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Gold

Why SGX Gold Kilobar Contract is a Major Flop

I was reading an article written by BullionStar on SGX Kilobar and could not help but agreed with all the points. The blogger has correctly pointed out the major flaws in the product offering from SGX and also compared it to BullionStar’s products.

From a Singapore Inc perspective, of course I hope SGX’s project will be a success as it could have played a major role in fulfilling Singapore’s desire to become a gold trading hub, thus boosting our economy and creating more high-value jobs for fellow Singaporeans. Unfortunately, SGX messed up royally and thus, I foresee that Singapore may miss the golden opportunity to become a trading hub if the situation is not addressed adequately.

Gold and Silver

Firstly, by setting a 25 x 1 kilo bar of gold contract, SGX has inadvertently made this product exclusive for the big players. Not many retail players can afford to fork out $1.35 million and there are not many gold buyers who are interested in buying 25 kilobars of gold, especially in a small market like Singapore. In this regard, I am quite convinced that SGX has not done much market study on the gold demand before launching this product. If SGX is working with government bodies like IE Singapore to enhance the liquidity of precious metals in Singapore, then the physical quantum for the gold contract should be lowered.

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Stocks

Is it worth buying Tat Hong shares now?

Founded in the 1970s in Singapore, Tat Hong is a listed company that provides crane rental services in the construction and offshore marine industry. It now operates 1,500 cranes across the region. By tonnage, it is the seventh largest crane rental company worldwide. Is it worth buying Tat Hong shares now? In this article, I will share my insights on Tat Hong’s investment value.

On 15 March 2016, the company announced in the SGX website that “it has been approached in connection with a potential transaction which may or may not lead to an acquisition of the issued share capital of the Company. Discussions are preliminary and there is no certainty or assurance whatsoever that these discussions will result in any transaction”. The announcement on potential takeover offer led to a massive surge in Tat Hong’s share price the next day. The stock rocketed from 41.5 cents to 63.5 cents.

Stock Market
SG Wealth Builder

Is this a value trap or value buy? Before jumping the gun, investors or traders must put things into perspective and evaluate whether Tat Hong’s shares are worth buying or trading. Since 2007, Tat Hong’s share price has tumbled from a high of $3.36 and is now languishing at a 6 year low of $0.58.

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Stocks

The Explosive Surge of The Hour Glass

The Hour Glass is a listed luxury watch retail group in Asia with headquarter in Singapore. Founded in 1979 by the husband and wife team, Dr. Henry Tay and Dato’ Jannie Tay, the company started operation in Lucky Plaza through a partnership with Metro Holdings. In recent years, the company’s share price has surged from $0.30 in 2009 to almost $2.00 in 2014. Post stock-split of a one-into-three exercise in 2014, the current share price is now trading at $0.74.

What sets apart The Hour Glass from other luxury watch competitors is that it also has a substantial property portfolio. According to its 3Q2016 financial report, the group is holding on to $64 million worth of investment properties. In 2015, it acquired two Australian properties, namely an 11,000 square feet heritage listed retail and commercial property in Sydney and an 8,000 square feet retail property in Brisbane’s prime luxury retail precinct for $6.3 million. Such property investments reflect the listed company’s strategy for growth in the future.

Stock market

Besides laying the groundwork for future growth, it is also making the effort to grow its core business. Amid the global economy uncertainties, The Hour Glass acquired the Watches of Switzerland in 2015 for $13.3 million.

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Trading

What Are The Advantages Of Trading Online

It won’t be wrong to say that Internet has completely changed the way many things are done these days. Today, you can buy almost everything online. You can search for information on all kinds of products and services. You can also ask for recommendations from your friends and family on social networks regarding certain products or other things.

The Possibility Of Trading Online

Thanks to the easy availability of Internet, you can also trade online. You just need a computer and an Internet connection to trade online at one of the several brokers that offer the facility of trading online. Online trading has grown a lot over the past few years. There are a number of advantages of this type of trading and here is a list of some of the major advantages.

