Author: sgwealthbuilder

Stocks

K1 Ventures announced another capital reduction

On 3 August 2016, K1 Ventures announced another capital reduction of $0.075 in cash for each ordinary share in the capital of the company. This represents another round of mini-windfall for K1 Ventures investors. The capital reduction was announced at a time when its parent company, Keppel Corp is struggling under the current oil price crisis climate.

K1 Ventures is the investment arm of Keppel Corp specializing in business acquisitions. It invests primarily in the US market and has held stakes in transportation leasing company (Helm Holding), energy (Freeport McMoran Exploration), education (Knowledge Universal Holding, KUH) and financial (Guggenheim). As a venture capitalist, its business model is to acquire companies and turn them around to sell for profits.

K1 Venture
Investments

Helm by Chairman and CEO Steven Jay Green, K1 Ventures’ management has an incredible investment track record. Over the years, the company has divested many assets and consistently delivered huge dividends for shareholders. In fact, since 2005, K1 Ventures announced dividends and capital reductions to reward shareholders.

For the uninitiated, capital reduction basically means reducing the capital of the company and return to shareholders. However, unlike dividends, capital reduction will result in the reduction of the company’s Net Asset Value (NAV) from $207,732,000 to $175,248,000.

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Gold; silver

Buy gold bullion in Singapore

The current dismal economy outlook and stock market conditions may entice many wealth builders to buy gold and silver bullion. After all, the price of gold has surged by 25% in the first half of this year, making it one of the best performing assets. You can buy gold bullion in Singapore from local bank UOB or various bullion dealers.

According to the latest World Gold Council report, gold continued its red-hot form, with global gold demand reaching 2,335 tons in the first half of 2016, 16% higher than the previous record in H1 2009. During the second quarter, overall gold demand grew to 1,050t, up 15% from the Q2 2015 figure of 910t. The growth was due to considerable investment demand as a result of global economic and political uncertainties.

The Chinese always has a penchant for gold and like to buy gold bullion. So not surprisingly, for the past 10 years, China has become the world’s largest gold producer and importer. The Chinese banks play a key role in making a gold hub in China through a range of gold-related business activities. In fact, more than 50% of investment demand involving sales of gold bars and coins is fulfilled through commercial banks’ network of branches.

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Stocks

Straco Corp’s latest financial performance

In my previous article, I wrote about Straco Corp‘s company profile and its acquisition of Singapore Flyer back in 2014. This blog post will analyse Straco Corp’s latest financial performance.

On 10 August 2016, Straco Corp reported a 5.2% decline in Group revenue to $27.86 million for the second quarter ended 30 June 2016 compared to 2Q2015. The decline in revenue was due to lower number of visitors for its two aquariums in China. Interestingly, Singapore Flyer reported higher revenue for 2Q2016 on improved ticket yield. Cumulatively, the Group revenue for 1H2016 decreased marginally by 0.5%. Even though there was increased revenue at Singapore Flyer, this was offset by declines at the China aquariums.

Based on the latest earning report, the slow down in China definitely has an impact on Straco Corp’s earning. Below is the 5 year trend of the company’s revenue.

Straco Corp Revenue
Straco Corp Revenue (in millions)

Dividends per share have been increasing for the last four years. However, there are signs that the growth in dividends has reached a plateau. During the quarter, the company paid out dividends of $21.48 million for the financial year ended 31 December 2015. As at 30 June 2016, the Group’s cash and cash equivalent balance amounted to $124.69 million.

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Stocks

ISOTeam shines in stock market

On 5 August 2016, ISOTeam announced that it has clinched 13 new private and public sector contracts worth $20.11 million. The listed company is a specialist in the eco-conscious Repairs and Redecoration (“R&R”), Addition and Alteration (“A&A”) and complementary niche services.

ISOTeam contracts

This is a winning streak for ISOTeam as the company has a reputation for securing contracts because of its excellent track record in project delivery and early adopter of green technologies for its projects. As Singapore drives environmental sustainability in the building and construction industry, companies like ISOTeam will continue to thrive and grow.

