Portfolio Update Jan 2022

It is time to review my investment portfolios as the first month of 2022 comes to an end.

The stock markets are still undergoing a correction phase under continuous immense noises engulfing Fed tapering, interest rates hikes, inflation fears, Omicron variant fears, rise of US Treasury yields, looming market crash and so on.

My stance and plan are clear. To remain invested, slowly and steadily increasing investments in income-producing assets or growth businesses regardless of all conditions and noises.

My SGX Income Portfolio value plunges to $264k from $272k last month. As this is a Reit heavy portfolio, the looming of 4 to 5 interest rate hikes lead to a corresponding large impact on the share price of most Reits even though the impact to most Reits that have hedged their loans is relatively small. I am not too concerned about short-term volatility even though this may result in a drop in my net worth, because I am more focused on long-term passive income. As long as fundamentals do not change, I will not panic sell any of my holdings, but rather add them slowly instead.

My US Growth Portfolio value increases to US$7.3k from US$6.9k. I injected around US$1k into Moomoo trading account as it encountered margin call due to holding Palantir put options while its share price keeps plummeting. I am on the lookout to initiate new or add positions in tech stocks soon.

My SRS Ultra Long-Term Portfolio value decreases to $100.6k from $102k. The decrease is mainly due to tanking of Keppel DC Reit which is offset by the spike in OCBC, both attributed to interest rate hike.

Portfolio Actions

1. Added 1,500 shares of Mapletree Industrial Trust at $2.63.

2. Redeemed 1 share of Meituan (HKG.3690) 20% discount at HK$168 on Tiger Broker.

3. Redeemed 1 share of Tencent (HKG.0700) 10% discount at HK$417.24 on Tiger Broker.

3. Redeemed 1 share of Walt Disney 20% discount at price of US$123.91 on Tiger Broker.

4. Rolled down 2 units of Palantir by closing PLTR220121 put option with $22 strike price at US$6.6 and sold PLTR220819 put option with $20 strike price at US$6.1.

5. Bought 1 share of Citigroup at US$66.20 with US$10 stock voucher.

6. Bought 1 share of Dell Technologies at US$56.88.

Portfolio Dividends

1. Received $112.50 from Savings Bonds on 3 Jan.

2. Received $116.88 of dividends from Mapletree Logistics Trust on 12 Jan.

3. Received $873 of dividends from Capitaland Integrated Commercial Trust on 28 Jan.

SGX Income Portfolio

US/HK Growth Portfolio

Moomoo

Tiger Broker

Total Portfolio Value : US$7.3K

SRS Ultra Long-Term Portfolio

Thanks for reading. It is CNY eve today. Wishing everyone Heng Ong Huat in the coming Tiger Year!

With Love & Peace,
Qiongster

Mapletree Logistics Trust 3Q FY21/22 Results

 

Mapletree Logistics Trust (SGX.M44U) announced its 3Q FY21/22 Results on 28 Jan 2021.

Most importantly, dividend per unit (DPU) increases by 5.8% Year-on-Year to 2.185 cents from 2.065 cents in 3Q FY20/21.

Gross revenue and net property income increases 19.3% and 17.4% respectively as compared to 3Q FY20/21.

As advanced distribution of 1.461 cents has been paid on 12 Jan due to private placement, a balance DPU of only 0.724 cents will be paid on 22 Mar.

As of 31 Dec 2021, MLT has a portfolio of 167 properties valued at S$11.5 billion. Portfolio occupancy was decent at 97.8% with WALE of 3.6 years. Portfolio average rental reversion was positive at 2.5%.

On capital management, gearing ratio was healthy at 34.7% with an average debt duration of 3.5 years. However, with the completion of the proposed acquisition of 16 properties in China and Vietnam, its gearing ratio is set to increase to 39.1%. Hence, it is not surprising if another equity fund raising is on the cards sooner than later for the next acquisition.

The logistics sector had remained resilient throughout the pandemic as demand continues to benefit from structural trends such as e-commerce and supply chain diversification.

In terms of outlook, the global economy is expected to recover but curbed by advent of Omicron virus variant and increase in interest rates in some advanced economies.

At share price of $1.69, based on estimated annual dividend of 8.6 cents, MLT yields around 5% which is beginning to look attractive. However, I do believe that its share price will remain weak in the short-term though long-term wise, its fundamentals have not changed and is posited to soar to greater heights while providing long-term investors with a steady and consistent stream of perpetual income.

Thanks for reading. As always, stay safe and remain strong.

With Love & Peace,
Qiongster

First CPF Financial Assignment of 2022

It has become a routine for me to top up my CPF Special Account under the Retirement Sum Top-Up Scheme (RSTU) at the beginning of the year.

As CPF interests are computed on a monthly basis, we could reap higher returns by topping up our CPF account(s) in Jan rather than Dec. For an amount of $8k based on 4% interest rate, the difference between Jan and Dec could be more than $290.

Under RSTU, the main benefits are to earn the risk free 4% interests from CPF SA and to enjoy tax reliefs for up to $8k.

I have topped up $8k today, reaping $320 of interests and saving $560 of taxes (at 7% rate), thereby gaining $980 or 11% worth of benefits! 

Moving ahead, I plan to top up my Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) account.

Meanwhile, I am like a predator hunting for preys as many high quality Reits and stocks are been hammered. I smell opportunity again.

The results reporting season is ongoing for some of the Reits. I will just sit back and enjoy the numerous Ang Baos trickling in after the Chinese New Year when the Reits in my portfolio start to pay dividends.

Thanks for reading. As always, stay safe and remain strong.

With Love & Peace,
Qiongster

Capitaland Integrated Commercial Trust 2H 2021 Results

 

Capitaland Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT) [SGX.C38U] announced its 2H 2021 results today.

