2015 full year income from non-REITs.

Before I reveal the numbers, let me talk to myself about what I did in 4Q 2015, investments wise.

I re-initiated a long position in ARA as I felt that its stock price declined to a reasonably attractive level. 

ARA's rights issue which followed not long after was unexpected but I took up my entitlement and applied for excess rights as I looked at it as an opportunity to buy more on the cheap. I will probably buy more if the stock declines further in price.

Of course, those who follow my blog will also remember another rights issue and that was by Croesus Retail Trust. I too participated fully in that rights issue.

A back of the envelope calculation shows that Croesus Retail Trust is now trading at a 10% distribution yield. 

Croesus Retail Trust has rather high gearing level but if we were to take that away, Croesus Retail Trust is actually still generating more than a 5% distribution yield (i.e. non-leveraged yield) which I think is very attractive for a portfolio of mostly freehold retail properties in Japan. 

As the Trust's unit price declined, I added to my position again in the middle of December at 78c a unit.

I also increased my investment in Accordia Golf Trust as its stock price declined. The last time I did this was in mid-December at 51c a unit.

Investing in Accordia Golf Trust, we must realise that weather plays an important part in its performance. So, we have to expect its revenue to fluctuate quite a bit seasonally, much like investing in hospitality REITs.

With sentiments pretty negative, if Mr. Market were to offer me meaningfully lower prices, I would probably be buying more.

I also did a bit of trading in 4Q 2015. I reduced my long positions in Wilmar and ST Engineering as their stock prices recovered. That gave me some trading gains for the quarter.

I don't trade very much anymore as it requires a bit more work. Now, I might not even look at the stock market for several days in a row.

I added to my long position again in ST Engineering as its stock price declined by more than 10% from my recent selling price. 


ST Engineering is still one investment for income and growth. I definitely want to buy more if Mr. Market goes into a depression.

For those who do not follow my comments section, I initiated a smallish long position in DBS. Some know that I have been thinking of buying into the three local banks for a while and have been waiting for their stock prices to become cheaper.

I chose DBS first because it was trading at the smallest premium to NAV compared to OCBC and UOB. There is also consensus that DBS would be the biggest beneficiary of rising interest rates.

I also added to my investment in SingTel as its stock price declined. We invest in SingTel, Starhub and M1 because they are defensive income generators but with SingTel, there is also a nice element of growth.

Finally, I added to my long position in APTT this month after having left it alone since its inception. The rapid plunge in APTT's unit price up till middle of December seemed excessive to me even though I have mentioned before that a DPU of 8c a year is unsustainable in the longer run.


A much lower DPU of between 4c to 5c would probably be more sustainable for APTT. So, adding to my long position at 63c a unit, I am expecting a more realistic distribution yield of 6.3% to 7.9%.


A more recent development was an expression of interest by a party to acquire Ascendas Hospitality Trust which I included in my income portfolio in 3Q 2014. I have added to my investment on a few occasions since then, as and when its unit price declined.

The last time I increased exposure to Ascendas Hospitality Trust was on 24 August 2015 at 58.5c a unit. With an estimated annual DPU of 5.5c, I was looking at a distribution yield of almost 10%.

Although I hope that the offer is going to be at a fairly attractive premium to valuation, I am aware that if the Trust should be taken private, my income from non-REITs next year would take a hit.

Very safe to show hand like this.

Including my first income distribution from Religare Health Trust (RHT), dividends from my investments in non-REITs in Q4 brings my income in 2015 from them to a grand total of S$76,804.69.

This works out to be about S$6,400.00 a month.

Including the distributions from S-REITs this year, I am pretty satisfied with the total income generated by my investment portfolio.


Related post:
1. ARA: Re-initiating long position.
2. Croesus Retail Trust: Rights.
3. Trading ST Engineering.
4. Religare Health Trust: Entered at 88c.
5. 9M 2015 income from non-REITs.

9M 2015 passive income from non-REITs.

Some wonder if Mr. Market could go into a depression? I don't know but I do know that many stocks became much more attractively priced in the last three months.

Consistent with my strategy to diversify my portfolio to reduce reliance on S-REITs for income, I added to my long positions in the following as their stock prices declined more significantly recently:

1. Accordia Golf Trust

2. Ascendas Hospitality Trust

3. ST Engineering

4. Starhub

5. SembCorp Industries

In the last three months, I also initiated long positions in the following as investments for income:

5. VICOM
"A 15x PE ratio would give us a fair value of $5.36 or so per share."

6. Religare Health Trust
"Trust has demonstrated its ability to improve its revenue organically quite strongly which makes up for the expiration of the sponsor's waiver to their share of the distributable income."

