
19. Pacific Andes
20. Ascendas India Trust
21. Rotary Engineering
22. Keppel Corp
23. OCBC Bank
24. SingTel
25. KS Energy
26. CapitaCommercial Trust
27. Kingsmen Creatives
28. Straits Trading
29. Low Keng Huat
30. WBL Corp

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AustLand PG
2. AV Jennings

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited

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

My Last CK Tang Annual Report

2009-07-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,

Be warned. This is an emotional post.

I have received my CK Tang annual report yesterday for financial year ending 31 March 2009. Happy to receive the report as I am a shareholder of CK Tang for more than 6 years. Sad to receive the report as I am going to part with my shares due to their delisting plan from SGX.

It is indeed an emotional ride with CK Tang for minority shareholders like me for the past few years. Two previous attempts to delist and privatise the company had not been successful, and this latest attempt should succeed since the free float of the shares is now at around 12% only. Having said that, it is a pity that the value investor in me which urges me to hold on and wait for the value of their Orchard Road property to be realized (which they do not wish to sell), while the growth investor in me urges me to take their delisting offer and re-invest into other better opportunities. In fact, with the upcoming StarHill Global REIT (which also holds Orchard Road properties) rights issue, I am tempted to re-invest into it.

After delisting, it would not be easy for me to sell my CK Tang shares if I wanted to. Also, the value in the stock might not be realized forever if they do not wish to sell their properties. There is also an opportunity cost to stay invested in a stock that pays little or no dividends throughout the years.

A value investor at heart, I am sad to make a decision but I would like to say so long to CK Tang!

My Investment Portfolio (June 2009)

2009-06-30T02:21:00.000-07:00

The market is directionless this month and therefore there is not much to comment about. As for my portfolio, I have been subscribing to rights issues and therefore I have not added much from the open market.

Having said that, I did add onto my holdings in SingPost this month on price weakness. Therefore, it had appeared in my top 30 holdings list for the first time. SingPost is a cash generating business with good dividend yield. I am looking forward to collect their final dividend next month.

SP AusNet also appeared in my top 30 holdings for the first time as I have subscribed to its rights issue. Its retail tranche is surprisingly under-subscribed and therefore I got all my excess rights application filled. I have also continued my participation in their scrip dividend scheme.

Olam International is in my top 30 holdings this month mainly due to share price movement. I have not added onto Olam since my participation in their last rights issue on valuation ground.

Next month, I will be participating in a few rights issues, with NOL and Pacific Andes being the main ones. As usual, I will set aside some funds for these rights issues. Also, I will re-invest the dividends collected from my portfolio and my GST Credits into some good potential small cap stocks.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 June 2009)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. SGX
2. Raffles Education Corp
3. Noble Group
4. A-REIT
5. Jardine C&C
6. CapitaMall Trust
7. SembCorp Marine
8. CapitaLand
9. Bukit Sembawang Estates
10. Hersing
11. SPC
12. Cosco Corp
13. Hong Leong Finance
14. ComfortDelgro
15. Parkway Holdings
16. KepLand
17. Wheelock Properties
18. OCBC Bank
19. SingTel
20. Ascendas India Trust
21. Keppel Corp
22. KS Energy
23. Straits Trading
24. WBL Corp
25. SP AusNet
26. Olam International
27. VICOM
28. SingPost
29. Low Keng Huat
30. MTQ Corp

PS: F&N is halted today and therefore there is no transacted price

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AustLand PG

PS: There is no trade done today for AV Jennings

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited

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

Giving Back to My Alumni

2009-06-15T01:08:00.000-07:00

One of the things I would like to do in future is to set up an endowment fund for the needy to pursue tertiary education. I am still not there yet, but I would do my part by increasing my contribution to NTU Annual Giving this year.

I am glad that my investment returns had been able to give me this kind of option which otherwise will not be available to me if I only stick to the pay of my miserable day job. Being a bursary fund holder for each of my three years in NTU, I can certainly relate to those undergraduates who came from low income families and struggle with increasing tuition fees and living expenses every year.

Investment is not only about returns, but also being able to make an impact in other people's life. I am glad that I am able to do so by investing prudently and living a simple life.
http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/DO
http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/DO/download/CampaignForAccessibilityToHigherEducation.pdf

While you are working hard for the next pay/promotion or busy with enjoying the "finer" things in life, do remember to take a step back and help those who are in need.

What meaningful stuff you have done (or planning to do) with your investment returns? Maybe you would like to share with ghchua under the comments section of this blog.

My Investment Portfolio (May 2009)

2009-05-30T01:40:00.000-07:00

STI closes above 2300 points during the last trading day of this month, with the economy still haven't showing good signs of sustainable recovery. Already, we have seen stocks rebounding strongly from their all-time lows, with some even gaining more than 100% from the bottom. Which is why staying invested throughout market cycles and consistently re-investing back into the market with spare cash every month regardless of short term market movements paid off in the long run. This is because one do not want to miss out on opportunity cost of not staying invested. Just have a plan, stick through it, diversify your portfolio and buy with a good margin of safety.

This month had been a dividend month as I have received dividends from a lot of my companies in my portfolio with financial year ending December 2008. Those dividends had been re-invested back into the market via rights issue, purchases from the market and also scrip dividend scheme. I have subscribed to Transpac Industrial Holdings, Saizen REIT and Serial Systems rights issues this month. I have also reserved some funds for the upcoming WBL Corp, KepLand, SP Ausnet and CapitaCommercial Trust rights issues. For purchases from the market, I have mostly added onto my current holdings. The changes in my top 30 holdings this month are mainly due to market price movements, with SPC among the big gainers due to the takeover announcement from PetroChina.

Looking forward, with stocks having rallied above lows, stock picks will become more critical. I will utilize more value investment technique rather than growth to pick stocks. Value can now found in the mid/small cap segment of the market, and patience is needed to buy them at decent valuation.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 May 2009)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. SGX
2. Raffles Education Corp
3. Noble Group
4. F&N
5. A-REIT
6. SembCorp Marine
7. CapitaMall Trust
8. CapitaLand
9. Jardine C&C
10. Bukit Sembawang Estates
11. Hersing
12. SPC
13. Cosco Corp
14. ComfortDelgro
15. Hong Leong Finance
16. Wheelock Properties
17. OCBC Bank
18. Parkway Holdings
19. KS Energy
20. Keppel Corp
21. Ascendas India Trust
22. SingTel
23. Straits Trading
24. Low Keng Huat
25. Jaya Holdings
26. WBL Corp
27. Pacific Andes Holdings
28. VICOM
29. City Developments
30. UOL

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited

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

My Investment Portfolio (April 2009)

2009-04-30T03:59:00.000-07:00

STI had a good run today to close the month at above 1900 points. Again, we have the usual concerns this month about unemployment rate, economy, credit default and now the latest - swine flu. It looks like I am becoming a "broken recorder" every month but I wish to repeat again - Stay invested for long term and ignore short term noises. Have a diversified portfolio and buy with a margin of safety.

For this month, I have participated in Craft Print, Global Voice, Mirach Energy and Sing Holdings rights issues. These are stocks which are not in my top holdings but nevertheless, they form part of my diversified portfolio. I have also converted my Leeden warrants to shares and purchased some good potential mid/small cap stocks this month.

For M&A activities, I have accepted the delisting offer for my AGVA shares as shareholders have approved the delisting resolution.