Dividend per unit (DPU) for 2H 2021 declines by 8.9% to 5.22 cents as compared to 5.73 cents in 2H 2020.

As advanced payment of 4.85 cents for the period 1 Jul 2021 to 15 Dec 2021 has been paid on 28 Jan (coincidentally today) due to private placement, only DPU of 0.37 cents will be paid on 15 Mar 2022.

Even though gross revenue, net property income and distributable income for 2H 2021 increases significantly compared to 2H 2020, DPU declines due to the dilutive private placement causing a larger number of outstanding shares (127.6m).

After the merger with Capitaland Commercial Trust on 21 Oct 2020, CICT has wholly owned Raffles City Singapore, contributing to the increased distribution income.

Portfolio occupancy was at 93.9%, with retail properties at 96.8% and office properties at 91% and integrated developments at 96%. Capita Spring achieved TOP in Nov 2021 and has only partially begun to contribute to the distribution income. Likewise, for recently acquired Australian properties such as 101 Miller Street and Greenwood Plaza in Sydney, 66 Goulburn Street and 100 Arthur Street, local properties undergoing AEI such as Six Battery Road and 21 Collyer Quay, they are expected to contribute strongly to distribution income this year.

Retention rate of tenants was 82.3% and it is disappointing to see negative rental reversion of - 7.3% for Year 1 rents vs outgoing final rents and - 3.2% for incoming average rents vs outgoing average rents. For downtown malls, the negative rental reversion is - 13.8% compared to for suburban malls' - 2.4%. This is a harsh reflection of the reality caused by WFH impact from the pandemic though.

However, it is encouraging to see tenant sales psf recovered to 87.8% of 2019 pre-pandemic times and shopper traffic recovered to 61.2% of 2019 pre-pandemic times.

CICT's aggregate leverage was 37.2% and average cost of debt was stable at 2.3% per annum. Interest coverage ratio was at 4.1 times.

At share price of $1.94 as of time of writing, an annual dividend of 10.4 cents would give CICT a yield of 5.36% per annum, which is fairly attractive. However, with the immense noises, fears and uncertainties, it is possible that CICT will see further weakness in its share price. 

I still believe that it is a no-brainer to not own this pioneer and largest Reit listed on SGX that owns the best shopping malls and top grade office buildings in Singapore. In the past 2 decades, we have seen this Reit beaten down and thrashed to pulp and then rise, awaken and reborn as always. This time will be no different.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and be strong as always. 

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

Ascott Residence Trust 2H 2021 Results

 

Ascott Residence Trust (SGX.HMN) announces its 2H 2021 results today.

Dividend per security (DPS) increases 14% Year-on-Year to 2.27 cents as compared to 2H 2020 and increases 43% Year-on-Year to 4.32 cents as compared to 2020.

As advanced distribution of 0.545 cents has been made on 9 Nov 2021 for the period 1 Jul 2021 to 19 Sep 2021 due to private placement, a DPS of 1.726 cents for the period 20 Sep 2021 to 31 Dec 2021 will be paid to existing Security holders on 1 Mar 2022.

Distribution per Security for 2021 increases 43% to 4.32 cents and revenue per available unit (REVPAU) increases 17% to $69 from 2020, indicating a recovery in hospitality industry. REVPAU for 4Q 2021 hits $87, registering the strongest quarter-on-quarter increase at 24%. The long-stay properties continued to provide income stability, while the easing of travel restrictions and increased global activities led to a hike in demand from both corporate and leisure guests. Key markets in US, UK and Australia registered the strongest growth.

High revenue (+29.7%) for 2H 2021 compared to 2H 2020 was due to increased revenue from existing portfolio and additional contributions from the acquisition of 6 student accommodation assets in the US and 3 rental housing properties in Japan.

The distribution income for 2021 includes a one-off divestment gain of $45m, termination fee income received upon terminating the sale of Citidines Xinghai Suzhou and Citidines Zhuankou Wuhan, realised exchange gains on the receipt of the divestment proceeds, realised exchange gains from the repayment of foreign currency bank loans with the divestment proceeds.

Gearing ratio is at 37.1% with interest coverage ratio of 3.7 times. Borrowing cost is low at 1.6% per annum. It currently has $340m and $700m of untapped credit facility. 74% of the debts are hedged on  fixed rate, and this ratio is expected to rise to 80% after refinancing of another loan. Hence, interest rates hike have curbed impact on Ascott Residence Trust.

At share price of $1.02 as of time of writing and with dividend per share of $0.0432, Ascott Residence Trust yields more than 4% as it is on track towards recovery of tourism and hospitality sector. NAV per share is $1.19, signifying slight undervalue. 

I believe Ascott Residence Trust is a great long-term recovery play. While waiting with patience for the recovery of the world's tourism industry from the pandemic and reopening of countries' borders in the transition towards an endemic world, shareholders can still be rewarded with at least 4% yield.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and be strong as always. 

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

Aims Apac Reit 3Q FY2022 Results

 

Aims Apac Reit (SGX.O5RU) announces its 3Q FY2022 results today.

Most importantly for unitholders, dividend per unit (DPU) increases 14.6% Year-on-Year to 2.35cents compared to 2.05 cents in 3Q FY2021.

The DPU of 2.35 cents will be paid on 25 Mar 2022.

Gross Revenue and Net Property Income rises by more than 14% compared to 3Q FY2021. This is mainly due to the acquisition of Woolworths Headquarters in New South Wales, Australia and higher gross revenue from 20 Gul Way, 27 Penjuru Lane and 541 Yishun Industrial Park A (rental contribution from new master tenant commenced on Jan 2021).

Portfolio committed occupancy remains high at 97.6%, well above JTC industrial average of 90. 1%, and decent WALE at 4.85 years.