ISOTeam has also started to build new capabilities in the renewable energy sector. In early 2016, it has installed Grid-Tied Solar Photovoltaic Systems on roofs of 33 blocks at Tampines estate worth approximately $1.8 million. Recently, it has won a $0.20 million contract to install Emergency Fuel Cell Operating Power Systems as back-up power generators for lifts of a number of HDB blocks at Punggol. Wealth builders should note this green initiative because it is likely that this may be implemented in more public housing in Singapore, indicating a potential huge untapped market to penetrate.

ISOTeam shares

Of course, Singapore market is too small and is saturated with many players.

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Gold; silver

Explosive Surge of Silver Price

Based on data from LBMA, silver price has increased 44.7 percent in the first half of 2016. The explosive surge of silver reflected many investors’ interest in silver in light of the current global market uncertainties. Interestingly, silver has also outperformed all other precious metals as wealth builders accumulated more silver in the first half of 2016.

Following the record demand seen in 2015, investors’ demand for silver bars has weakened some during this period. This is because in 2015, silver was in a bear market and investors seized the opportunity to accumulate silver bars on the cheap, with the view of potential price appreciation. Since then, the price of silver has galloped and this has somewhat dampened the demand for silver bars.

silver

On the other hand, silver coin sales increased by 29% globally, according to GFMS Thomson Reuters Quarterly Coin Sales Survey. Coin sales enjoy double digits increase across all major regions, such as North America, Asia and Europe. Unlike gold bullion coin sales, which fluctuate according to its prices, silver coin sales have remained resilient since 2010.

2015 has been a disastrous year for the commodity as prices fell across almost all the commodity assets. Silver was no exception as it fell below the support level of US$15 per ounce.

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Stocks

The story of Straco Corp and Singapore Flyer

In one of my previous articles, I wrote about the fate of Underwater World Singapore. In response to my article, a reader mentioned about Straco Corp and this prompted me to research on the company.

Listed on SGX mainboard since 2004, Straco Corp was found by local entrepreneur, Wu Hsioh Kwang who is the Vice-President (Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce), Vice-Chairman of Tourism & Leisure, Chinese Business Group (Singapore Business Federation) and Vice Chairman of the 4th Standing Committee of Chinese Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment (China).

Not much else is known about Mr Wu except that he spent 30 years doing tourism-related business in China. In fact, he has two very successful aquariums in China, one is the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium, while the other is Underwater World Xiamen. What prompted Mr Wu to see the potential and subsequently invested in Singapore Flyer is a mystery.

investments
Investments

When Straco Corp splashed out $140 million for the Singapore Flyer back in 2014, the iconic attraction was in a bad shape. The company that ran the flyer was facing financial problems and Straco stepped in to buy over the asset. By then, the number of visitors had declined due to stiff competition from other attractions and tenants were having poor businesses.

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Stocks

OCBC share price sank on release of 2Q16 results

OCBC share price dropped from a high of $9.00 to $8.35 upon the release of poor 2Q16 results. Second quarter earnings fell a whopping 15% year-on-year due to lower insurance income from subsidiary Great Eastern Holding (GEH).

For OCBC, the insurance segment, driven by GEH, represents one of the most profitable income sources. Operating profits from insurance segment was $120 million, the third highest among OCBC’s business segments. The earning contributions from GEH fell 66% due to the absence of a $105 million gain from the sale of an asset in 2Q15. However, GEH’s underlying insurance business actually performed well in this quarter, with new sales increased by 23%, led by growth across distribution channels in Singapore and Malaysia. Due to the unrealized mark-to-market losses in GEH’s equity and bond investments, profit from GEH’s life insurance recorded a dismal 19% drop.

SG Wealth Builder

Apart from insurance segment, OCBC also witnessed poor performance in its “bread and butter” segment – corporate loans. Like all commercial banks, OCBC derived its major income from loans made to corporates and public sector. For second quarter, net interest income declined 2% to $1.26 billion from $1.28 billion a year ago. Customer loan balances decreased 2% due to lower trade loans and reduced offshore borrowings from Chinese customers.

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Gold; portfolio management

Sell everything and exit the stock market?