Stock Market
SG Wealth Builder

One of the biggest advantages is that it is extremely easy and simple for individuals to conduct trades. You can buy various instruments such as stocks, currencies, commodities, CFDs and various other such financial instruments over the Internet. You do not need to give a call to the broker or do anything else to buy a financial instrument. You simply need to log onto the website of the broker and place orders.

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personal financeSelf improvement

Are you a motivated wealth builder?

One of the worst nightmares of a salaried employee is being retrenched. This is especially so for mature workers in their forties and fifties. The prospect of losing your job at such career stage can not only be frightening, but also damaging to your financial health. In this regard, are you a motivated wealth builder?

Recently, a Singaporean called Mr Chua is still looking for work 6 months after losing his job. His experience is not unique in Singapore and can happen to anyone of us, given the competitive job market. To mitigate the damages arising from job retrenchment, we must always strive to be a motivated wealth builder.

One of the most common perceptions is that you must be good at managing your personal finances in order to be considered an effective wealth builder. To this end, I feel that ensuring employability and job longevity play an important role in our wealth journey as well. Most of us tend to place too much focus in our job and overlook the importance of enhancing new skills or knowledge with the aim of developing a second career in the later stage of our working lives. We are always too pre-occupied with our office work and tend to give less priority in upgrading our “individual software”.

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Stocks

Raffles Medical Group’s Proposed Stock Split

Raffles Medical Group (RMG) recently announced share split of each company share into three ordinary shares. It is not a done deal yet and the proposed move is still subject to approval of shareholders at a general meeting and the approval of SGX.

The rationale given is that the proposed share split will make the company shares more accessible to retail investors because of the reduction of each board lot. In addition, the move will also expand the shareholder base from the current approximate 7,780 shareholders.

I am not invested in this counter but have been tracking the company’s performance. Given that SGX has reduced the board lot trading size from 1000 to 100, RMG’s rationale for the stock split is not exactly convincing. This is because most retail investors can afford investing in RMG at current price, albeit at lower board lot size. On the flipside, existing shareholders may face risks of a decline in their share value after the implementation of the proposed share split. There is no assurance that the subdivided shares will be $1.39 after the implementation of the stock split.

Stock Market
SG Wealth Builder

On its financial health, RMG is doing reasonably well. Profit after tax is $69.3 million in 2015, a growth of 2.4% increase from $67.6 million in 2014.

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Property investment; Singapore market; housing prices

7 Money-Wise Tips When You Buy a Home

With property prices rising, there’s a need to be more financially savvy when it comes to shopping for a home. Not so much as cutting corners but finding better and more efficient ways to shop for a house. Considering how much you’re going to need to shell out for one, being money-wise is a good, practical approach to take.

SG Wealth Builder

 

Money-Wise Tips

  1. Use property listings. In a world where everything happens online, checking online property listings is certainly one way to save customers the time and money it takes to find available properties for sale. With sites like Property Guru, homes in OUG Parklane for sale can be found in a matter of minutes instead of the hours or days it used to take. You won’t have to pay a visit to the properties for a first look. You can do that online and generate a better list of prospective homes that meet your requirements. In the past, home shoppers could only explore a few homes so coming up with a prospective list of properties took time. Now, you can achieve the same results at your desk. You save on time, effort and travel, all with handy tools like property finders.
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make money

Three ways of making more money

I suppose at some point in your life, the thoughts of making more money must have crossed your mind. Otherwise, you will not be visiting my blog! When I started my financial journey, I did not know that I would follow my late father’s footstep and become a sole breadwinner one day. Being young, I could not appreciate what Dad has done for us. On hindsight, if you have been receiving all the time and not giving, you may tend to take things for granted.

To feed us, Dad had toiled and worked hard all his life, much to the detriment to his health. At the age of 38, he suffered from a crippling stroke that would make him disabled for 20 long years. As a result, his income abilities got impaired and our family suffered for many years. Now that I am approaching 40 and am taking on the same responsibility as a sole breadwinner, I am determined to work hard for money and also to make my money work hard at the same time in order to mitigate the financial damages arising from permanent disabilities.

SG Wealth Builder

Work hard for money

The conventional way to make more money is to moon-light or take on part-time jobs.