10 new and 8 renewal leases were successfully executed in 3Q FY2022 at slight positive rental reversion of 0.2%.

Gearing ratio is 37.3% with undrawn credit facility and war chest of $237.2m. Blended funding cost is slightly high at 2.8% per annum. Adjusted interest coverage ratio is decent at 3.3 times.

Moving forward, the broad economic recovery of Singapore and Australia will provide demand and support for the industrial sector, particularly manufacturing and business park space.

I believe that Aims Apac Reit is a great underrated small industrial Reit to hold for the long-term and it should continue to deliver more than 6% of dividend yield while panning for its value to be unlocked and the economy to recover.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and be strong as always. 

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

Suntec Reit 2H 2021 Results

 

Suntec Reit (SGX. T82U) announced its 2H 2021 results today.

Gross revenue increases 15.3% Year-on-Year and net property income increases 30.3% Year-on-Year compared to 2H 2020.

DPU for 2021 increases 17.1% Year-on-Year to 8.666 cents.

Most importantly, DPU of 2.28 cents for 4Q 2021 will be paid on 28 Feb 2022.

It is important to note that the lower occupancy in Singapore office properties of One Raffles Quay and MBFC are partially offset by higher rental reversion of +3.2%. Overall occupancy in Singapore properties remain high at 97.5%.

There are new contributions from Nova properties and the Minster Building.

Suntec City strata office units and 9 Penang Road have been divested.

In terms of Suntec City's financial health, gearing ratio is quite high at 43.7%. All in financing cost is 2.35% per annum. Adjusted interest coverage ratio is relatively low at 2.6 times. NAV of $2.11 signifies Suntec Reit is undervalued based on share price of $1.54.

The prolonged impact of ongoing pandemic will make the recovery of convention centres and retail space owned by Suntec Reit slower than expected. Suntec Reit's tenants have a large composition of SMEs and small companies and hence may lead to early lease terminations and higher vacancies. Nonetheless, I believe Suntec Reit is a great value commercial Reit play worth getting paid more than 5% yield p.a to wait for its recovery.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and be strong as always. 

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

 

Mapletree Industrial Trust 3Q FY21/22 Results

 

Mapletree Industrial Trust (SGX.ME8U) announced its 3Q FY21/22 results today.

Most importantly for unitholders, dividend per unit (DPU) increases 6.4% to 3.49 cents relative to 3Q FY20/21.

The DPU of 3.49 cents will be paid on 15 Mar 2022. Distribution Reinvestment Plan (DRP) has been resumed and unitholders can opt to receive their dividends in units instead. DRP is a great scheme to leverage on the power of compounding without incurring transaction or brokerage costs if unitholders do not mind the odd units. The reason for DRP is to strengthen balance sheet and to finance the redevelopment of Kolam Ayer 2.

Higher gross revenue (+31.3%) translating into higher net property income (+24.1%) do certainly look impressive. The increases were mainly driven by contributions from the acquisitions of 29 data centres in the United States and 8011 Villa Park Drive, Virginia.

Portfolio occupancy has dropped marginally from 93.7% in previous quarter to 93.6%. This was due to the low 87.4% occupancy rate of the 29 data centres in US.

The weighted average cost of debt of Mapletree Industrial Trust is 2.3% per annum and interest coverage ratio is high at 6.4 times. Gearing is a little high at 39.9%.  9.2% of total borrowings are due for refinancing in FY21/22 and 13% due in FY22/23 so the higher interest rates should have some impact on its financing costs but hopefully will not impact its DPU much this year.

I believe Mapletree Industrial Trust is a great Reit to own and accumulate for the long-term due to its track record, historical DPU growth rate and ownership of a resilient class of income producing industrial properties and data centres with long WALE. 

I currently own 8,000 shares of Mapletree Industrial Trust and intend to continue accumulating it for the long-term for stable and growing dividend income.

See related posts:

1) A Reit I do not dare to sell again

2) Added Mapletree Industrial Trust

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and be strong as always. 

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

Keppel Reit 2H 2021 Results

 

Keppel Reit (SGX. K71U) announced its second half 2021 results today.

Most importantly for unitholders, dividend per unit (DPU) drops 1.7% to 2.88 cents relative to 2H 2020, but increases 1.6% Year-on-Year to 5.82 cents.

The DPU of 2.88 cents will be paid on 1 Mar 2022.

Despite higher net property income (+15.2%) and higher distributable income from operations (+4.6%), DPU still drops due to relatively high management fees and larger number of outstanding units from private placement in Feb 2021. Keppel Reit is indeed a big boys friendly Reit rather than being retail friendly.

Portfolio occupancy has dropped from 97.9% in Dec 2020 to 95.4% in Dec 2021, signifying the slight impact caused by WFH and hybrid working culture.

It is important to note that the acquisition of Blue and William, a Grade A office building under development in North Sydney, in Dec 2021 has not fully contributed to the distributable income of Keppel Reit. However, other more recent accretive acquisitions such as Keppel Bay Tower, Pinnacle Office Park in Sydney and Victoria Police Centre in Melbourne have already contributed to the distributable income.

The average cost of debt of Keppel Reit remains decent at 1.98% per annum and interest coverage ratio is fair at 3.9 times. Gearing remained decent at 38.4%. Only 5% of total borrowings are due for refinancing in FY 2022 so the higher interest rates should have only limited impact on its financing costs and hopefully will not impact its DPU much this year.

I believe Keppel Reit is only a decent pure office Reit for existing unitholders to hold but not attractive enough to entice new investors to initiate new position and accumulate because there are better Reits that offer greater reward to risk ratio.

I do like the high quality office properties owned by Keppel Reit though. The main reason I invested in Keppel Reit 6 years ago was to own a stake of Marina Bay Financial Centre and other Grade A office buildings for close to 6% dividend yield.

