Top 1,000 websites in Singapore.

In my first year or so as a blogger, I would track and analyse my blog's traffic and I even published reports complete with charts every few months. A reader said that I was producing quarterly reports like listed companies. Anyway, after slightly more than a year doing it, I stopped. I guess the novelty wore off.

Today, I look at Alexa and was pleasantly surprised to find that ASSI has made its way into the top 1,000 websites in Singapore. I feel that this is probably a milestone and so, I am sharing this bit of discovery here with my readers. If ASSI were indeed a business like some people tell me it should be, I guess a special dividend could be declared. ;-p

Related posts:
1. Alexa (Part 2).
2. ASSI 1Q 2011 quarterly report.

Singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.sg's three-month global Alexa traffic rank is 348,802. Visitors to the site view an average of 1.4 unique pages per day. The site is relatively popular among.

  

Alexa Traffic Rank
	995 Rank inSGTraffic Rank in Country A rough estimate of singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.sg's popularity in a specific country. The rank by country is calculated using a combination of average daily visitors to singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.sg and pageviews on singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.sg from users from that country over the past month. The site with the highest combination of visitors and pageviews is ranked #1 in that country.

Buy stuff from your favourite online stores and get them to ship over to Singapore using vPost! Three lucky customers will win a dream vacation!

Details here: vPOST.

Marco Polo Marine: Patience will be rewarded.

I added to my long position in Marco Polo Marine as long term support was tested. Today, its share price touched a high of 35c before closing at 34.5c on the back of rather high volume. The positive divergence between the CMF and price action has played out. The MACD is rising in the negative territory and we could see price going higher and momentum going positive once more. A retest of 37c, the high of the double top, could happen.

Daily chart.

Weekly chart.

Fundamentally, Marco Polo Marine presented an impressive set of numbers:

All-time high net profit of S$21.3 million against consecutive 8 years of record high revenue at S$89.8 million and record high gross profit at S$29.2 million for FY2012.

Record gross profit and net profit attained with margins at enhanced levels of 32.5% and 23.8% for FY2012, representing increases of 4.4% points and 3.0% points over FY2011 respectively.

Operating cashflow position reversed from a net cashflow used in operations to a net cashflow generated from operations of S$34.5 million in FY2012.

EPS of about 6.3 Singapore cents for FY2012, representing an increase of 23.5% over FY2011, while NAV per share increased by 14.4% to 41.4 Singapore cents as at 30 September 2012.

Declaration of a special interim dividend of 0.8 Singapore cents per share for Q1 FY2013.

See: Media Release.

In earlier blog posts, I stated my reasons for believing that Marco Polo Marine's share price is too low and that we could see a much higher price over time.

If we expect Marco Polo Marine's shares to trade at similar valuation to its peers, a PE of 8x would value each share at 50.4c. This implies a 46% gain from the last closing price of 34.5c.

Patience will be rewarded.

Related post:
Marco Polo Marine: Accumulation mode.

Vending machines in the USA.

On this last trip to the USA, I came across a couple of vending machines that I have never seen before anywhere else.

Guess what this one was selling?

Scratch and win cards! US$3.00 each.

What about this one?

Electronics! Amazing, isn't it?

In a situation where there is a shortage of space and labour, vending machines could be the answer for products which might not really need salespeople.

In Singapore, we see machines selling drinks, snacks and even Gardenia bread. However, we have not even touched the tip of the iceberg. They could be one of the answers to Singapore's problem with high rentals and a shortage of labour.

Related post:
Distinctly Japanese.

Yomeishu: Win Megumi and a beverage mixer!

The everyday person works very hard on a daily basis, taking a toll on their health.

Yomeishu is able to restore and maintain your well-being with natural ingredients.

You can win the goodness of Megumi (a liqueur made with 13 oriental herbs for everyday relaxation), and a Japanese beverage mixer just by answering a simple question!

20 winners will be picked each week for 5 weeks.

This week’s entries close on 28th November 2012.

You could be a winner at:
Yomeishu Guess & Win!

Be cautious even as we accept higher risks.

When I did a Diploma in Business, I had to study Business Law. One thing I remember is that something we buy has to be "fit for the purpose it was built for" and be "of merchantible quality".

So, let's say you bought a contraption which was supposed to keep food fresh but it did not; then, it was not fit for the purpose it was built for. If the contraption really did keep food fresh but it started to fall apart within the first week of use, then, it was not of merchantible quality.