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Gold

Make explosive wealth with gold

Recently, my wife and I liquidated our UOB Gold Saving Accounts (GSA) again. We are consolidating our funds with the aim of purchasing a new Executive Condominium.

Overall, including the profits made on 25 February 2016, we made a total profits of $800 from gold. Not a huge amount of profits but considering the fact that we held the investments for only three weeks, it was quite a good investment in my opinion. But is it possible to make explosive wealth with gold?

Basically there are two main ways to invest in gold. One is to buy physical gold, that is gold bullion which comes in the form of gold bar and coins. In Singapore, you can purchase gold bullion from BullionStar, one of the largest dealers with more than 300 types of precious metals. The most attractive aspect about buying investment-grade bullion in Singapore is that there is no need to pay tax. Thus, foreigners can take advantage of this and make online purchases from BullionStar and then store their gold in BullionStar’s Vault Storage.

Gold and Silver

However, the thing about buying bullion is that you should not expect to make quick profits out of it. You buy physical gold as a form of wealth preservation and store of value to protect against market crises.

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Property investment;

Managing your CPF proceeds from the sale of HDB flat to build your wealth

My wife and I have been house-hunting for the past few years and recently just decided to purchase an Executive Condominium (EC). The desire to upgrade to an EC is because of the new addition to our family. With the arrival of my boy, we need a bigger space. But the key motivation behind this move is basically I want my children to grow up in a better environment. I always feel that people living in HDB three room flats come from “challenging” backgrounds – drug addicts, ex-convicts, etc. I know it is too sweeping to make this sort of statement as I have been living in HDB three-room flat for more than 30 years. But as parents we all want the best for our kids. So in today’s article, I shall note down how to manage CPF proceeds from the sale of HDB flat to build your wealth.

Selling your existing HDB and buying another resale HDB

Firstly, if you are buying EC, you can only apply for bank loans. HDB don’t offer loans to EC owners. Nevertheless, before I touch on the financial aspects for buying EC, I will like to touch on the finances for buying a second resale HDB flat.

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Stocks

OSIM founder may not succeed in privatising the company?

OSIM founder may not succeed in privatising the company? When the market is bullish, news of merger and acquisitions are usually met with positivity because generally, valuations will be higher and thus, the take-over offers would often be attractive to shareholders. However, the case is usually reverse during bear markets because of the possibility of hostile take-overs by competitors.

Sometimes, the management may even attempt to privatise the company on the cheap with the eventual aim of sharing the profits and dividends among the major shareholders. This is probably the case for OSIM, which recently announced a shocking voluntary cash offer by the founder, Ron Sim. However, whether Ron can succeed in privatising OSIM remains a big question mark. In this article, similar experience can be drawn from K1 Ventures, which made similar approach back in 2012.

Firstly, under the SGX Listing Rule, in order for the privatisation offer to be successful, OSIM founder must acquire at least 90% of the total number of issued shares (excluding treasury shares). Thereafter, OSIM founder is required to buy over the remaining shares of those “dissenting shareholders” who refused to accept his initial cash offer of $1.32 per share. Currently, the founder holds 69.25% of the total shares and thus requires only an additional of 20.75% to delist OSIM.

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Stocks

OSIM founder finally revealed true color

For many years, OSIM has been buying back its shares from the open market. As an investor, I had always been curious why the company was so aggressive. Nevertheless, purchasing shares from the open market is a good sign because it means the management has a lot of confidence in its growth prospect.

On 7 March 2016, legendary entrepreneur Ron Sim finally decided to show-hand. The founder of famous local luxury massage arm-chair maker announced a voluntary unconditional cash offer of S$1.32 for all the issued ordinary shares in the Company. The offer was made through Vision Three Pte. Ltd.

The last shares buy back announcement by OSIM was on 3 November 2015 and the company has already amassed 31,089,400.

The offer price represents a premium of approximately 31.8% and 33.5% to the volume-weighted average price (“VWAP”) per share for the corresponding one-month and three-month periods up to and including 29 February 2016, respectively.