I currently own 10,351 shares of Keppel Reit in my SRS account at net average cost of $0.71 and will continue holding it for the long-term despite its lacklustre potential and growth under the highly paid mediocre management.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and be strong as always. 

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

Keppel DC Reit 2H 2021 Results

 

Keppel DC Reit (SGX. AJBU) announced its second half 2021 results today.

Most importantly for unitholders, dividend per unit (DPU) increases 7.4% Year-on-Year to 9.851 cents.

As an advanced distribution of 1.421 cents has been paid on 20 Oct 2021, the DPU is 3.506 cents to be paid on 10 Mar 2022.

Even though DPU increases due to higher distributable income, this set of results is not perfect because net property income (NPI) and gross revenue actually decreases 4.3% and 4.0% respectively as compared to 2H 2020.

It is important to note that acquisitions completed in Dec 2021 - Guangdong Data Centre, London Data Centre In Bracknell and the M1 network infrastructure have not fully contributed to the distributable income of Keppel DC Reit.

I believe Keppel DC Reit should be able to continue grow its DPU, but at a slower rate.

Higher risks, lower growth rate, higher interest rates potentially increasing financing costs and losing its pure data centre play status to Digital Core Reit have caused the share price of Keppel DC Reit to weaken in recent months to a fairly attractive level of $2.20s.

The average cost of debt of Keppel DC Reit remains low at 1.6% per annum and interest coverage ratio is high at 10.8 times. Gearing remained healthy at 34.6%. The higher interest rates should have some but limited impact on its financing costs and hopefully impact its potential DPU growth.

I believe Keppel DC Reit is still a great investment to hold and accumulate because it owns data centre assets that provide the infrastructure upon which our mobile applications, social media, data engineering, artificial intelligence and cloud computing thrive to drive the digital world.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and be strong as always. 

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

S$354m to S$381b | 1000X in 47 Years | Top 10 US Stocks Owned By Temasek

Temasek Holdings was incorporated in 1974 to own and manage a portfolio of investments and assets valued at S$354 million, acquired from the Singapore Minister for Finance.

This move allowed the Singapore Government to focus on its role of policymaking and regulations.

Contrary to myths, Temasek does not play around with our CPF nor taxpayers' monies.

Of the 35 companies in the intial portfolio, only 10 still remain. Others have been divested or liquidated.

What is impressive is that Temasek Holdings grew this portfolio more than 1000X to S$381 billion, as of 31 Mar 2021.

Highlighted in bold are the 10 original investments still present in the current portfolio.

1. Acma Electrica Industries Ltd

2. Cerebos Singapore Pte Ltd

3. Chemical Industries (F.E.) Ltd

4. Development Bank of Singapore Ltd

5. Instant Asia Cultural Shows Pte Ltd

6. Insurance Corporation of Singapore Ltd

7. International Development and Construction Corporation

8. Intraco Ltd

9. Jurong Bird Park Pte Ltd

10. Jurong Holdings Pte Ltd

11. Jurong ShipBuilders Pte Ltd

12. Jurong Shipyard Pte Ltd

13. Keppel Shipyard Ltd

14. Metrawood Pte Ltd

15. Ming Court Hotel Ltd

16. Mitsubishi Singapore Heavy Industries Pte Ltd

17. National Engineering Services Pte Ltd

18. National Grain Elevator Ltd

19. National Iron & Steel Mills Ltd

20. Neptune Orient Lines Ltd

21. Primary Industries Pte Ltd

22. Sembawang Holdings Pte Ltd

23. Singapore Airlines Limited

24. KrisShop Pte Ltd

25. Singapore Cable Car Pte Ltd

26. Singapore General Aviation Service Company Pte Ltd

27. Singapore National Printers Pte Ltd

28. Singapore Offshore Petroleum Services Pte Ltd

29. Singapore Textiles Industries Ltd

30. Singapore Treasury Building Pte Ltd

31. Singapore Zoological Gardens

32. Singmanex Pte Ltd

33. Sugar Industry of Singapore Ltd

34. United Industrial Corporation Ltd

35. United Vegetable Oil Pte Ltd

However, these 10 entities from initial portfolio do not contribute that much to the S$381 billion portfolio today.

We should already have known that Temasek owns the likes of Mapletree, Capitaland, DBS, SingTel, Sembcorp, Keppel in Singapore locally. 

I am more interested to know what US companies and businesses Temasek actually invests in order to gain some investment instincts in the coming weeks and months when opportunities are presented to us again.

A quick research on the data from SEC filings revealed the top 10 holdings of Temasek Holdings by value as of 30 Sep 2021.

Besides owning the world's largest asset manager in Blackrock, it is evident that Temasek Holdings is inclined towards the top electronic payment giants - Paypal, Bill.com, Visa and Mastercard which faciliates money around in the world's digital payment ecosystem for e-commerce and the metaverse.

E-commerce giant Alibaba, computing infrastructure businesses- Lumen Technologies and Dell Technologies, gaming giant Roblox, biotech company focusing on cancer treatment, Beigene constitute the rest of the top 10 investments by Temasek Holdings in US stock market.

These give us an inspiration on which sectors to invest in for the long-term future.

It is about living life. We spend money, buy things when we wake up, in today's digital era underpinned by computing infrastructure and immerse ourselves in the Metaverse for entertainment.

The morale of the investment story is about owning income-producing businesses that make money when we sleep.

Thanks for reading. Huat Ah!

With Love & Peace,
Qiongster

Completed Trophy Collection of China's ATM (Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan) Tech Stocks

 

I started the collection of China technology companies only recently, by opportunity and luck.

I did not have any intention to dabble in China or HK stocks in the past.