7. King Wan
"King Wan is in a net cash position and it also has an order book that would provide earnings visibility until 2018."

Finally, I accumulated the following stocks which have a bit of an income investing angle but the main reason is because I think they are worth much more and at lower prices, they became even more attractive:

8. Wilmar

9. OUE Limited

If you should be interested, you could search ASSI for more of my blog posts on these stocks and why I decided to add them to my portfolio when I did.

Of course, stocks could stay undervalued for a long time but regularly receiving some dividend in the meantime makes the waiting more palatable. I like to be paid while I wait.

If you suspect that I have dipped into my war chest in the last three months, you are right. 

Could we see another big decline in the stock market? We could and we should be ready. So, being cautious, I have not exhausted my war chest.

I have a couple of fixed deposits maturing next month in October and I will probably be keeping the money close at hand instead of putting it in another fixed deposit or two.

In Q3 2015, the following non-REITs paid dividends:

1. SATS

2. Old Chang Kee

3. APTT

4. SingTel

5. SCI

6. SMM

7. Wilmar

8. NeraTel

9. ST Engineering

10. QAF Ltd.

11. Starhub

12. HongLeong Finance

13. Croesus Retail Trust

For the first 9 months of 2015, total passive income received from non-REITs: S$ 57,747.59. 

This works out to be S$ 6,416.40 per month.

Have a shopping list and be ready to pounce if Mr. Market becomes depressed.

Related post:

6M 2015 passive income from non-REITs.

2014 full year income from non-REITs.

This is the first time I am blogging about my full year income from investments in non-REITs. As my passive income generated from investments in S-REITs has for many years overshadowed income received from non-REITs, it wasn't very meaningful to blog about the latter.



Now that passive income received from S-REITs took a plunge, it has become more essential to talk to myself about what I have done in the non-REIT space which has shored up dividends received this year, making income contributions by non-REITs a more significant part of my total annual income from the stock market.


Before I continue, readers might want to bear in mind that a few of my investments in the non-REIT space have been with me for many years. They are not all new investments, therefore.

Anyway, non-REITs which have contributed to my passive income in 2014 are:

1. Croesus Retail Trust
2. Hock Lian Seng
3. Perennial China Retail Trust *
4. CapitaMalls Asia *
5. NeraTel
6. Wilmar
7. Yongnam
8. APTT
9. ST Engineering
10. SPH
11. QAF
12. Old Chang Kee
13. K-Green Trust *
14. SATS
15. Ascendas Hospitality Trust
16. Singapura Finance

* Sold and will not contribute any income in 2015.

New or old, I have blogged about all the above stocks before. So, if you should be interested in understanding why and when I invested in these stocks, just do a search for them in my blog and you will find the relevant blog posts.

Of these 16 stocks, I increased my long positions or initiated long positions in the last 12 to 15 months in Croesus Retail Trust, Hock Lian Seng, NeraTel, ST Engineering, SPH, SATS, Ascendas Hospitality Trust and Singapura Finance. 

Apart from Singapura Finance, it is quite obvious that I increased or initiated exposure to these stocks because of their relatively attractive dividend yields. I am still an income investor at heart.

I wouldn't say that all the stocks are of the "good to hold forever" variety but it should be obvious to regular readers that I am not averse to selling a stock if I am no longer impressed by its prospects. 

There are many examples which I have blogged about in the past and examples from this year are Perennial China Retail Trust and K-Green Trust in the list shared earlier.

Anyway, the total amount of dividends from non-REITs in 2014 is beefed up mostly by my rather big investment in Croesus Retail Trust which happened when its unit price took a severe beating shortly after its IPO. 

The relatively large increases to my investments in SPH and NeraTel also helped.

Income from non-REITs in 2014:
S$ 61,752.66

This figure could increase in 2015 despite losing the contributions from Perennial China Retail Trust, CapitaMalls Asia and K-Green Trust. This is because Ascendas Hospitality Trust will make a full year income contribution in 2015.

Of course, it is hard to say at this point in time if I could divest partially or fully some of the investments mentioned here in 2015. 

Indeed, I could also put more money to work in the stock market. So, nothing is set in stone. However, I do know that if valuations should go closer to crisis levels, I will be buying more.