Stock Market
SG Wealth Builder

I am a big fan of OSIM and has been tracking the stock for several years. In one of my previous posts on OSIM, I pointed out that the OSIM was trading at $0.04 per share during the Great Financial Crisis. Yes, that’s right, $0.04.

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personal finance

10 Easy Ways To Make Extra Money

Although money makes the world go round, you may find yourself in a spin by not having sufficient funds in your bank account. But if you struggle to make ends meet, feel as though your pay cheque doesn’t go far enough or simply want some extra cash to spend on life’s luxuries, then consider giving one or more of the following 10 easy money-making tips a try:

1. Forex trading

Short for foreign exchange, forex is the largest financial market in the world and allows anyone to take advantage of currency fluctuations caused by interest rates, inflation, government policy, and a wide range of other factors. It has fewer barriers than other forms of trading and is simple to get going.

 2. Online surveys

Research companies are always on the look out for members of the public to answer online surveys and test new products. This can be done while watching TV or before you go to bed at night and will result in either cold hard cash or another type of reward.

 3. Sell your holiday snaps

You don’t have to be a professional to sell photographs, as stock image agencies constantly need new and novel images of far-flung foreign destinations for their databases.

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Stocks

Is it worth investing in Keppel Corporation now?

Many financial advisors like to say that investor should not attempt to time the market. I do not disagree on this point but then again, there are times investor should really avoid investing in the stock market, especially during bull-runs. Then, there are times investors should enter the stock market because of the abundance of bargains. Entering the stock market at the wrong time and choosing the wrong stock to invest in without circle of competence can potentially damage your financial portfolio. It can even ruin your wealth. Let’s take a look at Keppel Corporation and review whether it is worth investing in it now.

Investors who bought Keppel Corporation shares in 2007 and hold them till now will be staring at massive paper losses. This is because they would have bought at a high of $12.00 to $13.00 per share and now the share price is [This is a premium article. The rest of the content is blocked and can be accessible by SG Wealth Builder Members only. To read the full content, please sign up as member.]

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Gold; portfolio management

$500 profits from UOB Gold Savings Account

Yesterday, my wife liquidated our UOB Gold Savings Account (GSA) and made a profit of $500. It wasn’t a big amount of course but considering the fact that we held the account for only one week, it was really easy money. Opening the UOB Gold Savings Account account was really hassle-free as you may do so at any UOB bank branch located near your home.

The best part about UOB Gold Savings Account is that you can use UOB Personal Internet Banking to carry out transaction via the internet platform or UOB Mobile from Mondays to Fridays 8am to 11pm excluding Singapore public holidays. This is a new feature introduced by UOB bank a couple of years ago.

Before you open an account, please check out the various fees for UOB Gold Savings Account in UOB’s website. There are several charges that you need to factor in because they would affect your yield.

This is not the first time that I touched on UOB’s GSA. A few years ago, I had also made some money from UOB GSA and shared with readers the merits and pitfalls of investing in gold. When it comes to building wealth, you should always focus on investing what you know best.

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Stocks

Is it worth investing in SingTel now?

The nightmare continues. Just when investors think that the stock market storm is over, the correction resumes lately. The reality is that business fundamentals don’t change overnight and so does the stock market. China’s slow down began a couple of years ago and not weeks before. The build up to the oil supply glut began a few years ago and not recently. So investors need to be clear that this down-turn is going to be a painfully long winter and it’s not going to go away soon. But amid the bearish market sentiment, there are certainly companies that are worth investing but currently facing price corrections. Among them is SingTel.

The first thing that investors should note is that SingTel is a regional giant that serves more than 550 million mobile customers in Asia, Australia and Africa. This investment moat sets them apart from the other two smaller local rivals, M1 and Starhub. Having this investment moat gives SingTel the economies of scale for procurement and marketing. Most importantly, being the market leader, they are able to influence market trends and set data and mobile plan prices to their advantages.

Stock Market
SG Wealth Builder

Over the past one year, the announcement of a fourth telco in Singapore has brought a lot of buzz to the market.