However I changed my mind after I funded my Tiger Broker account and collected discounted stock vouchers through playing in-app game within the Tiger Broker app.

40% stock discount voucher on Alibaba, 20% discount on Meituan, 10% discount on Tencent and seeing Alibaba (HK.9988) hitting historical lows around HK$110 in end Dec 2021 presented me the great chance to initiate a trophy portfolio consisting of e-commerce, food delivery and gaming + metaverse giants from the most populous country in the world.

Here is my trophy collection of ATM tech stocks.

Surprisingly all are green.

However, it is only one odd share for Meituan and Tencent.

I would need to build up war chest and hope their prices stay low for me to accumulate proper lots of at least 100 shares of Meituan and Tencent into the portfolio.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and strong always.

With Love and Peace,
Qiongster

One Tiny Bite of the Metaverse

 

Tencent Holdings Limited (0700.HK) is the largest Chinese technology giant which invests heavily into Metaverse businesses.

Tencent owns a plethora of social media entertainment platforms - Snap (leader in Augmented Reality),  Spotify (leading digital music service provider), Doyu (live video streaming service), Reddit (social news aggregation, web content rating and discussion website), Discord (top VoIP digital messaging for gaming community) and WeChat social application which has over 1.25 billion active users. 

It is also the largest gaming company in the world and owns Riot Games which makes League of Legends, Epic Games which makes Fortnite running on Unreal Engine platform, Roblox which has more than 150 million active users. Mobiles games that I loved to play from Supercell such as Clash of Clans, Clash Royale and Brawl Stars are all owned by Tencent now.

On the fronts of e-commerce and fintech, Tencent makes its presence felt globally by investing in WeChat Pay (2nd largest Fintech payment provider in China), Pinduoduo (Top agriculture technology platform in China), Paystack (Africa), GoJek (Indonesia), Shopee (Singapore) and so on. 

It is hard to imagine Tencent also investing in electric vehicle businesses including the likes of Tesla and NIO.

Thanks to Tiger Brokers Santa Monopoly game event, I managed to get a stock discount voucher to purchase one odd share of Tencent at 10% discount.

I redeemed this voucher today to purchase my first share of Tencent at only around HK$417.

 

Although this is insignificant, I finally got hold of a trophy share of Tencent to lay the foundation and build up my psychological confidence for future investments into the Metaverse of the future, stepping up from the traditional dividend income investing in SGX Reits.

However, due to regulatory controls by the Chinese government to mitigate Tencent monopolistic instincts, we should see Tencent paring down its stakes in many of the companies it owned. Coupled with its XD of JD shares distribution on 20 Jan, its share price may potentially drop further and experience immense weakness.

If you are interested to kick-start your journey in stock investing in HK or US markets, feel free to use my referral link to register for a Tiger Broker account, fund it with at least S$2k to get a free apple share worth around US$170 and 60 commission-free trades for 180 days.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and strong always.

With Love and Peace,
Qiongster

Net Worth Update Jan 2022 | Crawl Towards SGD 1.2 million

 

S$1.189m

My net worth increases $27k to $1.189m from Dec 2021.

The increase are mainly contributed by $14k interests and $6k contributions from Dec salary and AWS bonuses received in CPF.

My CPF has surpassed $460k. I have planned to top up $8k to my CPF SA under Retirement Scheme Top-Up (RSTU) by the end of this month.

I then target to top up my SRS account in a few tranches and complete the maximum contribution of $15.3k by Apr 2022.

The value of my stocks and equities remain fairly stable. Recently, there was a correction to factor in the rise in interest rates and I injected some capital to add Mapletree Industrial Trust, nibble Alibaba (HK.9988) and some US stocks i.e. Walt Disney and Citigroup. I hope to increase my stocks and equities value to at least $300k this year.

I have started my cryptocurrencies journey for more than 2 months and factored in $500 worth of cryptocurrencies but the slice is too small to be shown in the pie chart.

Last year, I adopted a laid-back approach to manage my financial health.

This year, my strategy will be different. I will take on greater risks through options trading, accumulating growth and turnaround stocks, purchase crypto alt coins after reaping the low hanging fruits provided by CPF and SRS.

Meanwhile, I will still slowly build up the SGX income portfolio through adding high quality Reits. The best time to add Reits is now, when there are some fear and immense noises on rising interest rates to beat inflation. When the institutional investors and retail folks realise that despite a few rounds of interest rate hikes, the best place to earn decent returns on their money is still in Reits, then funds will flow in to jack them back up. The cycle just repeats. Same as end 2018.

2022 will continue to be a challenging year for us dealing with impact from the pandemic and learning to live with the virus in an endemic society. Global economies will continue to recover with ever changing laws and regulations. There will be noises, fears and concerns as usual.

We need to stay focused, staying on track in pursuit of our own life objectives. 

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and remain strong always!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

 

Initiated Investment in a Foreign Bank With Local Presence

 

The 3 Singapore banks - DBS Group Holdings Limited (SGX:D05), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (SGX:O39) and United Overseas Bank Limited (SGX: U11) have their share prices recovered to pre-pandemic levels, reflecting the optimism in their future earnings leveraging on  Singapore's economy growth and underpinned by higher interest rates.

As an investor, I would love to invest in banks when they are undervalued and dragged down by bad news than during an economic recovery now.

Ever since my last purchases in OCBC and UOB in 2020, I have been on the sidelines waiting for opportunity for their share prices to correct and offer value but to no avail.

I ponder if it is possible to find value in foreign banks that offer dividends and are as strong and stable as our local banks.

Besides the 3 local banks, the top 2 foreign banks with local presence felt are Stanchart and Citibank.

Standard Charterted PLC (LON:STAN) is listed on the London Stock Exchange which I have no access to and not interested to invest in. Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) is listed on New York Stock Exchange which is readily assessable through many brokerages hence I am curious to find out if it is worth investing in.

