Added UOB

I first initiated position in UOB (SGX: U11) in May 2020 at $19.72 and have collected $1.14 of dividends, bringing the average holding cost to $18.58.

As the share price of UOB is languishing below its NAV of $22.59, I feel that it is still an attractive investment prospect. This is despite headwinds in the economy, increasing Non-Performing Loans, declines in Net Income Margins and extension of bank dividend caps to 2021. At 0.8x book value, with dividend yield close to 4%, I believe it is better to invest in banks during times of uncertainty rather than waiting for the economy to recover before doing so. During economy booming times, we will then have to pay inflated prices for bank shares.

I think that UOB is more conservative and defensive relative to DBS and OCBC because it has greater presence in domestic markets, larger focus on South East Asia growing and youthful economies, higher ROE and edging out in dividend yield. Ideally, it would be great to own all 3 banks to have the best of all worlds but given limited resources now, I decided to focus on accumulating UOB first.

Hence I decided to add some more UOB shares and my order was filled at $19.56 this morning.

I also collected 6 free UOB shares from scrip dividend reinvestment which is going to be implemented for next year's dividends too. 

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Thanks for reading,

With love & peace,
Qiongster