Brexit happened just a month ago but already it seems like an eternity for many investors. Since then, a series of unfortunate events had happened in Singapore stock market.

SGX market disruption

First, on 14th July 2016, the local stock market experienced a major disruption that resulted in ceased trading at 1138 hours and remained closed for the rest of the day. Some investors and traders received duplicated confirmation messages while some did not receive any confirmation messages after their trade were done. Investigation found that the disruption was due to a disk failure and SGX had moved to rectify the problem.

The market disruption had made a serious dent on Singapore’s reputation as a major Asia financial trading hub. Such an incident impacts the livelihood of traders, especially short-sellers who have to cover their positions by certain timing. For Singapore to sell itself as a so-called trading hub of Asia, it is a given that SGX trading engine have a high level of reliability. Otherwise, there will be no confidence level from investors and traders on the local stock market.

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DBS investigated by MAS

Nevertheless, even if one down-plays the SGX market disruption, an even more sinister development awaited Singapore investors.

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Stocks

Haw Par sealed the fate of Underwater World Singapore

Many Singaporeans may recognize “Tiger Balm” as the world leading brand for topical analgesics. Some may even know that the Haw Par Corp, a company listed in SGX, is the owner of this renowned healthcare brand.

However, not many people know that Underwater World Singapore (UWS) was owned by Haw Par Corp.

1) Haw Par and Underwater World Singapore

When Haw Par sealed the fate of Underwater World Singapore (UWS) on 26 June 2016, many Singaporeans were taken by surprise. Being a forgotten icon of Singapore tourist attraction, many of us have overlooked the fact that UWS has being around for 25 years already. Within this period of time, the landscape has changed and not surprising, there are stiff competition from new and existing attractions.

Haw Par share price

UWS holds special memories for me because this is one of the local attractions that my wife and I visited when we were dating. That was more than 7 years ago. The week before UWS closed shop, my family visited UWS for the very last time.

We were surprised that the place remained largely the same and there were not many notable upgrades for the facilities. In fact, the new S.E.A Aquarium of Resort World Sentosa would appear to be more refreshing to tourists than the UWS.

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Stocks

OCBC’s multi-billion dollars stake in Great Eastern Holding

In a month when DBS and SMRT hog the limelight, OCBC Bank quietly increased its multi-billion dollars stake in Great Eastern Holding. On 1st July 2016, OCBC made a filing in SGX to declare that it bought 611,800 shares of Great Eastern at $20.59 per share, effectively increasing its share in the insurer to 87.73% from 87.60%. OCBC’s multi-billion dollar stake in Great Eastern is actually one of its “hidden treasures”.

Great Eastern is the oldest life insurance group in Singapore and Malaysia, with over $60 billion in assets and 4.7 million policyholders. Being a subsidiary of OCBC, the life insurance group’s partnership is formidable. This is because Great Eastern’s life insurance products can be distributed through OCBC’s banking network. This type of partnership creates synergy and allows both companies to gain better customer’s insights and investment needs.

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Being the pioneer in bancassurance in 1992, OCBC is the only Singapore bank to have substantial stake in a life insurance company. UOB’s bancassurance partner is Prudential, while DBS’ bancassurance partner is Manulife. The fact that Great Eastern is a subsidiary of OCBC gives the bank the competitive edge because the business interests will have to be aligned. In fact, several OCBC’s management actually sit in Great Eastern ‘s board of directors.

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Career management

Future-proof your career against retrenchments

For the 1st quarter of 2016, Ministry of Manpower (MOM) revealed a record number of retrenchments since 2009. A total 4090 workers were retrenched as Singapore economy slows down and undergo major restructuring. Is your company downsizing and are you on the retrenchment hit list? If not, have you started to future-proof your career?

For many years, Singapore refused to develop policies to ensure safety nets for the unemployed. The fear is that in creating such a social safety net, there will be moral hazards as those who lose their jobs may not be motivated to re-enter the labour market again. This is happening in today’s Europe whereby the unemployment benefits are so generous that the workers would rather remain unemployed in order to enjoy the benefits.