Below is a quick analysis I did up to have a rough gauge and may not be accurate hence take it with a pinch of salt.

Data as of writing on 11 Jan 2022.

Compared to the 3 local banks which are worth more than their book values, Citigroup Inc. only has a P/B ratio of 0.71.

P/E ratio of Citigroup Inc. is much lower than the 3 local banks.

PEG ratio of Citigroup is comparable to UOB and lower than DBS and OCBC. PEG ratio lower than 1 means that the stock price is fairly or undervalued factoring future earnings growth of a company. PS: The 3 local banks may not be that expensive after all!

The actual dividend yield of Citigroup Inc. of 3.09% is comparable to the 3 local banks however there is a 30% tax on dividends from US stocks hence the net dividend yield is only 2.1%.

Market cap of Citigroup Inc. is larger than the 3 local banks and more than double OCBC and UOB. It is a top 10 largest bank in the world and top 5 largest bank in the US.

Conclusion

With the above analysis, I find Citigroup Inc. undervalued and worth investing into even though it is the only American bank which Warren Buffett does not invest.

Its share price is cheap to compensate for greater uncertainties and risks due to the bank having a new management and undergoing corporate transformation. It has announced plans to exit or sell its consumer banking business and may not go well with investors. The bank has also been facing regulatory challenges and internal problems, getting fined by regulatory bodies over operational mistakes and poor risk controls by their bankers, and sometimes getting into lawsuits over blunders.

Investing comes with risks and the banking business has always been challenging and risky. Even our local bank OCBC has 470 customers losing at least S$8.5m to scammers and tainted its reputation a little but not affecting its share price at all.

The reward to risk ratio of investing in Citigroup Inc. is quite reasonable as investors could get paid 2% dividends while waiting for its value be unlocked in the long-term.

As I have stock and commission vouchers in my Tiger Broker account, I decided to utilise it to nibble a Citigroup Inc. share.

There it goes. US$10 rebate with free commission.

If you are interested to kick-start your journey in stock investing in HK or US markets, do use my referral link to register for a Tiger Broker account, fund it with at least S$2k to get a free apple share worth US$170 and 60 commission-free trades for 180 days.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and remain strong always!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Free Spotify and 2% Cashback with Ruby Steel Crypto.com Visa Card

 

I have shared previously on my new venture into cryptocurrencies lately.

On 20 Dec 2021, I have applied for the Ruby Steel card after staking S$500 worth of CRO tokens on the crypto.com app for 6 months.

In return, I will enjoy 2% Cashback on all purchases and 100% rebate on Spotify worth US$12.99 monthly.

Today I am happy to receive this metallic steel card in my mailbox after weeks of waiting.

This Visa card functions as a prepaid debit card and can only be topped with with following cryptocurrencies:

BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, ADA, CHZ, DAI, DOGE, ENJ, LINK, MANA, MATIC, TAUD, TCAD, TGBP, THETA, UNI, USDC, USDT, VET, & ZIL

The cashback earned will be in the form of native CRO tokens.

I am optimistic about cryptocurrencies and believe in risking a small portion of fiat monies to purchase digital currencies used in metaverse. Only high risks will generate high returns.

For those of you interested to sign up for Crypto.com exchange platform, you may use my referral link here. We both can get USD25 worth of CRO tokens when you stake $500 of CRO tokens for a Ruby card or above.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and remain strong always!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Added Mapletree Industrial Trust

Build-to-suit development for HP Singapore at 1 and 1A Depot Close

The last time I added Mapletree Industrial Trust (SGX:ME8U) shares was via the preferential offering in Jun 2021 at $2.64.

I applied for 3,000 shares (entitlement and excess) and got the monies for 1,500 shares refunded.

Thanks to noises and looming news of interest rate hikes, opportunity arises as the share price of MIT tanked below the preferential offering price in Jun 2021.

As at time of writing, its share price is below the 20 day, 50 day and 100 day moving averages at $2.67, $2.68 and $2.75 meaning it is a falling knife now with no support underneath and could possibly tank lower.

However, I am not bothered about short-term volatility but rather focused on long-term income investing in a well managed industrial Reit owning freehold data centres with long Wale and ever growing DPU, at a yield of more than 5%.

I added 1,500 shares of MIT today and will then own 8,000 shares.

Related posts:

1. Subscribed to Mapletree Industrial Trust PO shares

2. Order not filled for Mapletree Industrial Trust but... 

3. Added Mapletree Industrial Trust

4. Portfolio Rebalancing: Cut StarHub to buy Mapletree Industrial Trust

5. A Reit that I do not dare to sell again

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and be strong as always. 

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

My Thoughts and Plan for MCT + MNACT = MPACT

 

On 31 Dec 2021, Mapletree Commercial Trust (MCT-SGX:N2IU) and Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust (MNACT-SGX:RW0U) proposed a merger into a combined entity with market cap valued at more than S$10 billion theoretically, to become the 7th largest Reit in Asia.

Let us zoom into the 5 positives of this merger.

1. DPU and NAV Accretive

From the announcement, the DPU will increase by at least 7.5% from 4.39 cents to 4.72 cents per half year and the NAV per unit of MCT will increase by at least 6.5% from $1.68 to $1.79 after the merger.

2. Geographical Diversification

MCT currently owns only properties in Singapore including the likes of Vivo City and MBC I & II.

MNACT currently owns properties in Hong Kong (Festive Walk Mall constituting 53.5% of the portfolio), China, Japan and South Korea.

After the merger, the enlarged entity will own all the properties currently owned by MCT and MNACT, achieving geographical diversification as follows: Singapore (51.4%), Hong Kong (26%), China (10.8%), Japan (10.2%) and South Korea (1.6%).