Next month, I will have quite a bit of cash to invest due to the dividend payouts from companies having financial year ending 31 December 2008. I will subscribe to Transpac Industrial Holdings, WBL and Keppel Land rights issues. These are big ones and I will reserve some cash for them. I will also be looking to re-invest those dividends collected back into my portfolio.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 April 2009)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. SGX
2. Raffles Education Corp
3. Noble Group
4. A-REIT
5. CapitaMall Trust
6. F&N
7. Jardine C&C
8. SembCorp Marine
9. ComfortDelgro
10. CapitaLand
11. Bukit Sembawang Estates
12. Cosco Corp
13. Hong Leong Finance
14. OCBC Bank
15. Parkway Holdings
16. ST Engineering
17. Keppel Corp
18. SingTel
19. WBL Corp
20. SPC
21. Wheelock Properties
22. Ascendas India Trust
23. VICOM
24. Straits Trading
25. SBS Transit
26. SMRT
27. Isetan
28. Cerebos Pacific
29. Low Keng Huat
30. KS Energy

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited

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

My Investment Portfolio (March 2009)

2009-03-31T02:37:00.000-07:00

This month had been another volatile month as investors couldn't make up their mind whether the economy had seen the worst or there is further downside. As usual, as a long term investor, I ignore all these noises in the market and continue to hold onto my stocks and build my investment portfolio.

During this month, I have invested my funds into a few small caps and also added more funds into stockbroker UOB Kay Hian. I have also converted my Tee International warrants to shares and subscribed to CapitaLand, CapitaMall Trust, OSIM International, KSH Holdings and Bukit Sembawang Estates rights issues.

I have accepted the takeover offer by SATS for Singapore Food Industries (i.e. SFI). The proceeds from SFI had been re-invested into a few rights issues as mentioned above. I have also accepted the exit offer for unlisted JK Tech Investment in exchange for St James shares and warrants.

S-chip stocks got sold down badly this month as there are bad news all around with corporate scandals, account receiveables/working capital problems etc hitting a few listed S-chips. I remain underweight in S-chips in my portfolio as these high risk stocks are not for the faint-hearted.

After being my top holding for quite sometime, Raffles Education finally failed to hold onto its first position in my portfolio after being sold down this month due to its exposure to troubled S-chip Oriental Century.

Going forward, I will continue to invest prudently, but with limited cash since there will not be much dividend payout to look forward to in April.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 March 2009)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. SGX
2. Raffles Education Corp
3. Noble Group
4. A-REIT
5. F&N
6. ComfortDelgro
7. Jardine C&C
8. SembCorp Marine
9. CapitaLand
10. WBL Corp
11. Cosco Corp
12. Hong Leong Finance
13. SingTel
14. Parkway Holdings
15. ST Engineering
16. SBS Transit
17. Ascendas India Trust
18. Straits Trading
19. SMRT
20. CapitaMall Trust (Note: As at 31 March 2009, the rights shares had not been credited yet and therefore will not updated in the top holdings list for this month)
21. Keppel Corp
22. Viz Branz
23. OCBC Bank
24. SPC
25. Wheelock Properties
26. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
27. KS Energy
28. MTQ Corp
29. DBS Group Holdings
30. Parkway Life REIT

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

Top 5 Holdings (CPF OA investment)
1. Streettracks STI ETF
2. Keppel Corp
3. CapitaMall Trust (Note: As at 31 March 2009, the rights shares had not been credited yet and therefore will not updated in the top holdings list for this month)
4. A-REIT
5. SingTel

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited

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

My Investment Portfolio (February 2009)

2009-02-28T20:45:00.000-08:00

This month had been another month of volatility, but I have not been buying from the market actively. Part of the reason is because of the rights issues that I have subscribed this month. I have subscribed for A-REIT, Hartawan, HG Metal and Metax rights issues. Of particular concern is the A-REIT preferential rights issue, whereby I hold this counter in my cash and CPF Investment Account. I received the letter from my CPF agent bank quite late and I did not have enough time to response. Therefore, I apply for excess rights shares at the ATM using cash to make up for the "loss" of shares in my CPF Investment Account. That outlay had effectively moved A-REIT a few positions up in my top 30 cash holdings. I have learnt my lesson and will preserve more cash for the upcoming CapitaMall Trust rights issue just in case the same thing happens again.

I have also subscribed to the initial public offer of DBS STI ETF this month.

SATS had secured more than 85% of Singapore Food Industries. Looks like the offer will go through and I will be accepting the offer once it hits 90%.

Going forward, I will preserve some cash for some upcoming rights issues in March. I have received some dividend payouts from REITs and shipping trusts for quarter ending December 2008 in end February 2009. I will also look out for more opportunities to re-invest those dividends back into the market.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 28 February 2009)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Raffles Education Corp
2. SGX
3. A-REIT
4. Noble Group
5. F&N
6. ComfortDelgro
7. SembCorp Marine
8. Jardine C&C
9. Hong Leong Finance
10. Singapore Food Industries
11. Viz Branz
12. SingTel
13. CapitaMall Trust
14. Cosco Corp
15. ST Engineering
16. Straits Trading
17. SMRT
18. Parkway Holdings
19. Ascendas India Trust
20. OCBC Bank
21. Isetan
22. Wheelock Properties
23. SPC
24. Keppel Corp
25. Cerebos Pacific
26. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
27. MTQ Corp
28. KS Energy
29. Singapura Finance
30. Parkway Life REIT

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. JK Tech Investment
2. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
3. Iconic Global Limited
4. Greatronic Limited

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

My Investment Portfolio (January 2009)

2009-01-31T19:54:00.000-08:00

I had been busy with rights issues this month, and therefore there had not been much purchases from the market. I have subscribed for Penguin, Popular, Ellipsiz, Soup Restaurant and DBS rights issues this month. As a result, DBS had appeared in my top 30 holdings list for the first time since this portfolio had been started. I do find value in the banks during the current financial crisis, and I will slowly revert them back from my underweight position to neutral.

I have converted my Elite KSB company warrants into shares, paying an exercise price of 5 cents per share. Also, I have accepted the delisting offer for my Hiap Moh shares. The proceeds will come in next month.

For next month, I will subscribe for A-REIT Preferential share offering. I will also convert my Singapura Finance company warrants into shares. The exercise price is $1 per share. There are also few other rights issues on my table, and I will review them this month and decide how much shares I wish to take up.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 January 2009)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Raffles Education Corp
2. SGX
3. F&N
4. Noble Group
5. Hersing
6. A-REIT
7. ComfortDelgro
8. Straits Trading
9. Jardine C&C
10. SembCorp Marine
11. Hong Leong Finance
12. WBL Corp
13. Singapore Food Industries
14. SingTel
15. CapitaMall Trust
16. Cosco Corp
17. Parkway Holdings
18. Cerebos Pacific
19. ST Engineering
20. OCBC Bank
21. SMRT
22. Ascendas India Trust
23. Isetan
24. Wheelock Properties
25. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
26. KS Energy
27. Food Empire
28. SPC
29. DBS Group Holdings
30. Bukit Sembawang Estates

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

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

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. JK Tech Investment
2. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
3. Iconic Global Limited
4. Greatronic Limited

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

The Year Ahead - Review/Reflections for 2008 and Investment Strategy for 2009

2009-01-02T19:07:00.000-08:00

I have done some review and reflections during the last two weeks of 2008 as I prepare for my investment journey in 2009. Basically, 2008 had been a bad year for investors out there and I do have my fair share of critics as can be seen from some of the postings here in the "comments" section of this blog. However, I believe in long term consistent investment approach and I will not be affected by short term market movements. I believe consistency in investment approach is very important. And an investment approach one adopts must suit his character, time-constraint and experience.

For me, it is very simple long term diversification (i.e. stock and time diversification) approach to investing. I am not trained in finance or accountancy and therefore I do not claim that I am an expert in analyzing companies. So, my apologies if readers felt that I did not do any in-depth analysis on any company in my portfolio. However, readers can still refer to some of those excellent links that I have put out here on the left of my blog for some of those sites/blogs out there with some good analysis on companies.