However, the labour landscape in Singapore has changed drastically over the last few years. There are acute shortage of talents in certain job segments like cyber security and digital marketing. While on the other hand, white-collar professionals working in sectors like banking and finance are unable to find work for months and years after being let go by their employers. This phenomenon is known as structural unemployment.

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The rising costs of doing business have also put off many companies.

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Stocks

Raffles Medical Group stable growth

For first quarterly results of 2016, Raffles Medical Group (RMG) had a stable growth. Profits for the period increased 1% to $15.2 million year-on-year. Revenue actually grew by 23.0% from $95.0 million in Q1 2015 to $116.9 million in Q1 2016. The increase in revenue was driven by higher business volume arising increased patient load.

During this period, the management of RMG did not manage to rein in lease expenses and staff costs. This has resulted in higher revenue being offset by higher expenses. However, the Group’s net cash position increased from $53.8 million as at 31 December 2015 to $78.4 million as at 31 March 2016. This was due to strong operating cash flows generated from increased business operations.

Apart from having a strong cash-flow, RMG has a strong balance sheet as well. Current assets grew from $170 million as at 31 December 2015 to $216 million as at 31 March 2016. Correspondingly, the total liabilities also increased from $192 million to $226 million. The increased liabilities was due to increased payable arising from acquisition of subsidiaries during the financial year 2015.

stock market

The long-term debt is manageable, currently at only $20.8 million. Given RMG’s cash pile of $110 million, the non-current loans and borrowings are not a concern for the company.

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Stocks

OCBC’s billion dollars worth of hidden value

One of the reasons why Singaporean investors love to invest in OCBC shares is because the bank has billion dollars worth of hidden value. Last month, local bank OCBC placed a pair of freehold shophouses on sale for around $20 million. These two conservation shophouses are located at Bukit Pasoh, which is near the Outram MRT Station.

Apparently, OCBC has held the properties for more than 81 years and had refurbished them in 2012. Combined together, the shophouses have a total land area of 2926 sq ft for commercial use. If successful, the sale could help to unlock value for OCBC.

stock market

It should be noted that the two units are not part of the 38 properties that OCBC had put up for sale in April last year. The asset sales were estimated to be worth $150 to 200 million and some of the properties has since been sold. Both the two units at Bukit Pasoh and the 38 units are not mortgagee sales.

Value investors like to invest in companies with hidden value and OCBC is probably one of such companies. In the latest financial results, OCBC revealed $6.64 billion worth of unrealized valuation surplus for its investment properties and equity stakes in subsidiaries.

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personal finance

Phone scams in Singapore

Times are bad and conmen are out in full force. Be aware of phone scams in Singapore. In a recent media report, a couple in Singapore lost $70,000 to a phone scam.

Apparently, the conmen posed as policemen and called the wife to inform that her credit card had been used for criminal activities in China. She was led into giving her online banking PIN number to facilitate investigation works. Subsequently, both husband and wife realized they had been conned and their savings had been wiped out within hours.

The speed at which the criminals stole their life savings left the couple in a state of shock. Within a day, they had lost everything and even had to borrow from friend for family expenses. Complete disaster.

One thing to note is that such a tragedy can happen to everyone. The common misconception is that only the elderly or less educated people are susceptible to falling prey to scams. This incident vindicated that when it comes to scams, everyone can be fooled. We must all stay vigilant and must never reveal our personal bank details and PIN number to anyone, not even to the authorities or enforcement officers.

For the young couple, this will be a painful lesson for them as they are likely to need the money to move into their new home.

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Stocks

ISOTeam

I have previously written an article on ISOTeam, a facilities maintenance company based in Singapore. This article is to provide an update on the latest developments of ISOTeam.

On 31 May 2016, the company announced the securing of private and public sector contracts worth $26.32 million. The contracts will have a positive impact on the earnings per share and net tangible assets per share for the current financial year ending 30 June 2016.

Company’s profile

ISOTeam’s capabilities lie predominately in the property maintenance and property upgrading and restoration. The entry barrier for this industry is not high, therefore in order to differentiate itself from their competitors, ISOTeam’s niche is in providing eco-conscious solutions.