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Money management; personal finance; relationship

In memory of a Singapore’s investment legend

This is my 500th blog article! For a long while, I thought hard about what to post for this milestone article. It has to be meaningful of course and should resonate with readers on the topic of building wealth. Eventually, I decided to dedicate this article to the late Dr Michael Leong, founder of financial portal, Shareinvestor.com. There are many battles that a wealth builder must fight on a daily basis but there is only battle that everyone cannot afford to lose and that is losing our health. On 12th February 2016, Dr Michael Leong lost his battle with colon cancer.

To be honest, I do not know Dr Michael Leong at all but I heard about Shareinvestor.com a few years ago from one of the business associates. He told me that if I aspired to grow my blog, then I must benchmark against the standard of Shareinvestor.com. I was curious about what he said and then decided to check out the website.

True enough, I realized that Shareinvestor.com is a powerful data-driven investment website that allows retail investors to make informed investment decisions on stocks. Apparently, Dr Michael had founded the website in 1999 and then sold it to SPH in 2008 for $12 million.

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Property investment; Singapore market; private housing prices

Staggering $238 million extension charges for property developers

As a wealth builder, I will always try to avoid investing in property stocks because this sector is prone to many restrictive government policies due to the scarcity of land in Singapore. For many property developers, among the most unpopular policies should be the Qualifying Certificate Rules under the Residential Property Act.

Under the Qualifying Certificate Rules, listed property companies are technically considered as “foreign companies” as they would have some foreign shareholders. Thus, they are obliged to sell all their units within 5 years from the date of the Qualifying Certificate or collective sale deal. Failing to do so would incur hefty penalty.

According to property consultancy firm Cushman and Wakefield (C&W), property developers may incur about $238 million of extension charges in 2016. This is certainly not a small amount to be scoffed at and it is also important to note that the extension charges are not one-off penalties. Developers would face annual charges as per the following:

  1. 8% per annum on the purchase price of the residential property for
    the first year of extension;
  2. 16% per annum on the purchase price of the residential property for
    the second year of extension; and
  3. 24% per annum on the purchase price of the residential property for
    the third and subsequent years of extension.
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Self improvement

Opportunity is when knowledge meets preparation

From time to time, I like to review my previous blog posts. In an enlightening interview I done with Gerald Tay of Conspiracy of Real Estate Investments (CREi) Academy Group, I realized how accurate his predictions were in 2013. Check out my old article here.

As a wealth builder, I have deep respect for Gerald Tay because he was born to a rich family but subsequently had to start from square one because of some unforeseen family financial difficulties. As a result, his perspective is unique as he knows what it is like to be rich and poor. Below is an eerily accurate predictions made by Gerald in 2013 from my interview with him:

1)      The world economy might be headed for a major financial crisis, making the 2008 financial crisis look like a chicken in a coup. Major economies (China, USA, Europe, Japan) are supported by a large quantity of ‘phony’ money printed endlessly by their governments.  Instead of turning the economy around, massive debts are sending these nations towards default, and there’s no escape from a market crash in the future when you have such enormous debts.
SG Wealth Builder
SG Wealth Builder
2)      Even if there’s no such catastrophic event mentioned above to happen anytime in the next 5 years, there might be some ‘black swan’ event that might just tip the balance and burst the asset bubble, especially in Asia.
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Gold; portfolio management

Gold’s explosive start in 2016

With fear firmly in grip on the global stock markets, gold price has seen an explosive start to 2016. The precious metal has surged an impressive 17 percent after bottoming in December 2015. Investors are fleeing the stock market and pouring massive funds in safe haven like gold and silver. Currently, gold is trading at spot price of USD 1238.40 per ounce. While it is still premature to claim that gold is in bull market, one thing that is certain is that globally, gold is still regarded as the safe haven in the midst of stock market chaos.

According to World Gold Council, the global demand for gold in 2015 remained flat as compared to 2014 at 4,212 tonnes. In spite of a weak start to the year 2015, gold demand rebounded in the 2nd half of 2015 due to huge buying from central banks and China. In fact, for China, the overall gold demand rose by 21% with investment in gold bullion being particularly strong as investors flocked to precious metal amid weaker currency and slowing economy.