Though I like some companies more than the others, I still choose to diversify across most companies listed on SGX, with an overweight in some companies which I feel that will do better than the others. But that doesn't mean that I will not buy companies that I do not like, as valuations might be cheap for me to take the plunge. Granted, some companies in my portfolio might fail if I adopt this approach, but the probabilities are higher this way as I won't miss out multi-baggers as well.

So much for the review, so what's next in 2009? Firstly, I won't change my investment approach as stated above. As I am a working professional, I do not have much time to devote to investment as my day job is not related to investment, accountancy or finance. Secondly, no matter how the market does in 2009, I will still follow through my investment plan and stay almost 100% invested at all times. Thirdly, I will try to attend more AGMs to find out more about the companies that I have invested in, especially those in my top holdings. Lastly, I will try to keep some spare cash for more rights issue in 2009, as companies began to raise funds through equity as debt is no longer cheap. But that doesn't mean that I will subscribe to every rights issue as they come along, as I will review each of them on their own merits on a case by case basis.

My Investment Portfolio (December 2008)

2008-12-31T04:47:00.000-08:00

I have done my "Christmas shopping" already this month. The proceeds from the reverse takeover of Eng Wah Organization by Transcu Group came in handy for my shopping spree this month. I have added mostly blue chip stocks in my portfolio this month as I have always been underweighting them in my portfolio due to valuation ground. But with the recent market downturn, it is a good chance for me to buy blue chip stocks cheaply.

OCBC Bank is a new entry in my top 30 list this month, while SingTel and ST Engineering moved up the list as I began to re-balance my portfolio by adding some blue chip names. DBS Bank have also announced a rights issue. I will be subscribing to the rights issue during next month.

I have also accepted the delisting offer from SP Chemical. But the proceeds from the offer will only come in during February, since the delisting offer needs to be approved by shareholders.

Looking ahead, markets might not recover so soon. 2009 will also be a tough year for investors. But armed with an investment plan, patience and consistently investing into the market with spare cash every month, I believe that I will be rewarded in the long run.

I end this post my wishing all my loyal readers a profitable and happy 2009!

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 December 2008)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Raffles Education Corp
2. SGX
3. F&N
4. Noble Group
5. Hersing
6. ComfortDelgro
7. A-REIT
8. SembCorp Marine
9. Cosco Corp
10. Straits Trading
11. Jardine C&C
12. Hong Leong Finance
13. Parkway Holdings
14. CapitaMall Trust
15. Singapore Food Industries
16. SingTel
17. KS Energy
18. SBS Transit
19. ST Engineering
20. SMRT
21. Wheelock Properties
22. CapitaLand
23. OCBC Bank
24. WBL Corp
25. Cerebos Pacific
26. Food Empire
27. Ascendas India Trust
28. Sing Investment and Finance
29. Keppel Corp
30. Bukit Sembawang Estates

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

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

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

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. JK Tech Investment
2. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
3. Iconic Global Limited
4. Greatronic Limited

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

Good Investment Books and Periodicals

2008-12-08T23:19:00.000-08:00

Dear all,

I have encountered occasions when fellow investors asked me what books to read for investment knowledge. Well, I haven't been reading much books lately as I felt that experience in reading annual reports is more useful than just reading books. But for those who wish to get a headstart, below are some of the books that I have recommended last time at http://www.sgfunds.com.

Happy Reading!

My Recommended Books:
1. Personal financial planning / Benedict Koh, Fong Wai Mun. Publisher Singapore : Prentice Hall, 2003. Physical Description xi, 348 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

2. Value investing : a provocative guide : a Singapore perspective / Sebastian Chong. Publisher Singapore : Financial Info Analysis, 2003. Physical Description xii, 226 p. ; 24 cm.

3. Investment management in Singapore / Saw Swee-Hock. Publisher Singapore : Prentice Hall, 2001. Physical Description x, 251 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.

4. Investing in unit trusts in Singapore / [Peter Donglas & Andy Ong]. Publisher Singapore : AFPJ, 2000. Physical Description 227 p ; 21 cm.

5. Insider trading : an insider's guide to intelligent investing / Chris Firth. Publisher Singapore : Prentice Hall, 2002. Physical Description 208 p. : ill. ; 24 cm

6. Sun Tzu on investing : 15 strategies for dynamic investments / Curtis J. Montgomery. Publisher Singapore : J. Wiley, c2003. Physical Description xxi, 278 p. : ill. ; 24 cm

7. Professor Sage investing basics : a solid foundation for stock market investing / Curtis J. Montgomery. Publisher Singapore : WallStraits.com, 2002.

8. How intelligent investors build a perfect portfolio : 8-steps to selecting superior businesses / [Curtis J. Montgomery]. Publisher Singapore :WallStraits.com.

9. Show me the money. Volume 1, Practical readings for investors in Singapore / Teh Hooi Ling, Singapore : Rank Books, 2004, 155 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.

10. Principles of accounting for non-accounting professionals, 3rd Edition/Lee Tat Man. Prentice Hall, 2001. xi, 284 p.

11. Show me the money. Volume 2, Practical readings for investors in Singapore / Teh Hooi Ling, Singapore : Rank Books, 2006, 192 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.

12. Financial services in Singapore/ Tan Chwee Huat, Ridge Books : Singapore University Press, c2004, xii, 256 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.

13. Prof Sage : THE GREAT STOCK ADVENTURE, Curtis J Montgomery, Wallstraits.com

14. Handbook for stock investors / Goh Kheng Chuan ; edited by Manvinder Kaur, Rank Books, 2000, 128 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.

15. Show me the money. Volume 3, Practical readings for investors in Singapore / Teh Hooi Ling, Singapore : Rank Books, 2008, ix, 216 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.

16. Show me the money. Volume 4, Practical readings for investors in Singapore / Teh Hooi Ling, Singapore : Rank Books, 2008, ix, 225 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.

17. Make your money work for you : how to grow your investment dollars / Keon Chee & Ben Fok, Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Business, c2006, 175 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.

My Recommended Periodicals:
1. Pulses Magazine
2. The Edge
3. Shares investment : facts & figures

My Investment Portfolio (November 2008)

2008-11-29T19:55:00.000-08:00

This month had not been as volatile as last month, but nevertheless, stock markets around the world still experienced higher volatility than normal. For my portfolio, two main corporate actions had been undertaken successfully. Datacraft Asia had been taken private successfully and RTO of Eng Wah Organization had been approved. Also, distributions from various REITs and shipping trusts had been welcome to me as I continue to re-invest those distributions back into the market.

New addition in my top 30 holdings this month include MTQ Corp, which I have added a bit lately on price weakness. MTQ is an interesting company which offers Engineering services to the oil and gas industry. It had a long profitable track record, good management and excellent cash flow. A re-entry of Sing Investment and Finance into my top 30 holdings is because of the presence of a last traded price for this thinly traded company. But I still maintain my preference of finance companies over banks as it is much easier to analyze their accounts.

As we are approaching year end, markets seem to have lower volatility as participants might be preparing to go on holidays instead of trading the stock market. Having said that, there is still opportunity to buy some stocks in December if one is patient enough. I will definitely be making some purchases in December and intend to end the year with some "Christmas shopping" in the stock market. :)

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 November 2008)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Raffles Education Corp
2. SGX
3. F&N
4. Hersing
5. Noble Group
6. A-REIT
7. ComfortDelgro
8. Jardine C&C
9. SembCorp Marine
10. Hong Leong Finance
11. CapitaMall Trust
12. Parkway Holdings
13. Straits Trading
14. Singapore Food Industries
15. SBS Transit
16. SMRT
17. Cosco Corp
18. Viz Branz
19. Cerebos Pacific
20. CapitaLand
21. Food Empire
22. SingTel
23. Ascendas India Trust
24. Wheelock Properties
25. MTQ Corp
26. Keppel Corp
27. CitySpring Intrastructure Trust
28. Sing Investment and Finance
29. SPH
30. ST Engineering

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

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

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

Top 5 Holdings (CPF OA investment)
1. STI ETF
2. CapitaMall Trust
3. Keppel Corp
4. A-REIT
5. Eng Wah Organization

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. JK Tech Investment
2. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
3. Iconic Global Limited
4. Greatronic Limited

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

Stock Market vs Control System

2008-11-08T06:56:00.000-08:00

As an Engineer by training, I like to analyze systems, especially Control system. There are some similar characteristics and differences between a typical control system and stock market.

