PRIVACY POLICY

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Investing in Singapore banks?

Just read an article in CNA and I am just thinking out loud if it is still a good idea to invest in Singapore banks?


Southeast Asia's biggest bank has said demand for home and car loans in Singapore has plunged this year following government measures to cool inflation.

DBS Group's chief executive, Piyush Gupta, told Channel NewsAsia new home loan demand fell by 50 to 60 per cent last month.

He said lending this year is unlikely to match 2012.

.... Mr Gupta said much of the bank's Singapore operations lose money and Indonesia is the focus for growth this year.

 Read full article: here.

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2. Cooling measures for cars.
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9 comments:

  1. lzyDataMarch 28, 2013 at 11:18 PM

    Looking at DBS's financial statements as of 31 Dec 2012, net profit from Singapore - "based on the country in which the transactions are booked" - was $2529m or about 66% of the total net profit of $3809m for the year. So it looks like by "lose money" Gupta means "make insane amounts of money". He probably means something more sophisticated like return on assets or capital.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AK71March 29, 2013 at 11:59 AM

    Hi IzyData,

    I have a feeling that Gupta was referring to the first quarter of 2013 which is coming to a close soon. Am I mistaken?

    ReplyDelete
  3. CoryMarch 30, 2013 at 7:57 AM

    I read the article. Did he really said Singapore Operation losing money or earning lesser ? Just want to be sure the extend of the impact.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AK71March 30, 2013 at 8:14 AM

    Hi Cory,

    The words are from the article. I did not change a single word.

    What do you think? ;)

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  5. khMarch 30, 2013 at 10:15 AM

    Hi AK71,

    Theoretically he could be right... much of the Singapore operations lose money, but the rest of the operations earn so much money that the overall result is still a nice profit.

    I don't know enough about a bank's operations to know if that's correct. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. khMarch 30, 2013 at 10:22 AM

    He did not say that the Singapore operations lose money. He said "much of the bank's Singapore operations lose money" which is totally different.

    That is theoretically possible (Pareto principle, anybody?) but I don't know enough about a bank's operations to comment further. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. AK71March 30, 2013 at 11:57 AM

    Hi kh,

    Very enlightening comments! Thank you very much. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. seefeiMarch 30, 2013 at 6:53 PM

    Must buy this bank, even though " most of sg operation lose money" but its share prices keep going up. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  9. AK71March 30, 2013 at 11:46 PM

    Hi seefei,

    I was a shareholder once upon a time at under $10 a share. Haha.. Sold too early. ;p

    ReplyDelete