In recent years, the company has secured a lot of public works and has established good track record with town councils, statutory boards, main contractors and developers. Due to this, ISOTeam is able to repeatedly win tenders for public projects even though their offers are not the lowest in price.

investments

Strategies for growth

Going forward, ISOTeam’s growth strategies are to develop more green solution offerings, expand through acquisitions and reach out their services to other untapped private and public sectors. These strategies make sense as Singapore government plan to green mark 80% of the building in Singapore.

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Stocks

TalkMed Group Ltd

In the context of Singapore’s ageing demographic trend, healthcare and medical services companies are expected to continue to grow in the coming years because of the increasing demands for specialized medical treatments and growing affluence in South-East Asia countries. Riding on this wave, Singapore’s TalkMed Group Ltd may be a trail-blazer in medical tourism.

Business Profile

TalkMed was listed in Catalist on 30 January 2014 and has since established itself as one of the market leaders in medical tourism in Singapore, with more than 60% of its patients from foreign countries for the past few years. The company has three subsidiaries, namely Singapore Cancer Centre Pte Ltd (SCC), TalkMed Vietnam Pte Ltd and Stem Med Pte Ltd. With 13 doctors in their arm, TalkMed’s niche businesses are in medical oncology services and palliative care services.

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Business Potential

I like TalkMed’s business model because it is a scalable business which revolves around the provision of medical consultancy services and stem cell processing services. Through SCC, TalkMed doctors provide stem cell transplant and palliative care to the oncology patients. Its overseas investments include partnership with Thu Cuc International General Hospital to set up a medical centre providing medical oncology services in Hanoi. Arising from this collaboration effort, TalkMed Vietnam was established in March 2014.

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Stocks

Is SingPost a value trap?

This post has been amended on 11 July 2016 to address errors made in the last sentences of the second and eighth paragraph.

Being the national postal service provider for the past 150 years, SingPost has transformed into a mail and e-Commerce technology giant within Singapore in recent years. Throughout the years, SingPost had consistently received numerous awards for its branding, innovation and business excellence. Its largest shareholders include SingTel and AliBaba Group. With such an impressive background, the past few months must have been a nightmare for SingPost, at least for its investors.

Crisis brewing for SingPost

Following a special audit in early May 2016, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) is investigating SingPost for potential breaches of the Companies Act. The special audit was undertaken to look into the disclosure of a board member’s interest in the firm that advised on SingPost’s recent acquisitions.

One of the most damaging findings in the 52 page summary report was the lack of “prescribed policy, process or procedure for the evaluation and approval of Merger and Acquisitions transactions”. For an institution that won two ASEAN corporate governance awards in 2015, this is indeed an embarrassing audit finding. It exposes the weak corporate governance on disclosure by its board of directors.

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Gold; silver

Gold and silver on fire

In the aftermath of Brexit, investors scramble for safe haven assets and set gold and silver on fire. The precious metals have climbed to new highs in recent weeks as investors realize that even a stable currency like Sterling pound can drop in value over-night.

As investors pile into gold, the price of the yellow metal surged by 28%, making it one of the best performing assets to hold. At the rate it is climbing, gold may hit the level of US$1,400 per ounce. This is a remarkable turn-around as previously, gold price has declined to a low of US$1050 per ounce in December 2015.

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Precious metals bull-run

The current market sentiments seem to suggest that gold may be at the start of a bull-run. The sustainability of the bull-run will depend whether there are further market shocks that trigger investors to flee for safety. For 2016, shell-shocked investors have already witnessed the Chinese stock market carnage, plunging oil prices and then Brexit. These events have fuelled the surge in gold and silver prices.

While gold has been attracting investors’ attention, silver price has also stormed to record level. At US$20.16 per ounce, spot silver rose by 47% since December 2015.

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Stocks

Is SIA Engineering Company a value trap?