Similarities
1. Both response to inputs to produce an output response. A typical control system will react to changes in input to produce an output response. Similarly, stock markets will react from external factors (i.e. inputs) to produce a response (i.e. market can move up, down or range).

2. Both can be compensated. A typical control system can be compensated if the output is unstable. Similarly, the stock market can be "compensated" with some good news if there are bad news all around which causes markets to drop.

3. Control system can be unstable. Stock markets can also be unstable, as panic selling can causes all methods of analysis (fundamental, technical etc) to be thrown out of window.

4. Control system can reach steady state. Similarly, markets can reach "steady state" if it moves out of its unstable state. Compensation can also help the markets to move out of unstable state.

Differences
1. Control system can be modelled easily but stock markets cannot. Because control system are feedback (i.e. closed loop) or open loop system, it can be modelled. Stock market is an adoptive system but not exactly a closed loop system and therefore it is difficult (if not impossible) to model such a system. Because stock markets are difficult to model, they are not easily "controlled" and therefore hard to do exact compensation to get the desired output. That makes "guessing" short term market movements difficult.

2. Control system can be controlled by using compensator and controllers. One can minimize error in design by having system modelling and deciding on the controllers/compensator used. Stock markets are unpredictable in short term. It is difficult to do exact compensation to get the desired output effect. In fact, it can even make things worse if the wrong compensator is used. Even if the right compensator is used, the stock market might not produce the desired response.

3. If we design a control system with all the requirements and conditions met, systems will still fail due to unforseen circumstances. As for the stock market, there are too many unforseen circumstances which makes hindsight investing the only sure-win "system design".

My Investment Portfolio (October 2008)

2008-10-31T20:25:00.000-07:00

There are some major changes in my top 30 holdings this month, due to the massive volatility experienced in stock markets around the world. As a result, some of my holdings had fallen out from the top 30 list because of the downward movement. However, I believe that markets will recover in time to come as the financial markets need time to heal its wound from this current crisis.

As usual, I have added some holdings into my portfolio this month, especially from the bombed-out oil and gas sector as oil price hits bottom. New entries in my top 30 holdings this month include Singapore Food Industries, Hong Leong Finance, and Viz Branz. I have added into Hong Leong Finance and Viz Branz this month while Singapore Food Industries moved up because major shareholder is reviewing their position in the company. A stake sale might be expected.

Going forward, I will continue to buy stocks on weakness. With REITs and shipping trusts declaring dividends, I should have more funds to re-invest back into the market in the coming month and in December. I will seize this opportunity to buy more stocks on weakness, while holding onto my current portfolio tightly to ride through this crisis.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 October 2008)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Raffles Education Corp
2. SGX
3. Noble Group
4. F&N
5. A-REIT
6. Hersing
7. SembCorp Marine
8. ComfortDelgro
9. Parkway Holdings
10. CapitaMall Trust
11. Hong Leong Finance
12. Jardine C&C
13. Singapore Food Industries
14. Cosco Corp
15. Jaya Holdings
16. SMRT
17. Ascendas India Trust
18. CapitaLand
19. Eng Wah Organization
20. Straits Trading
21. Keppel Corp
22. WBL Corp
23. Viz Branz
24. Food Empire
25. CitySpring Intrastructure Trust
26. SingTel
27. Bukit Sembawang Estates
28. Cerebos Pacific
29. Wheelock Properties
30. SBS Transit

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

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

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

Top 5 Holdings (CPF OA investment)
1. Keppel Corp
2. STI ETF
3. CapitaMall Trust
4. A-REIT
5. Eng Wah Organization

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. JK Tech Investment
2. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
3. Iconic Global Limited
4. Greatronic Limited

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

Follow Through Your Investment Plan

2008-10-09T02:38:00.000-07:00

Today, I encountered a comment from an investor who said that he felt that markets are too volatile currently and he will do dollar cost averaging at a "better time".

Below is the definition of Dollar Cost Averaging:
Dollar cost averaging is a technique designed to reduce market risk through the systematic purchase of securities at predetermined intervals and set amounts.

Obviously, what the investor said above is not dollar cost averaging. He is trying to make purchases depending on market conditions. Which means, if he sets out to do dollar cost averaging initially, he is not following through his plan.

A lot of investors got panic lately and abandon their investment plan due to current market conditions. There is a saying - "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail". I would like to add that if you don't follow through your plan, your plan will fail no matter how good it is.

Stock Markets Are Leading Indicator

2008-10-06T23:18:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,

A lot of people had asked me - Since every other day we heard and read reports that so-and-so bank is failing, why are you still investing in the stock market?

This is because stock markets are leading indicator. Which means, what you are seeing now (like bank failures, credit tightening, slowing economy, recession etc) are the outcome of this crisis. These events are the effect of this crisis, and not leading to this crisis. Bank failures doesn't lead this crisis. Slowing economy doesn't lead this crisis. This crisis started long before that. Therefore, the events that you are reading in the news and papers are in fact lagging indicators.

Since stock markets are leading indicators, one should not be afraid of investing in the markets when there is bad news all around. Because the valuation of the stock market would have reflected all these bad news by now. What we are concerned are signs of recovery, not effect of this crisis. Once there is a sign of recovery, the markets will rally even if the economy might not be in good shape. And if you wait until then, you might have missed the boat.

What should an investor do then? The key is to stay invested at all times and ride out this crisis. Try not to monitor the markets every minute because it is stressful and not productive. Have a diversified portfolio, continue with your investment plan and sleep well at night.

My Investment Portfolio (September 2008)

2008-09-30T02:35:00.000-07:00

Volatility is the name of the game this month. But let's take a step back again and analyze the situation. Is the financial markets around the world already in doomsday? Obviously not. Will there be more bank failures? Possibly yes. How many more to fail? Recession?

There is no point answering all these question. In fact, for a long term investor, the answer is very simple - Buy on weakness. Because markets don't like uncertainty. Which is why the markets is very volatile nowadays because everything is uncertain. But volatility equals opportunities.

A lot of people told me that cash is king in the current market. I would say that cash is king provided that it had been put into good use. I would also like to add that cash flow is king instead. For a long term investor, cash flow from dividend payouts, M&A activities, management buy-outs etc will provided the much needed funds for one to re-invest back into the markets and take advantage of current low market prices. If one's portfolio is well diversified and adopt a long term view, there is no need to panic and sell at all.

I have utilized part of the proceeds from Unisteel Technology delisting to re-invest back into the market this month. Will be making some more purchases in October.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 September 2008)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Raffles Education Corp
2. SGX
3. F&N
4. Noble Group
5. SembCorp Marine
6. A-REIT
7. Jardine C&C
8. Cosco Corp
9. Jaya Holdings
10. ComfortDelgro
11. Parkway Holdings
12. CapitaMall Trust
13. KS Energy
14. Keppel Corp
15. SPC
16. Bukit Sembawang Estates
17. SMRT
18. Food Empire
19. CitySpring Intrastructure Trust
20. Wheelock Properties
21. Eng Wah Organization
22. Straits Trading
23. SingTel
24. VICOM
25. Isetan
26. Cerebos Pacific
27. Ascendas India Trust
28. WBL Corp
29. CapitaLand
30. SembCorp Industries

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

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

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

Top 5 Holdings (CPF OA investment)
1. Keppel Corp
2. CapitaMall Trust
3. STI ETF
4. A-REIT
5. Eng Wah Organization

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. JK Tech Investment
2. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd

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

My Investment Portfolio (August 2008)

2008-08-30T20:08:00.000-07:00

This month had been a month of purchases for me. This is because I have some cash. They are mainly the proceeds from Pokka Corporation (S'pore) Ltd shares after accepting the offer from Pokka Corporation. Although the final offer price is still not very attractive, I am left with no choice because Pokka Corporation had already secured more than 90% of Pokka Corporation (S'pore) Ltd. Also, there is some cash flow from the dividends from my holdings, mainly from REITs and shipping trusts.