3. Top 10 Largest Asian Reit

By becoming the 7th largest Asian Reit, the enlarged entity will enjoy enhanced free float, trading liquidity and increased index representation. 

As Reits depend heavily on debts to fund operations and acquisitions of properties, the enlarged Reit will also be able to leverage on close to $4 billion of debt funding capacity, at lower cost of debt to achieve greater financial flexibility.

4. Lowered Tenant Concentration Risk

Following the merger, there will be improved cashflow stability from high quality tenants while reducing income concentration. For example, Google's is MCT's top tenant and its 10.8% contribution to MCT's gross rental income will drop to 5.8% of MPACT's gross rental income; BMW is MNACT's top tenant and its 8.1% contribution to MNACT's gross rental income will drop to 3.8% of MPACT's gross rental income after the merger.  

5. Growth Potential

MCT has been experiencing stifled growth since the acquisition of MBC II in 2019. They have 6 right of first refusal properties from the sponsor, Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd for potential acquisition - Harbourfront Centre, Harbourfront Tower 1 and 2, St James Power Station, PSA Vista and SPI Development Site. None of the 6 properties present any "wow" factor.

MNACT, on the other hand, has the mandate to acquire any commercial and retail properties spanning across North Asia from South Korea, Japan to all over China for inorganic growth.

MPACT will be able to amalgamate the strengths of both Reits, leveraging on economies of scale, continue to achieve increasing annual DPU and growth in property assets via larger acquisitions, capital recycling, asset enhancement initiatives and development initiatives.

After seeing the beautiful story of merger, let us look at the cons and downsides of this merger.

1. Greater Risks

With geographical diversification of the property portfolio, it comes with greater risks. Forex risks from converting rental income received from various currencies back to SGD, natural disasters, political unrest and regulatory risks particularly from the China government just to name a few. Higher risks should give higher returns hence we should expect a higher dividend yield of more than 5% to compensate for the greater investment risks.

2. Pollution of Greater Southern Waterfront Pure Crown Jewels

MCT will no longer be able to boast about owning pure high quality office/business park/retail properties such as the likes of America Merill Lynch Harbourfront (MLHF), MBC I & II and Vivocity, situated in Southern Singapore to ride on the waves of Greater Southern Waterfront in Singapore.

The scenes of protestors burning down Christmas Trees in Festive Walk Mall in Kowloon, Hong Kong and empty retail spaces in Gateway Plaza, locked-down Beijing City in China will pollute the scenes of crowded and joyous shoppers in Vivocity in Harbour front and conduciveness of MBC I & II or MLHF for work and play.

Festive Walk and Gateway Plaza are the underperforming properties in MNACT's portfolio with negative rental reversions, short lease, shorter WALE and high vacancies that may bring down the entire enlarged entity and drag down MPACT's performance in terms of DPU growth and attractiveness. MPACT will need to make many more high quality acquisitions in Japan and Korea before disposing these 2 underperforming  assets at possibly losses.

3. Increased Gearing and Higher Debt Ratio

Gearing of MCT will increase from 33.7% to 39.2% post merger. In contrast, gearing of MNACT will decrease from 41.4% to 39.2%. Evidently, this deal is to save MNACT's ass, rather than to boost MCT's growth prospects.

Due to the high gearing, equity fund raisings are highly probable after the merger to raise funds for acquisitions, operations or other initiatives.

It is hence no surprise that Moody is reviewing MCT's Baa1 issuer rating for a downgrade to reflect the potential weakening of MCT's credit metrics and uncertainty around its financial policy following the proposed merger with MNACT. On a pro forma basis, Moody expects MCT's expected net debt to increase to around 9.4 to 9.9 times Ebitda from 8.2 times for the year ending Mar 2022. This is weaker than the 8.5 times downgrade threshold for Baa1 rating.

Plan

We have to ask ourselves the original purpose of our investment in MCT or MNACT.

Is it for income, for growth, for value, for capital gain or for trading short-term to punt? 

What roles do these Mapletree Reits play in your investment portfolio?

I invested in MCT primarily to own high quality, income-producing commercial assets yielding more than 4% for the long-term.

My trade of MNACT in 2020 was a short-term value punt using idle SRS funds. I bought at 0.95 which was a great discount to NAV, collected 0.02 of dividends and disposed at 0.935, breaking even. I do not own any MNACT shares now but with the benefit of hindsight, I should have kept it till now.

I am currently vested in 11,000 shares of MCT and I intend to do nothing to existing shares till merger since MPACT is able to continue fulfill my objective of long-term income at more than 4% yield. 

I will add shares of MCT should the opportunity arise when its share price  fall below my assessment of fair value. Let us try to gauge what is the fair value of MCT, assuming the merger took place and MCT will become MPACT given the higher risks.

The dividend yields of MNACT in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 are 6.83%, 6.95%, 7.13%, 5.61% and 6.17% respectively. We know that in 2020, the rental income is affected by the pandemic and things started to recover slightly in 2021 last year. I believe it is fair to demand an average yield of 7% from the properties of MNACT during pre and post pandemic days.

The dividend yields of MCT in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 are 4.92%, 4.96%, 5.4%, 3.79% and 5.31% respectively. Again we know that in 2020, the rental income is affected by the pandemic and things started to recover slightly in 2021 last year. I believe it is fair to demand an average yield of around 4% from the Singapore properties of MCT during normal times.

After the merger, for MPACT, we could demand 51% of 4% and 49% of 7% to derive a yield of 5.47% yield to compensate for the greater risk from investing our monies in this enlarged entity.

Assuming we get an annual dividend of 4.72 cents x 2 = 94.4 cents or $0.0944 from MPACT. The share price of MPACT needs to be $1.725 and below to give us a minimum yield of 5.47%.

