Silver bullion coins.

Sharing photos of some silver bullion coins I own:

I still believe that people who have some extra cash should own some investment grade gold and silver as a hedge against the flaws of fiat currencies. Where silver is concerned, I think the Canadian Maple Leaf is one of the purest around. Relatively cheaper too.

Read my latest piece on the topic in my blog on precious metals:
Gold and silver: Still important assets to own.

Related post:
Buy gold and silver as insurance.

Olam: A time bomb?

The high profile standoff between Muddy Waters and Olam is not about something new. Earlier this year in June, I wondered at Olam's share buy backs as well. I blogged about it and attached a section of research done by Kim Eng on the company then.

What Muddy Waters has said does make sense and Olam has to focus on its business rather than its share price.

Should Olam come to collapse (as we believe it will), its use of much-needed cash to buy back shares at this time should give rise to questions about whether fiduciary responsibilities have been breached – particularly given the possible existence of individual motivations that are not necessarily aligned with those of Olam’s lenders.  - Taken from Muddy Waters' open letter to Olam.

To read the letter in full, go to Muddy Water's website: here.

So, is Olam going kaput in time? I know that Sunny Varghese was at the helm of Cityspring Infrastructure Trust. I was not impressed with that entity and was lucky enough to exit with a small gain. Is he able to do much better with Olam?

Short sellers could home in on Olam in time and it would be interesting to see how things turn out.

Related posts:
1. Olam: Share price up on buy backs.
2. Cityspring Infrastructure Trust: Rights issue.

First REIT: 30,900,000 new units.

First REIT is having a private placement, issuing 30,900,000 new units at 95c each. This is to help pay for acquisitions announced earlier in September.

How will this impact existing unitholders?

Other than the advance distribution for the period 01 October to 25 November which is nice to have, existing unitholders' interest in the trust is going to be diluted.

The REIT has approximately 632,645,000 units in issue. The 30,900,000 new units will add 4.88% to the total units in issue.  Based on an estimated pro forma DPU of 6.77c, post acquisitions, the DPU post private placement is estimated to be 6.455c or 1.614c per quarter.

In 3Q 2012, the DPU was 1.68c. Annualised, it gives us 6.72c. So, unit holders seem to be better off pre acquisitions and private placement. We are likely to see a 3.93% reduction in DPU in future.

At a price of $1.02 per unit, I now estimate a distribution yield of 6.32%. If unit price should decline to 95c which is what the private placement's investors would be paying, distribution yield would be 6.65%.

The advantage of the private placement is that it would strengthen the balance sheet of the REIT without incurring hefty costs which would come with a rights issue as the amount raised is not big. However, the expected dilution and a possibly lower DPU in future is unpalatable.

See announcement: here.

Related posts:
1. First REIT: Acquisitions in Manado and Makasar.
2. First REIT: 3Q 2012.

Flew United Airlines SG-Japan-USA (but never again).

Added on 12 April 2017:

OMG! This is what they do on United Airlines these days?



I won't fly United Airlines anymore.
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I am back! It is good to be home.

It has been a while since I went on a trip to the USA. I no longer enjoy very long flights and flying to the USA takes a VERY long time. 

Then, there is the time difference which I find harder to adjust to as I grow older. 

Then, there are all those pre-dawn flights which means being at the airport at 3 or 4am which means waking up in the middle of the night. 

Then, there is the returning to Singapore past midnight. Really tiring.

There is always a need to layover in an Asian city and although some would complain about this, I actually enjoy such layovers. 

I always fly American airlines like United, Northwest or Delta to the USA and the layovers are always in Narita, Japan. 

It is the same this time.

A two to three hours layover is just about right. I would have enough time to have a hot meal and do some window shopping in the airport as well. 

On this trip, I had a bowl of hot udon soup on my outbound journey and a very delicious cheese and ham toast on my inbound journey.

Many hungry for a hot meal!

A bowl of hot udon soup for 750 Yen. Think this is expensive? Try ordering the same in the USA!

DOUTOR has more than 900 outlets in Japan! 

Croque Monsieur is a toast with three types of cheese and ham!
Add a bottle of Genmai Cha for 550 Yen. Heavenly!

Ah, makes me feel like going on a holiday to Japan again. The JPY has weakened quite a bit since my last trip in December 2011. Should I? Hmm...

See photos of my December 2011 trip to Japan: here.