I have re-invest the proceeds into companies outside my top 30 shareholding list. This is because they are mainly small/mid cap stocks which had been sold down badly due to the current global credit crisis. I felt that most of them had been "unfairly punished" as they are still generating good operating cash flow and paying dividends. I hope that one day, the market will be able to recognize their value and they will be in my future top 30 shareholdings list.

I have also subscribed to Lee Metal rights issue. As usual, I hope to get some excess rights warrants. :)

For the coming month, I will be subscribing to Metro rights issue. I will also be looking into investing my dividends slowly back into the market to take advantage of further market weakness. I will also be looking for opportunities to re-invest my expected proceeds from Unisteel Technology delisting via scheme of arrangement.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 August 2008)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Raffles Education Corp
2. Noble Group
3. SGX
4. F&N
5. SembCorp Marine
6. Cosco Corp
7. A-REIT
8. Jardine C&C
9. Unisteel Technology
10. Jaya Holdings
11. Parkway Holdings
12. Hersing
13. CapitaMall Trust
14. ComfortDelgro
15. Keppel Corp
16. KS Energy
17. SPC
18. Straits Trading
19. Food Empire
20. Bukit Sembawang Estates
21. CapitaLand
22. Mermaid Maritime
23. Wheelock Properties
24. SembCorp Industries
25. Keppel Land
26. CitySpring Intrastructure Trust
27. Eng Wah Organization
28. K-REIT
29. Cerebos Pacific
30. SingTel

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

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

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

Top 5 Holdings (CPF OA investment)
1. Keppel Corp
2. CapitaMall Trust
3. STI ETF
4. A-REIT
5. Eng Wah Organization

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. JK Tech Investment

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

My Investment Portfolio (July 2008)

2008-08-01T03:13:00.000-07:00

July was another quiet month, with not much for me to write about. Having said that, a few takeover offers were announced. I have accepted the takeover offer for SNP and delisting offer for Transmarco. I am still holding onto my Pokka Corporation (S'pore) Ltd shares despite offeror Pokka Corporation extending the offer deadline and holding around 87% of the shares on last count. I will fight till my last "soldier" to resist the offer. Hope that other minorities will hold out as well to keep Pokka Corporation (S'pore) Ltd listed. The future prospects of Pokka Corporation (S'pore) Ltd is certainly bright and the 66cts offer from Pokka Corporation is a raw deal in my view.

Unisteel Technology is also slated for delisting after shareholders approved the scheme of arrangment.

I have also subscribed for Lorenzo and Hiap Hoe rights issues. Got some excess rights shares as well. :)

For the coming month, I certainly have some cash to invest, having accepted two offers. I will subscribe for MapleTree Logistics rights issue, while the remaining cash will be re-invested back into the market. I will identify some targets to buy into. There is no hurry for me to utilize all the available cash holdings as the market is weak and I can take my time to invest slowly but surely into the market. There are certainly many bargains available to be picked.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 1 August 2008)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Raffles Education Corp
2. Noble Group
3. Cosco Corp
4. SGX
5. SembCorp Marine
6. F&N
7. A-REIT
8. Jaya Holdings
9. Hersing
10. Unisteel Technology
11. Jardine C&C
12. KS Energy
13. CapitaMall Trust
14. Keppel Corp
15. SPC
16. ComfortDelgro
17. Parkway Holdings
18. CapitaLand
19. Straits Trading
20. Bukit Sembawang Estates
21. Food Empire
22. Wheelock Properties
23. Keppel Land
24. K-REIT
25. SembCorp Industries
26. Pacific Andes
27. CitySpring Intrastructure Trust
28. Eng Wah Organization
29. VICOM
30. Cerebos Pacific

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

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

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

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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

My Investment Portfolio (June 2008)

2008-07-01T02:50:00.000-07:00

This month had been a low volume month on SGX. Many of my stocks didn't have any market value because there had simply been no trade on that stock. That explains some changes in my top 30 holdings, as I assigned zero value to a stock with no volume for the day. I choose an easy way out as I know that the more accurate measure would be to take its last done price.

Having said that, some defensive stocks do hold up well during these tough times and that provides a natural hedge for my portfolio against adverse market movements. There is not much dividends received for this month. I participated in Viz Branz, Natural Cool and Asia Tiger rights issues. I have also selectively bought some blue chip stocks on weakness.

Going forward, my strategy is still to buy on weakness. Since there is not much dividends to be received for the next two months, I will have to buy slowly and carefully, since I have limited funds to deploy into the market.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 1 July 2008)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Raffles Education Corp
2. Noble Group
3. Cosco Corp
4. SGX
5. SembCorp Marine
6. F&N
7. Jaya Holdings
8. A-REIT
9. Hersing
10. Unisteel Technology
11. Jardine C&C
12. Parkway Holdings
13. CapitaMall Trust
14. SPC
15. Straits Trading
16. Keppel Corp
17. KS Energy
18. ComfortDelgro
19. Bukit Sembawang Estates
20. CapitaLand
21. Mermaid Maritime
22. Wheelock Properties
23. Food Empire
24. Keppel Land
25. K-REIT
26. Pacific Andes
27. Eng Wah Organization
28. SembCorp Industries
29. CitySpring Intrastructure Trust
30. VICOM

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

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

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

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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

My Investment Portfolio (May 2008)

2008-05-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

It had been a month of dividends. Yes, I have received a series of dividend payouts this month from companies having financial year ending 31 December 2007. AGMs of these companies were held in April this year and their final/special dividend payout had to be approved by shareholders at the AGM. So, most of them paid out their dividends around 2 to 3 weeks after their AGM, which explains why I received so many dividends this month. Furthermore, REITs and shipping trusts also paid out their dividends this month, which added to my capital to re-invest back into the market.

So, I have aggressively purchased many of my short-listed companies this month. Most of them are my minor holdings which didn't move up with the market lately. I seized this opportunity to add onto them so that my portfolio is more diversified and balanced.

Corporate action had been far and few this month. I have rejected LuYe's offer for AsiaPharm and the offer closes with LuYe failing to secure 90% of the outstanding shares out there. They cannot take AsiaPharm private and it will remain listed. I have accepted Raffles Education's offer for Hartford Education after the delisting resolution had been approved.

Going forward, I will re-invest my dividends collected prudently back into the market, spreading my investments throughout the days so as to reduce the risk. Also, I will add more onto those companies outside my top 30 holdings so as to reduce the dependence on my top holdings to generate portfolio returns.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 May 2008)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Raffles Education Corp
2. SGX
3. Cosco Corp
4. Noble Group
5. SembCorp Marine
6. F&N
7. A-REIT
8. Hersing
9. Jaya Holdings
10. CapitaMall Trust
11. Keppel Corp
12. Straits Trading
13. KS Energy
14. Jardine C&C
15. SPC
16. CapitaLand
17. Wheelock Properties
18. ComfortDelgro
19. Unisteel Technology
20. Bukit Sembawang Estates
21. Food Empire
22. WBL Corp
23. Keppel Land
24. Mermaid Maritime
25. Pacific Andes
26. Olam International
27. Tat Hong
28. CapitaCommercial Trust
29. SembCorp Industries
30. K-REIT

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

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

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

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

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

Accepted Vega Company's offer for SingLun Holdings

2008-05-07T20:10:00.000-07:00

I have learnt a lesson last time from the First Engineering offer. That is, once a private equity firm gets interested in your company, it is very difficult to resist the offer. And true to form, Vega's offer for SingLun Holdings hits 90% very quickly. I have unwillingly accepted the offer since Vega do not wish to maintain the listing status of SingLun Holdings.