I understand that the stock market could get a bit bumpy but my investments for income should provide me with much comfort and also help to fill my war chest in the meantime.

Related posts:
1. 2014 full year income from S-REITs.
2. AK went shopping in the (stock) market.
3. Be comfortable with being invested.
4. Mystical art of wealth accumulation.
5. Portfolio review: Unexpectedly eventful.
"... my decision to increase my level of investment in SPH and NeraTel last year so that my overall portfolio is less reliant on S-REITs for passive income was pre-emptive. Enlarging investments in Hock Lian Seng and Croesus Retail Trust earlier this year has also helped to reduce reliance on S-REITs for passive income."

Ascendas Hospitality Trust: A nibble.

This business trust owns hotels in Australia, China, Japan and Singapore. 

Unlike rental income from industrial, commercial or residential properties, for examples, a hotel's income is less stable. 

It has a strong element of seasonality.

As most of Ascendas Hospitality Trust's properties are in Australia, China and Japan, its income is also very much subjected to foreign exchange risks.





Hotel Sunroute Ariake in Tokyo is located in the heart of the Ariake area near the Tokyo Big Sight Convention Center.


To make it more attractive as an investment for income, at its IPO price of 88c a unit, yield was engineered to be higher through a 1 year waiver to income distributions by the sponsor. 

The income forecast was also very optimistic.





To be fair, it was probably a difficult job to provide an accurate forecast and, in July 2012, I said:

"I feel that I need to be conversant in the economies of three countries and the health of their respective tourism sectors to analyse how well they could continue doing. 

"I would also need to take into consideration that income would be collected in three foreign currencies and converted to S$ for distribution to unitholders.

"Foreign exchange rates would affect income in S$ terms.

"So, analysing this Trust and forecasting its future income is somewhat more challenging. It is less straightforward." (See related post #1)





I do understand that having properties in different countries reduces the risk of concentration. 

However, whether it is worth having to deal with so much foreign exchange risk or not, I am not sure.

The Trust's unit price suffered a big decline when it did an equity fund raising through a placement to raise $50 million to partially fund the purchase of Osaka Namba Washington Hotel Plaza in Japan not too long ago. 





The price? 

68c a unit. 

The number of units in issue increased by 7.1%.

Gearing is estimated to be about 38% while NAV per share is about 74c. 





Its relatively high gearing level could be a source of concern although the Trust does not have any debt due till 2016. 

I do, however, like that more than 83% of the Trust's borrowings are in the local currencies. 

This provides a natural hedge against foreign exchange risk.

Osaka Namba Washington Hotel Plaza

What about the DPU?

Well, although the DPU became more realistic with the expiry of the sponsor's waiver to income distribution, seasonality makes it inaccurate to annualise any one quarter's DPU. 

So, instead, I simply added 4 consecutive quarters' income distributions which gives me a 12 months DPU of 5.5c. 

This is probably more realistic than the forecast of 7.07c during the IPO. 

At a price of 72c a unit, therefore, a realistic distribution yield is 7.64%.

Although the Trust has hotels in a few countries, most of its properties are in Australia. 

So, how well the Australian economy and hospitality sector do will have a big impact on the performance of the Trust. 

A stronger A$ will be good for the Trust. 

Will this happen? 

Well, if the much talked about recovery of the global economy takes place, then, yes.

For someone who is in search of more stability in passive income generation, hospitality business trusts, Ascendas Hospitality Trust included, might not be the best places to look. 

However, if we feel that the Trust's current DPU is realistic (which is another way of saying "not inflated"), then, as an investment to diversify our sources of passive income, it might be worth a nibble.

Having declined to a price of 72c a unit, investors who got in at IPO would still be nursing a paper loss even after taking in the income distributions received so far. 

They might want to ask if they were not already invested, would they initiate a long position at today's price?

See portfolio of hotels: here.

Pullman Sydney Hyde Park - Australia




Related post:
1. Ascendas Hospitality Trust: Am I interested?
2. OUE Hospitality Trust: Considerations.

OUE Hospitality Trust: Considerations and comparisons.

Some might be more interested in OUE Hospitality Trust than SPH Trust because the distribution yield the former has promised is higher at 7.46% compared to the latter's 5.79%. 

Although the two are not strictly comparable since they are holding different types of real estate, let us look past that for now and just concentrate on the numbers to see which one is a better deal.

Mandarin Hotel.