SIA Engineering Company announced on 30 June 2016 the divestments of its 10% stake in Hong Kong Aero Engine Services Ltd (HAESL) to Rolls-Royce Overseas Holding Ltd. At the same time HAESL will divest its 20% stake in Singapore Aero Engine Services Pte Ltd (SAESL). The divestments will result in a net gain of $178 million for the SIAEC Group, representing a windfall for SIA Engineering Company (SIAEC).

The move to divest SIAEC’s stakes in several joint ventures is long overdue as its network of joint ventures (JV), associates and subsidiaries have become so complex that it affects the company’s ability to compete for the aircraft aftermarket business. To a certain extent, some of its JV may even be competing against each other for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) business. So this streamlining operation may bode well for the company going forward.

investments
Investments

Business Challenges

Unlike its parent, SIA, the MRO business is more stable and predictable as compared to airline operations. This is because aircraft are required to be maintained at certain interval in order to be deemed as airworthy. Thus, the business model of SIAEC is recurring. However, the emergence of new composite aircraft like B787 and A350 changed the game for big MRO players like SIAEC and ST Aerospace.

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Gold; portfolio management

Gold price to surge to USD65,000 per ounce in 5 years?

Before Brexit took the world by storm last month, BullionStar boldly predicted that gold price will surge to USD65,000 per ounce in 5 years in one of their articles. To be frank, even though I am bullish on the long-term prospect of gold, it is difficult to envisage that gold price will reach such stratospheric level.

If gold really do reach USD65,000 per ounce, it would be approximately 48.5 times the present level. Those who have bought just one piece of the 1kg PAMP Gold Bar would become an instant millionaire. But then again, under such circumstances, inflation would probably be ultra-high, hence that one or two millions worth of fiat currencies would probably have limited purchasing value.

One important lesson that I have learnt from my years of financial blogging is that it does not matter whether BullionStar’s prediction is accurate or not. It only matters if you are prepared to build wealth with gold bullion. No analysts or economists can predict the future and there will always be endless debates who is right or wrong. At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself what actions have you taken in the course of your wealth journey to succeed financially.

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Stocks

CSE Global Limited

CSE is a global integrator for software services specializing in the automation, telecommunications and environment sectors. CSE started life as a subsidiary of ST Group but after a successful management buy-out in 1997, CSE became a public listed company in 1999. After a series of acquisitions, CSE Global Limited evolved into an international technology firm with more than 30 offices across the globe.

Performance

For the first quarter of 2016, the group achieved $5.5 million profit after tax, a decrease of 20.9% year-on-year. This performance reflected the challenging weak economic sentiments in the industry sectors that the Group is operating in.

CSE is a key player in the offshore oil and gas sector, providing system services such as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), process control and safety shutdown systems. Thus, the current down-turn in this sector has a significant impact on the Group’s business.

Business outlook is challenging as many of CSE’s client are cutting costs. As a result, CSE has a reduction of 23.8% new orders from continuing operations. The number of outstanding orders from continuing operations has also reduced by 28.9%.

In light of the challenging operating environment, CSE has managed to rein in operating expenses, which were 6.4% lower at $17.8 million as compared to previous year.

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Gold; portfolio management

Devastating effect of Brexit

As one of the very few reserve currencies in the world, Britain’s Sterling pound is considered to be one of the most popular reserve currencies held by many central banks. Historically, Sterling is the third most widely held currency, after US dollar and Euro. Thus, one cannot ignore the devastating effect of Brexit on Sterling pound when it recently plummeted to historic low. Currently, Sterling is trading at a 31-year low and this led to a lot of fear in the market.

Market turmoil

The current turmoil stems from the massive drop in the Sterling pound which wiped off billions from the markets. Governments which hold Sterling pound as foreign currency reserves suffer huge losses. Many investors fled for safety and bought into Japanese yen, causing the yen to rise substantially. The upward swing results in Japanese exports becoming expensive overnight and potentially worsen the deflation condition in Japan economy.

The havoc in the currency markets may prompt central banks to take drastic actions before the situation manifests into global crisis of confidence. Some of the possible measures may include further interest rate cuts, stimulus packages to encourage spending or even negative interest rates, which Japan and several European countries have recently implemented.