I am still holding onto my AsiaPharm and Hartford Education shares at the time of writing. Will not be accepting the offer for AsiaPharm since Templeton said that the offer price is too low but will be considering accepting Raffles Education's offer for my Hartford Education shares so that I could increase my holdings in Raffles Education.

My Investment Portfolio (April 2008)

2008-05-01T01:05:00.000-07:00

This had been another volatile month. But it is also a sad month for me. Not that my portfolio is doing badly, but I have accepted 4 takeover/delisting offers, namely Robinsons, Sincere Watch, Permasteelisa Pacific and International Capital Investment Limited. I accepted the offer from Peace Mark for Sincere Watch because they changed their mind and decided to delist it from SGX rather than maintain its listing status. For Permasteelisa Pacific and International Capital Investment Limited, it is a foregone conclusion since their delisting resolution had been approved by shareholders.

The offer for Straits Trading from Tecity finally closed with the offeror getting about 89% of the shares at the close of the offer. I didn't accept the offer and remain a shareholder of Straits Trading.

There is also an offer on the table from private equity firm Vega Company for SingLun Holdings. This resulted in a spike in SingLun's share price and that explains why it is currently in my top 30 holdings. Mermaid Maritime also did well this month as I accumulated this counter on weakness last month.

I have also applied for Olam Preferential share issue and K-REIT rights issue this month. Both rights issues come at a very attractive price for long term investors.

Going forward, I will re-invest the proceeds from the above offers into defensive stocks like REITs and business trusts. I will also buy some deeply bombed out China stocks listed on SGX. I will also hold onto my Peace Mark shares (listed in Hong Kong Stock Exchange) from the Sincere Watch offer.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 April 2008)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Raffles Education Corp
2. SGX
3. Cosco Corp
4. Noble Group
5. SembCorp Marine
6. A-REIT
7. Hersing
8. Jaya Holdings
9. CapitaMall Trust
10. SPC
11. Jardine C&C
12. ComfortDelgro
13. CapitaLand
14. Straits Trading
15. F&N
16. Unisteel Technology
17. Keppel Corp
18. Wheelock Properties
19. Bukit Sembawang Estates
20. Keppel Land
21. KS Energy
22. Food Empire
23. Parkway Holdings
24. WBL Corp
25. Mermaid Maritime
26. SingLun Holdings
27. CapitaCommercial Trust
28. Pacific Andes
29. Guocoland
30. Tat Hong

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

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

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

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

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

Tears in my eyes

2008-04-13T23:14:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,

Be warned. This is an emotional post. I have never been so emotional with my stock holdings, but when I sealed the envelope and walked to the nearest SingPost letterbox to post my acceptance form for my Robinsons shares, tears flow through my eyes. Yes, Al-Futtaim have secured more than 90% acceptance for their offer to buy out the remaining shareholders in Robinsons & Company. It is all over as they have already said that they will exercise their rights to acquire the remaining shares out there and delist the company. The final offer price - $7.20 per share. Al-Futtaim had been gracious enough to let us have the final dividend payout of 10cts per share before delisting and did not adjust the offer price, which they are obviously entitled to do so.

Once Lippo Group and OCBC thrown in their towel, I guess it was an uphill battle to avoid delisting for S'pore's largest retailer. I have been a shareholder of Robinsons for more than 5 years, and have received their various dividend payouts and special dividends throughout the years. It is very sad to let it go, and really, I would hesitate to sell even at $7.20 per share, though deep in my heart, I know that it is a fair offer and most investors would bite.

It will take sometime for me to get over this. I know, one should not be too emotional on their stock holdings. But Robinsons have a special place in my heart, having shopped at their stores before and good experience with their staff there. I will miss the sale worth waiting for and giving you more reasons to smile.

Apology

2008-04-01T20:53:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,

I am very sorry that I did not make it in time to generate the email from CDP to compute my top 30 holdings for the month of March 2008. Therefore, I have decided to skip that and will do one for April 2008 instead.

Thank you for your understanding.

My Investment Portfolio (Feb 2008)

2008-03-01T04:45:00.000-08:00

Not much changes in my portfolio for this month. I have accepted the delisting offer from Vantage and also CapitaLand's offer for Ascott Group after they managed to acquire more than 90% of the shares. Frontline has also been slated for delisting after shareholders approved the court order to delist the company.

Companies have finally concluded their round of result reporting for those having financial year ending December 2007. I will be waiting for their annual reports patiently to do my analysis.

Looking ahead, the market is still expected to be volatile. Therefore, I will still continue to adopt the strategy to buy on dips.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 29 February 2008)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Raffles Education Corp
2. Cosco Corp
3. SGX
4. Noble Group
5. SembCorp Marine
6. Jardine C&C
7. A-REIT
8. KS Energy
9. Jaya Holdings
10. CapitaMall Trust
11. Sincere Watch
12. Hersing
13. SPC
14. Straits Trading
15. F&N
16. Keppel Corp
17. ComfortDelgro
18. CapitaLand
19. Guocoland
20. Bukit Sembawang Estates
21. Keppel Land
22. Wheelock Properties
23. Unisteel Technology
24. Food Empire
25. Inter-Roller Engineering
26. WBL Corp
27. Parkway Holdings
28. SembCorp Industries
29. Pacific Andes
30. Tat Hong

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

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

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

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

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

My Investment Portfolio (Jan 2008)

2008-01-31T01:48:00.000-08:00

It had been a volatile month. The way the market moves this month can be summarized in one word - Noise. Imagine STI moving up and down 100 points every day. Those traders must have been having heart attack by just looking at intra-day charts of their stock holdings.

For long term investors like me, this month had been a good opportunity to pick up some bargains. In fact, the dividend collected for this month is not very high for me, due to most companies having December year end reporting results in January and Feburary. Therefore, I missed the chance to pick up more bargains by staying fully invested at all times. But diversification helps me to limit my downside risk this month and I certainly appreciate the merits of having a diversified portfolio during these volatile times.

The highlight of this month had to be the takeover offers for Straits Trading, Ascott and Robinsons. Interesting bidding war is going on at Straits Trading and maybe even Robinsons. I will hold my shares in these companies tightly and see how it goes. I have also received takeover offers for Frontline, Vantage and International Capital Limited. But these companies are not my major holdings and so I will not elaborate them here.

Going forward, the market is expected to remain volatile. I will still stick to value investing in these kind of market, while waiting to collect more dividends in Feburary from companies having September year-end and holding their AGMs this month. Dividends from names like Cerebos Pacific, F&N and most REITs etc will provide the much-needed funds for me to continue to bottom-pick in the market during Feburary.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 January 2008)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Raffles Education Corp
2. Cosco Corp
3. SGX
4. Noble Group
5. Jaya Holdings
6. A-REIT
7. SembCorp Marine
8. Jardine C&C
9. Sincere Watch
10. KS Energy
11. CapitaMall Trust
12. Keppel Corp
13. Straits Trading
14. F&N
15. Guocoland
16. SPC
17. ComfortDelgro
18. Keppel Land
19. CapitaLand
20. Bukit Sembawang Estates
21. Hersing
22. Tat Hong
23. Wheelock Properties
24. Parkway Holdings
25. Unisteel Technology
26. Food Empire
27. Inter-Roller Engineering
28. SembCorp Industries
29. Cerebos Pacific
30. CapitaCommercial Trust

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

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

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

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

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

Voluntary Conditional Cash Offer By ALF Global Private Ltd for Shares In Robinson And Company Limited

2008-01-20T20:59:00.001-08:00

Singapore, 20 January 2008 – ALF Global Private Ltd. (“ALF Global” or the “Offeror”) has announced that it intends to make a voluntary conditional cash offer (the “Offer”) for all the shares in Robinson and Company Limited (“RCL” or the “Company”). ALF Global is incorporated for the purpose of making the Offer and is ultimately held by the Al-Futtaim Group (as defined below).