OUE Hospitality Trust is being offered at a small discount to NAV while SPH REIT is being offered at a small premium to NAV. Oh, I like a discount!

OUE Hospitality Trust is going to have a gearing level of some 32.8% while SPH REIT's gearing level is 27.3%. Oh, I like SPH REIT more now because its gearing level is lower.

Leverage, of course, makes it harder to see the underlying yield. If we were to remove leverage and assume that there was none, we see that OUE Hospitality Trust approximately yields 5.62% while SPH REIT yields 4.55%. The former still gives us 1.1% more a year!

SPH REIT's Clementi Mall.

OUE Hospitality Trust has 2 properties and apparently they have 44 years left to their leases. SPH REIT has 2 properties too. The Paragon will have a fresh 99 years lease while Clementi Mall has a few years lesser than that. I like longer leases, for sure.

So, although OUE Hospitality Trust is able to generate 1.1% more return per year compared to SPH REIT, the life of its assets is less than half of SPH REIT's, assuming the status quo is maintained.

Ariake Sunroute Hotel

OUE Hospitality Trust is a stapled security and not a REIT per se. I have blogged about Ascendas Hospitality Trust before which is also a stapled security. For anyone who might want to find out more about this, I have provided the link at the end of this blog.

Like OUE Hospitality Trust, Ascendas Hospitality Trust also had its IPO priced at 88c.

Ascendas Hospitality Trust last traded at 85.5c which is still at a slight premium to its NAV. At 85.5c, it has an estimated distribution yield of 8.57% and a gearing level of about 35%. 90% of its assets are in Australia and Japan. These are freehold in nature!

AK is just talking to himself.


Related posts:
1. Ascendas Hospitality Trust.
2. SPH or SPH REIT?

Ascendas Hospitality Trust: Am I interested?

Over the weekend, a friend asked me if I would be interested in Ascendas Hospitality Trust although he knew that I am generally not interested in IPOs. He was just asking for my thoughts on the Trust.

Ariake Sunroute Hotel, Japan.

Ascendas Hospitality Trust (A-HTrust) will be offering 437.33 million stapled securities at 88 cents each for mainboard listing in its initial public offer (IPO) in Singapore.

(Source: The Business Times, 18 July 2012)

What are stapled securities?

Stapling simply means that two different securities are "stapled" together for the purposes of trading or transfers. Stapled security could comprise two or more of the same or legally different instruments, for example, a share in a company and a unit in a trust.

The trust(s) and the company(ies) can hold assets and operate businesses, but active business, such as asset management and development are typically conducted by the company while passive investments in property or funds are undertaken by the trust. In practice, the trust and the company effectively operate as one entity although the company continues to be a separate legal entity from the trust.

Source: http://www.invested.hk/invested/en/html/section/index.html

For example:

CDL Hospitality Trusts is a stapled group comprising CDL Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust ("H-REIT"), a real estate investment trust, and CDL Hospitality Business Trust ("HBT"), a business trust.

Well, what do I think of Ascendas Hospitality Trust? I won't do a thorough analysis of the Trust because I don't really have the inclination although I will share why I am not interested in it (now).

ibis Beijing Sanyuan Hotel.

Initially, the Trust will hold 10 hotels in its portfolio. These hotels are in the countries of China, Australia and Japan with Australia contributing to some three quarters of its income. The Trust also projects an 8% distribution yield in the year 2014.

I feel that I need to be conversant in the economies of three countries and the health of their respective tourism sectors to analyse how well they could continue doing. I would also need to take into consideration that income would be collected in three foreign currencies and converted to S$ for distribution to unitholders. Foreign exchange rates would affect income in S$ terms.

So, analysing this Trust and forecasting its future income is somewhat more challenging. It is less straightforward.

Then, what about my investment in Saizen REIT? Isn't that Japanese?

I won't say that I am conversant with the Japanese economy or its housing sector but I am a bit better informed in the area. Also, it is one country, not three and I only have to look at a pair of currencies, not three.

Saizen REIT is also holding residential properties, not hotels. Demand for housing is more inelastic compared to demand for hotels and with the type of properties Saizen REIT owns, there is lesser correlation with the ups and downs of the economy. Demand for hotels, however, is very different.

Ascendas Hospitality Trust is going to demand a lot of time and effort from me if I were to be become a unitholder. An eventual 8% distribution yield? I will need a higher distribution yield to entice me into this one in view of the work I have to do.