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Stocks

OCBC Bank

If you are a high net worth individual, you would certainly not want to take chances with your wealth. Usually wealthy individuals would choose private banking because of their specialized financial needs and the desire for discretion. In Singapore, there are many banks that offer private banking services and one of them is OCBC Bank’s private banking subsidiary – Bank of Singapore (BOS).

In my previous article, I touched on OCBC’s acquisition of Barclays Asia Wealth Management and highlighted it as a strategic move that allows OCBC to enhance its investment moat in the arena of private banking. Indeed, the real money to be made is actually from the rich and wealthy clients, not the mom-and-pop depositors.

Amidst the global economic downturn, OCBC reported strong results for 1Q16 private banking income. Operating profit from Global Consumer/Private Banking grew from $218 million to $253 million, an increase of year-on-year 16% for 1Q2016. This was OCBC’s best performing segment for 1Q16 and given the growing affluence of Asians, there are a lot of opportunities for growth in this banking niche.

In 2015, BOS was one of only 5 private banks in Asia to record more than 5% growth in assets under management (AUM).

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Gold; silver

Brexit sparked explosive gold price surge

With the score-line at 0-0 nearing full-time, Brexit voters unleashed an unstoppable volley past the “Remain” goal-keeper and claimed an unexpected victory on 23 June 2016. UK has chartered into unfamiliar horizon. Government officials, analysts and economists were all dumbfounded by the results as most of them expected UK to remain part of European Union. In the midst of the chaotic situation, Brexit sparked an explosive gold price surge as expected.

Flight to Safety

At one point, when the Brexit was released, gold price stormed past USD1,300 per ounce as investors bolted to park their wealth in the safe haven amid carnage in the global currencies. Notably, Euro and sterling pound suffered record meltdown as investors flee for safety. Their concerns were not unfound as UK is the world fifth’s largest economy. Decoupling from European may have deep implications in terms of trade and military cooperation.

Whilst it is easy to argue that UK voters had let their emotions ruled their heads, it should be highlighted that the issue of immigration has always been sensitive in an open economy like UK. Many global leaders and analysts grossly underestimated that ground sentiments can swing the voting results, even though there are a lot at stake, in terms of political and economic stability.

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Retirement

You’ll Never Walk Alone with Central Provident Fund

For many football fans, the song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” is synonymous with English football club, Liverpool. The song is the anthem of Liverpool and has inspired many great comebacks for the football club. Although glory days are clearly over for Liverpool, many fans still adore the club because of its great tradition and core values.

Indeed, values define who we are and guide us through good times and bad times. The Central Provident Fund (CPF) was implemented in 1955 by the British authorities with the aim of abolishing the pension schemes in Singapore and introducing a national saving scheme. The scheme requires employers and employees to contribute a portion of the employee’s monthly salary into their CPF accounts.

The intent of the CPF scheme was to instill among Singaporeans the value of hard work and saving for retirement. Each of us is responsible for growing our wealth and save for rainy days.

Over the years, the CPF scheme had gone through significant changes, especially during the eighties, when the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew was at the peak of his power. These changes were needed to cater for the growing aspirations of Singaporeans. As a result, CPF was expanded to include healthcare, housing and investment purposes.

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Gold; portfolio management

How safe is your money in Singapore banks?

No bank is too big to fail and one question that every depositor may ask is how safe is our money in Singapore banks. During the Great Financial Crisis, Citigroup was on the brink of collapse before being rescued by the U.S government, which had to guarantee losses on more than US$300 billion worth of assets and injected US$20 billion into the troubled company. At that point of time, Citigroup’s share price was trading less than US$1, which was the historical record low for the bank.

Money Crisis

Fast forward today, Citigroup recovered from the crisis but is no longer the world’s largest bank in terms of assets. However, its share price has surged to close to US$50. Investors who bought the shares back then and held it till today would have made a fortune. But the point that I want to reiterate is that Citigroup was very close to being made bankrupt in 2008 and savers who put all their hard-earned savings in banks may have lost their monies overnight if the renowned bank collapsed unexpectedly.

Singapore Banks

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, people start to realize that the prospects of bank failures are real even in Singapore.