KEY HIGHLIGHTS
-Offer Price of S$6.25 per share
-Premium of 40.1% to last transacted price
-Irrevocable undertakings to accept the Offer received from institutional shareholders in respect of 23.18% stake
http://info.sgx.com/webcoranncatth.nsf/VwAttachments/Att_4450AA03D2B088EE482573D6002C67EA/$file/PressRelease_20Jan08_Final.pdf?openelement

My comments:

Interesting stuff. We have the 3rd offer since the start of the year! It just shows how smart institution investors are gearing up to take companies private in poor market conditions.

Back to Robinsons, well, I do have a small stake in this company and I had been a shareholder for around 5 years. Value investors who had been holding onto this company will be quite disappointed with their performance lately and their dividend cut during last financial year. The board changes since OCBC reduced their stake in this company also unsettle the company a bit.

Aberdeen Asset Management is among the institutions giving irrevocable undertakings for this offer. Interestingly, Aberdeen also holds Ascott and Straits Trading which are targets for takeover offers currently. It just shows us how value investing had been fruitful in current market situations.

Another obervation from me is that OCBC and Auric Pacific(controlled by Lippo Group) had been slient on this offer thus far. The offer can't go through if both rejects it. As I am also a shareholder of Auric Pacific and OCBC, it will be interesting for me to see what are their response on this offer.

The price, at 40% premiums looks ok to me. At least much better than Straits Trading, which is obviously a bad offer. But I will not sell if OCBC and Auric stays put since the offeror will not be able to take the company private. I will wait and see what happens before deciding.

Singapore's CapitaLand buys rest of Ascott unit

2008-01-08T02:15:00.000-08:00

SINGAPORE, Jan 8 - Singapore's CapitaLand , Southeast Asia's largest property firm by market value, said on Tuesday that it will pay S$1.73 per share to fully take over and privatise Ascott Group, its 67-percent owned service residence unit.

The property developer, which is making the voluntary unconditional cash offer through wholly-owned subsidiary Somerset Capital, said the offer is at a 43 percent premium to Ascott's last traded share price and values the company at S$2.8 billion. - Reuters
http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080107/tap-singapore-capitaland-ascott-c3bb44c.html

My comments:

Another day. Another company being taken over. I see no reason why CapitaLand would want to take Ascott private. Having previously said that they would want to employ an "asset light" strategy, they are actually spending money to acquire assets in this case. And if they wanted to acquire assets and spin them off into a REIT, it also doesn't look right to me as they already have Ascott REIT currently listed and they could have thrown in more assets from Ascott into Ascott REIT.

Obviously, Ascott is undervalued by the market and the way to go is to take it private. As a Ascott shareholder, I will not accept this offer. I believe the company is worth more than what CapitaLand have to offer since its exposure to Service Residences across Europe and Asia is one of the gem in the company.

OCBC-linked Tecity offers to buy S'pore's Straits Trading

2008-01-06T21:14:00.000-08:00

SINGAPORE, Jan 6 - Tecity Group, a Singapore-based investment firm, said on Sunday it has offered to buy commodities and property firm Straits Trading Co for S$5.70 a share, valuing the firm at S$1.86 billion ($1.3 billion) - SINGAPORE, Jan 6 - Tecity Group, a Singapore-based investment firm, said on Sunday it has offered to buy commodities and property firm Straits Trading Co for S$5.70 a share, valuing the firm at S$1.86 billion ($1.3 billion). - Reuters
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080106/tbs-straits-trading-takeover-7318940.html

My comments:

Frankly speaking, I am not surprised that Straits Trading had been a target of a takeover offer. Its business spans from properties to commodities to investment etc. Its sum-of-parts is worth much m0re than its current share price. Being one of my top 30 holdings currently, I will not surrender it so easily. Anyway, I don't think they can take the company private by paying only 15% premium from the last traded price. My views are in:
http://forums.sgfunds.com/viewtopic.php?t=6246&start=150

My Investment Portfolio (Dec 2007)

2007-12-31T21:36:00.000-08:00

All in all, a good way to end this year with STI having a good comeback in the last trading session of the year. This had been a quiet month, with most people going for holidays I guess. But being a value investor at heart, I make use of this quiet month to accumulate some stocks that had been badly sold down. Some stocks in the oil/gas sector and technology sector had been added into my portfolio during this month.

I have also invested almost all of my CPF-OA and CPF-SA funds, in preparation of the compulsory lock-in for CPF funds coming in 1 April 2008. For CPF-OA, I have added into UOB International Growth Fund and for CPF-SA, I have added into one of my all-time favourite, Prudential Asia Balanced Fund.

I have also accepted the take-over offer from Dubai Drydocks for all my Labory Marine shares. I have lost the battle since they already got more than 90% of the shares. However, I will re-invest the proceeds into more promising companies in order to make up for this.

2007 had been a good year for my investment portfolio. I hope that 2008 will be better. I will continue my strategy to invest prudently every month, with focus on technology sector since they had been sold down quite drastically, with some even trading below NTA. The rights issue strategy will continue to be in play, but expected to be reduced since section 44 tax credits had already expired. Therefore, the rights issue will not be my main strategy in 2008. My main strategy for 2008 will be value investing.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 December 2007)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Raffles Education Corp
2. SGX
3. Cosco Corp
4. Noble Group
5. Jaya Holdings
6. SembCorp Marine
7. KS Energy
8. A-REIT
9. Jardine C&C
10. Guocoland
11. Sincere Watch
12. F&N
13. CapitaMall Trust
14. Keppel Corp
15. SPC
16. ComfortDelgro
17. Keppel Land
18. Bukit Sembawang Estates
19. Tat Hong
20. Unisteel Technology
21. Wheelock Properties
22. CapitaLand
23. Tiong Woon Corp
24. Parkway Holdings
25. Pacific Andes
26. SembCorp Industries
27. Inter-Roller Engineering
28. Food Empire
29. Straits Trading
30. SC Global

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

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

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

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

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

My Investment Portfolio (Nov 2007)

2007-11-30T01:35:00.000-08:00

Another month of market volatility. This time round, it is the sub-prime woes again. But market bounced back during the last few days of this month, as it had been oversold. Actually, no need to care much. Just buy on market weakness, hold a diversified portfolio of stocks and collect dividends all the way for long term. It is a simple yet time and tested strategy.