Singapore's Lemon Law which kicked in on 1 September 2012 stipulates a 6 months period in which buyers now have to take action on any defective product. This addresses the issue of "merchantible quality".

In the weekend edition of The Business Times, I read an interesting article on whether conventional wealth management wisdom which says that people nearing retirement should have more of their wealth in conservative bonds is "fit for purpose". This actually raised a question in my mind as to whether wealth managers are providing products which are fit for purpose or are they self serving sales people.

In the few encounters I had with wealth managers, I was advised to be more aggressive with my investments because people in their 30s and early 40s could afford to do so. One asked me why was I so conservative when I told him I was not interested in any of his proposals which sounded rather risky to me. I was then advised that only people nearing retirement should be more conservative.

So far, my personal experience with wealth managers has not been positive, having lost much money through products they sold to me. Unlike physical goods, wealth managers do not have to provide any guarantees as to a financial product's performance. This could be the reason why when the Mini Bonds and other structured products offered a "capital guaranteed" feature, they drew so many investors. Of course, they were not of "merchantible quality" but no buyer could tell until things fell apart. Unlike physical goods, it was too late to do anything.

In an environment of very low interest rates and high inflation, we have to seek higher returns on capital to protect our wealth. However, we have to exercise caution even as we accept higher risks.

Related posts:
1. Low interest rates' a double whammy for some.
2. To protect our wealth, we have to take risk.
3. Fraud: Like taking candy from a baby.

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.
------------------
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.

LMIR: 3Q 2012 DPU 0.73c.

A reader sent me an email and asked if I would be writing about LMIR's 3Q 2012 results. I admit that I was wondering if I should just skip it this time.

LMIR announced a DPU of 0.73c which is lower than the 0.79c declared in 2Q 2012. This is despite the fact the distributable income improved 37.9%, year on year.

In my blog post on the REIT's 2Q 2012 results, I was optimistic that the REIT's DPU would improve further as its gearing of 9.3% meant that it had plenty of debt headroom for yield accretive purchases. However, the management has squandered the enviable low gearing level as a slew of recent acquisitions were DPU dilutive in nature. Post rights, I estimated a DPU of 0.815c and it does not look like it is going to happen anytime soon.

Unless unitholders were active in acquiring nil-paid rights as they were sold down to 2.1c, I believe we were better off pre-rights compared to post-rights. Pre-rights, we were enjoying quarterly DPU in excess of 1c and unit price was very much the same level as it is now. Those of us who bought into the nil-paid rights cheaply would have made capital gains of between 20+% to 40+% in less than a year, excluding income distributions received in the same period. Those who did not do so are not any better off.

Only time will tell us the quality of a REIT's management and LMIR's has disappointed so far.

See 3Q 2012 financial statements: here.

Related posts:
1. LMIR: 2Q 2012 DPU 0.79c.
2. LMIR: More acquisitions and lesser DPU again.
3. LMIR: More benefits from acquiring 4 malls?

Build a bigger retirement fund with CPF-SA (UPDATED).

Young working adults could use their CPF-SAs to grow their retirement funds, risk free, at a faster clip.  

This is a valid and relatively fuss free approach to long term wealth accumulation.

If you think that the additional 1.5% per annum paid on the CPF-SA does not amount to much, I would encourage you to read a blog post of mine written more than two years ago. 

In the last few paragraphs, I explained how transferring funds from CPF-OA to CPF-SA could significantly boost returns.

See: 
Do you want to be richer?





The additional 1% interest paid annually on the combined first $60K in our CPF accounts is another strong incentive for us to use our CPF accounts to grow our retirement funds.

If you are interested to know more, go to the comments section of the blog post:

Want to be wealthier without higher risk?

For risk free, long term savings with significantly higher returns, the best option for average Singaporeans is still the CPF-SA.






Other related posts:
1. SRS, CPF-OA and CPF-SA.
2. SRS: A brief analysis.

Protect your iPad mini.

Thinking of protecting your iPad mini from knocks and don't want to spend too much money at the same time? How does US$3.81 sound to you?

Yes, for only US$3.81, you will get a TPU shell for the iPad mini! Free shipping!

It comes in various colors too!

 

Shop online at:

 and search under New Arrivals.

You can't miss it!

Related post:
Save money with low prices and free shipping globally!