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Stocks

SGX Hall of Shame

On 3 March 2016, Singapore bourse operator, SGX, included 41 listed companies into its infamous watch-list due to the implementation of the 20-cent Minimum Trading Price (MTP) rule. In all, there were 76 companies under the SGX watch-list, which was like the Hall of Shame.

To be part of this watch-list can be very embarrassing because it means that affected companies have to buck up and improve their financial performances. Otherwise, they may face the prospect of being delisted from the stock exchange.

The expansion of the watch-list to include companies failing to comply with the MTP rule had riled market players because this move essentially blurs the distinction between market quality and business fundamentals.

To be fair, even though a company’s share price is trading below 20 cents, it does not mean that the company has shaky business fundamentals. So to put those failing to meet the MTP with those companies with financial problems is deemed by many to be onerous.

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To put things into perspective, the MTP rule was introduced in the aftermath of the penny stock crash in 2013. Many retail investors lost their pants after dabbling in Blumont, LionGold and Asiasons Capital. The three penny stocks surged to incredible levels within a short period of time and then dived spectacularly, prompting rumours of market manipulations by the Big Boys.

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Career management

Record retrenchments in Singapore

On 13 June 2016, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) announced a surge in the number of workers being made redundant. Overall, 4,710 workers were retrenched by their companies, representing a record level of retrenchments in Singapore for first quarter layoffs since 2009.

The MOM data is not surprising as it tallies with the ground situation for the employment landscape. In fact, there are many recent articles of Singaporeans struggling to find work after being given the retrenchment notices by their employers. Many of them are actually qualified professionals with many years of relevant working experiences in their industries. Hence, it is understandable that they feel bitter and resentful.

Being fired or retrenched from the workplace can be the worst thing that can happen to an employee, possibly even worse than been passed by for promotion. This is because losing your job is more than just losing your income, it can be extremely damaging to your self-worth and ego. Understandably, you may feel emotional and victimized. The “why me?” will definitely pop up in your head and you start to demonize your ex-bosses or colleagues. But as a wealth builder, you must pick yourself up quickly and move on from the self-pity stage.

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Stocks

Neptune Orient Lines: End of another Singapore icon

In a month in which SGX-listed Haw Par Corp announced the closing of the Underwater World Singapore, Temasek Holdings tendered all their shares and paved the way for French giant, CMA CGM to take Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) private. This marked the end of another Singapore icon and highlighted how fragile the economy is right now.

The take-over offer for NOL is $1.30 and it is unconditional. According to the listing rule, NOL can be delisted once it obtains more than 90% of the shares. The offer is deemed by many to be fair given that NOL has been bleeding for several years due to the collapse of the Baltic Dry Index (BDI). Temasek Holdings had been looking for a white knight for NOL for quite some time and CMA CGM came to the rescue.

The downturn in the shipping industry took many players by surprise. After all, the BDI stormed to 11,000 level in 2007 and subsequent crashed to near 700 level with the arrival of the Great Financial Crisis. Nevertheless, the downturn turned out to be much longer than expected and its seems that Temasek Holdings, which is the parent company of NOL, decided to throw in the towel.

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Money management; personal finance; relationshipParenting

Stroke of Calamity

Since 2013, I have written articles paying tribute to my late father during Father’s Day. This year will be no exception. Dad passed away at home after 20 years of struggle with a major stroke that resulted in him being half-paralysed. It was really a stroke of calamity for our family and the last 20 years were like “lost decades” for us. Dad had played a major role in shaping my values, character and life’s perspectives. I cannot claim to remember everything that he said but most of his important teachings still live in my heart. I hope that by walking down this memory lane, my children will appreciate and learn from his legacy.

As a child, I had very little opportunities to spend time with Dad because he was always working. In fact, he even worked on weekends because in the late 80s, there was a huge construction boom in Singapore. Dad was a self-employed lorry driver and business was thriving back then. He was a typical baby-boomer – hardworking, thrifty and disciplined. Every morning at six, he would wake up and had quick shower and breakfast. Then he would do some quick calculations using the Chinese abacus and then promptly left for work.

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