I have been involved in too many rights issues this month, as companies seek to exhaust their section 44 tax credit before the year ends. Therefore, I have not much spare funds to buy direct from the market this month. But I did managed to convert all my expiring Bukit Sembawang warrants into shares, which explains why it is back into my top 30 holdings list.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 November 2007)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Raffles Education Corp
2. Cosco Corp
3. SGX
4. SembCorp Marine
5. Noble Group
6. KS Energy
7. Jaya Holdings
8. A-REIT
9. Jardine C&C
10. Hersing Corp
11. Keppel Corp
12. F&N
13. Guocoland
14. ComfortDelgro
15. SPC
16. Keppel Land
17. CapitaMall Trust
18. Bukit Sembawang Estates
19. Sincere Watch
20. CapitaLand
21. Unisteel Technology
22. Wheelock Properties
23. Tat Hong
24. Pacific Andes
25. Parkway Holdings
26. Labroy Marine
27. Food Empire
28. Tiong Woon Corp
29. SembCorp Industries
30. CWT

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

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

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

Top 5 Holdings (CPF OA investment)
1. Keppel Corp
2. STI ETF
3. A-REIT
4. SBS Transit
5. Boardroom

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

My Investment Portfolio (Oct 2007)

2007-10-30T03:33:00.000-07:00

Another volatile month for my portfolio. Not much changes in my top holdings. I have been buying some stocks via the rights issue strategy and also some undervalued tech counters. Other than that, not much purchases done directly from the market this month. Dubai Drydocks strikes again! This time round they come out with an offer for Labroy Marine (one of my top 30 holdings this month). Having surrendered Pan United Marine to them last time round, I really hate to sell another marine stock to them. But with SembCorp Marine and Labroy Marine both reporting forex losses this month, I wonder why bad news all came out at the same time? Having said that, I will continue to hold SembCorp Marine as I don't anticipate the forex losses to have a significant impact on the long term outlook of the company. As for Labroy Marine, I have to see whether Dubai Drydocks can get 90% acceptance before deciding. As I have said in my one of my post at http://www.sgfunds.com, though Dubai might get Labroy cheap, they won't get it easily (at least from me).

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 Oct 2007)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Cosco Corp
2. SGX
3. Raffles Education Corp
4. Noble Group
5. KS Energy
6. SembCorp Marine
7. Jaya Holdings
8. A-REIT
9. Jardine C&C
10. Hersing Corp
11. Keppel Corp
12. Guocoland
13. Keppel Land
14. Capitaland
15. SPC
16. F&N
17. ComfortDelgro
18. Unisteel Technology
19. Pacific Andes
20. Wheelock Properties
21. China Hong Xing
22. Tiong Woon Corp
23. Inter-Roller Engineering
24. Parkway Holdings
25. Sincere Watch
26. Jiutian Chemical
27. Tat Hong
28. Food Empire
29. Labroy Marine
30. Ho Bee Investments

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

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

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

Top 5 Holdings (CPF OA investment)
1. Keppel Corp
2. STI ETF
3. A-REIT
4. SBS Transit
5. Boardroom

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

Note: CapitaMall Trust had not been included in the stock listings because it had been halted from trading today pending announcement. Therefore, no price quote is available for this counter.

Shop@Summer

2007-10-11T20:31:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,

Please support my friend's online shopping blog - Shop@Summer. Items selling out fast! Grab them while stocks last!
PS: Shop@Summer has added Pre-Order so that you can place your orders before those goods arrive!
http://shopatsummer.blogspot.com

My Investment Portfolio (Sep 2007)

2007-09-28T02:35:00.000-07:00

China and Fed are the themes for this month. Anything China, anything goes. US Fed cuts rate, stocks goes up. It is amazing that the STI can reach all-time high again, as fears about sub-prime woes in US seems to be far away from investors' mind this month. It just shows how Mr Market can mood swing so fast. For this month, I have participated in a few rights issues and was glad to report that I got some excess rights shares. But I have not been buying a lot this month, as valuation is no longer as cheap as last month. I will use the rights issue strategy to enter the market though, as the margin of safety is higher.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 28 Sep 2007)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Cosco Corp
2. SGX
3. Raffles Education Corp
4. KS Energy
5. SembCorp Marine
6. Jaya Holdings
7. Noble Group
8. A-REIT
9. Hersing Corp
10. CapitaMall Trust
11. Keppel Corp
12. Unisteel Technology
13. Keppel Land
14. Wheelock Properties
15. Capitaland
16. Jardine C&C
17. ComfortDelgro
18. F&N
19. Guocoland
20. Inter-Roller Engineering
21. Pacific Andes
22. SPC
23. Tiong Woon Corp
24. Ho Bee Investments
25. Parkway Holdings
26. Food Empire
27. SembCorp Industries
28. SC Global
29. Sincere Watch
30. CapitaCommerical Trust

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

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

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

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

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

My Investment Portfolio (Aug 2007)

2007-08-31T22:03:00.000-07:00

It had been a volatile month. Not one for the faint-hearted. But volatility equals opportunity. It had been a month which I made the most purchases so far this year in terms of cash outlay. I have added Uni-Asia, Babcock and Brown Structured Finance Fund, MMP REIT, Parkway Life REIT, CitySpring, First Ship Lease etc into my portfolio. Yes, all these stocks had been in one way or another, affected badly by the credit crisis in US due to subprime woes. As I've said before in my previous post, try to adopt a long term view despite short term market noises. Look at the big picture and try to weigh the risk/reward of investing. To me, the potential reward in buying these stocks at bargain prices is more than the risk of credit and liquidity crisis spreading through the financial system around the world.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 31 Aug 2007)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Cosco Corp
2. Raffles Education Corp
3. SGX
4. KS Energy
5. Jaya Holdings
6. A-REIT
7. Noble Group
8. SembCorp Marine
9. CapitaMall Trust
10. ComfortDelgro
11. Wheelock Properties
12. Unisteel Technology
13. Keppel Land
14. Keppel Corp
15. Hersing Corp
16. Capitaland
17. Guocoland
18. Pacific Andes
19. F&N
20. Jardine C&C
21. Inter-Roller Engineering
22. Food Empire
23. Tiong Woon Corp
24. Parkway Holdings
25. SPC
26. Sincere Watch
27. Ho Bee Investments
28. SC Global
29. SembCorp Industries
30. CapitaCommerical Trust

Sub-Prime Woes

2007-08-16T21:31:00.000-07:00

I seldom like to pen thoughts on short term market movements, but I thought the recent market downturn and volatility had get some investors worried and having sleepless nights by looking at their portfolio sinking deeper and deeper into the red. So, I pick up the courage to write some of my thoughts on this recent "hot" topic in the markets.

Frankly speaking, it had been the same old story everyday for the past few days when I picked up my copy of The Straits Times. "Asia market crashes", "Asia market down", "STI down XXX points" etc. Similar story line with experts having their go with their views on the markets. I wonder if I would just skip the story because the end result is always the same after I read them - i.e. Prepare for more volatility.

Markets hates uncertainty. From my experience in the market, uncertainty rocks the market very fast. Fundamentally, nothing changes. Corporate results in S'pore had been good for the last quarter. Companies are giving dividends. Business is still going on. What changes then? Emotions. Panic. Perception. Why? Because most of these "investors" have no asset allocation plan in place. They are just buying/selling stocks based on market movements. When things are good, they sound very good. When things are bad, even good news are neutral to them. Hence, these recent concluded corporate result and special dividends have no impact on a nervous market. "Sell and get away" is the rule of the game. Furthermore, punters are running away because liquidity dries up. Some speculative stocks are down almost 50% from last peak. Suddenly, all these RTO-related counters are no longer attractive anymore.

But let's look deeper into the issue and get ourselves oriented to the right way to invest. Is investing means getting away when things are bad? Of course not! It is about staying the course and riding out volatilty in the short term to achieve your long term goals. It is a simple but yet powerful concept which works throughout decades of market cycles. But why people are not following it? Because history always repeats itself! And because of this, fundamental investors have an opportunity to invest in fundamentally good stocks at decent prices. Remember when buying a stock, you are paying the market price but what you are buying is the intrinsic value of the business. As long as the intrinsic value of the business is intact, you should not panic even when the market price goes down.

And of course, as I have always like to stress - Have a portfolio view of your investments. Don't be too focused on each individual stock in your portfolio and try to react on them. This will bring you nightmares and headaches because chances are you will always be trying to do something since individual stocks do fluctuate quite wildly especially during these volatile times.

Well, they will always say - This Time Its Different! You see, sub-prime problems will impact the whole financial system, recession blah blah blah. Let's see how different this time it is. I will be holding my stocks dearly and buy them on further weakness.