At current share price of MCT at $1.83, the yield based on $0.944 dividend is 5.16% which is quite attractive but not enough to compensate for the greater risks.

I plan to add more shares to increase my investment of MCT if its share price fall below $1.73. In fact, I am willing to pay a slight premium of 1 to 2% to get a slightly lower yield of around 5.3% in current low interest rate environment and start placing my order at $1.76.

If I am still vested in MNACT shares and if it constitute more than 10% of my investment portfolio, I would consider selling the shares above $1.10 because its value is pretty much unlocked from the news of this merger, or opt for option 2 to receive payout of $0.1912 in cash and 0.5009 new Mpact share based on per share of MNACT owned. I will then deploy the cash into other growth stocks or Reits.

If MNACT only constitutes a small portion i.e. <10% of my portfolio, I would let nature takes its course and do nothing. By default, every MNACT share will be converted to 0.5963 Mpact share after merger.

Conclusion

This proposed merger is a bad one for MCT shareholders but the intentions are good at a macro level.

The enlarged entity MPACT is still worth investing into, for owning Asian commercial properties for income and growth, but at the fair price to compensate for the higher risks, which I believe to be below $1.73.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and strong always.

With Love and Peace,
Qiongster

Why I do not want my CPF SA to attain FRS now?

Having received $14k of interests from my CPF savings for 2021, I am getting greedy.

I ponder whether to earn more interests by transferring funds from CPF Ordinary Account (OA) to Special Account (SA).

The Full Retirement Sum (FRS) is $192,000 for members who turn age 55 in year 2022.

My current Special Account balance is $178,795.29.

I have sufficient funds in my OA to transfer $13,204.71 to SA for attainment of FRS instantly.

However, I decided not to attain FRS this year for 2 reasons.

1. Personal loan from my own OA account for property purchase

As I have already made a down-payment for a HDB BTO flat, there is an outstanding amount of more than $300k to be settled with either a bank loan or HDB loan in 5 years time. Having no intention to cash out on my investments in stocks, Reits and savings bonds with average yield above 2.5% nor take on any form of loans, I plan to make full use of funds from CPF OA for the outstanding payment of HDB BTO flat.

Due to property purchase plans, I have stopped transferring monies from OA to SA in the past 3 years, incurring the opportunity costs of earning lesser interest rate of 2.5% in OA compared to 4% in SA. 

It is important to bear in mind that such personal loan is costly as amount of monies withdrawn from OA is subjected to accrued interest of 2.5% and this will possible eat into the profits from property resale profits in the future as proceeds from property sales will need to be credited back to CPF OA together with accrued interests.

2. Enjoy tax relief from Retirement Sum Top-Up (RSTU) Scheme of SA account

My CPF SA account has been increasing at a rate of around $27k every year inclusive of the annual $7k cash top up for tax relief under the RSTU scheme in the past. It is important to note that once MA hits the limit of $66k, contributions to MA overflows to SA, to achieve a greater contribution amount to SA.

From RSTU of $8k into SA account this year, I am able to save at least $560 of taxes (assuming 7% tax bracket) and gain $320 of interests (4% in SA), achieving a total reward of $980 from $8k. This is higher than the $195 (additional 1.5% interest) that would be gained for transferring $13k from OA to SA to attain FRS instantly.

Based on the FRS projection from dollarsandsense, I will have at most 2 years to enjoy tax reliefs from RSTU before attaining FRS of $197,800 in 2023 (projected based on 3% increments). This is assuming my CPF MA hits the limit, myself staying employed with CPF SA contributions of another 2 x $20k and 2 x $8k RSTU in the next 2 years. 

Since I expect my active income from employment will continue to grow and attract higher taxes, I hope to be able to enjoy some tax reliefs for at least this year. Also knowing that I will attain FRS by plan before age of 40 gives me the confidence to not do anything to tamper with my CPF accounts. After 2023, I will let the compounding effect do its natural wonders to ensure that I will attain FRS of more than $400k in 2048 or so.

Yes. $400k is the projected FRS after 2048! This is the harsh reality from mathematics. The critics grumble and complain that CPF monies are not our own monies because of this FRS thingy. It is very hard and impossible to withdraw our CPF monies at age of 55 or 65 because we could not attain the ever growing FRS, and due to being unable to earn the ever-growing salary that keep pace with the growth rate of FRS.  

I am not going to dwell on that topic because I am convinced that we are in full control of our own financial health and destiny. We can always transfer monies from OA to SA, save up to make cash top ups or voluntary contributions to CPF accounts in order to achieve FRS early in our lives and let the compounding effect take control to help us attain the FRS even before we retire.

Source: Dollarsandsense

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and strong always.

With Love and Peace,
Qiongster

First $14K Income In 2022!

 

I woke up in year 2022 to receive an income of $14.3k in my CPF savings accounts!

It certainly feel great to be able to earn money when I sleep.

Even though CPF monies do not seem to be like real monies, I believe they are still illiquid monies that can be used to fund our retirement in our late lives, purchase properties, pay for education fees of children and pay medical bills.

Here are my CPF interests for 2021:

In total, I received this amount of interests from my CPF savings:

$14,365.69

This is a 14% increase from $12,592.93 which I received in 2021.

The interest of $2.4k earned from Medisave account can easily cover the premiums for Careshield life and Medishield life. In a way, it is possible to enjoy free insurance by using passive income from CPF savings to cover the insurance premiums. This can be achieved only if we bother to top up our own medisave account and strive to hit the maximum limits of $66k in 2022 to let the 4% interest rate do its work. 

I am certainly pleased with this sum of passive income as it certainly boost my net worth on the first day of a brand new year.

Let's charge towards freedom in this Tiger year. Huat ah!!

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and strong always.

With Love and Peace,
Qiongster