Gold and Silver Bullion

Gold Trends in 2016

Alistair Hewitt, Head of Market Intelligence at the World Gold Council, said:In a year that saw global economic and stock market turmoil, the first US interest rate rise in nine years and falling oil prices, demand for gold remained resilient, coming in at 4,212 tonnes for the full year.

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Parenting

Chinese New Year 2016: Cherish The Tradition

The first day of the Chinese New Year 2016 fell on 8 February, which is a special date for my wife and I. Seven years ago, we met on this day and fell in love with each other. We were amazed that time really flies and it seemed like yesterday we first met each other.

Our relationship has evolved over the years and as a result, our love has taken a slightly different dimension as compared to seven years ago. We don’t really need little gifts or expensive meals to strengthen the bond between us. In the past, we would fret over how to celebrate this special day together as a couple. Now, with two kids, it is definitely not easy to plan for a date, especially during this festive season.

We had our reunion dinner with my mum and brother’s family on 6 February (Saturday) instead of Sunday because my sister and my brother-in-law wanted to go to Krabi for holiday this week. This is the second time that my sister is travelling during the Chinese New Year and frankly speaking, I had some misgivings about it because my family hardly got any opportunities to get together due to our busy schedules.

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make money

Fearless Investing

For many investors out there, it must have been a nightmarish experience for the past few months given the massive stock market decline. During this Chinese New Year long weekend, many Singapore investors and bloggers took this opportunity to take a break and recharge their batteries. Many choose to stay away from the stock market because they cannot bear to face the reality that a huge portion of their wealth just vanished into thin air.

Panic. Fear. Self doubts. Depression. Anger. These are the common emotions that have been displayed over and over again in many investors during the many stock market corrections. Unless you are a robot, you would have experienced some of these emotions if you have been vested in the stock market in the past few years. To be successful in investing, you must take the emotions out of investing. Not many people, including me, are able to achieve this. To achieve fearless investing, you must really be a disciplined investor and set entry and exit levels for every stocks that you purchased.

To be a fearless investor, you must have knowledge of the market and be precise in your execution. To do so, you need data for decision making.

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make money

Make money from the stock market during good and bad times

This coming Chinese New Year, many investors will have little to cheer about given the bearish market outlook. Many investors have seen their portfolio diminished in value and are feeling the pain of losing money in the stock market. Are you one of those investors who feel depressed over the recent stock market decline? If so, then brace yourself for further drops in the stock market because this is going to be a long ride. With China’s growth engine slowing down and the unexpected oil price rout, you know it is not going to be business as usual.

My Investment Mantra

As a wealth builder, my mantra is always to diversify my wealth on different assets. I have bought a bit of gold bullion, purchased insurance endowment plans and recently bought some K1 Ventures shares. I prefer to buy stocks during bad times because it is only during this period of time that you can buy stocks at reasonable prices. During bull market conditions, a lot of amateur retail investors would have pushed up the prices to ridiculous levels. The key thing is not to be greedy and set entry and exit levels when it comes to buying stocks at bargain prices.

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Stocks

Is K1 Ventures worth $1.00?

One of the most over-looked value stocks in Singapore’s stock market, K1 Ventures is giving out a huge Chinese New Year Hong Bao to its investors. Amid the bearish stock market sentiments, K1 Ventures is rewarding shareholders $0.21 dividend per share, even though it recorded a loss of $8.47 million for 2Q 2016. Notwithstanding this, I am sold on the company’s performance and bought the stock at $0.965 based on the management investment track record. In this article, I will share how to derive my entry and exit level for K1 Ventures.

K1 Ventures’ proven record

Since the Greenstreet Partners assumed management responsibilities within K1 Ventures, they have distributed $0.35 per share or $742 million, a “frightening record” that is extremely difficult to match in Singapore market, given the fact that K1 Ventures used to trade at $0.20 to $0.30 range. The company choose to be low profile all the while and thus, has been overlooked by many SGX investors. Recently, the company underwent a 5-in-1 share consolidation to meet SGX’s minimum trading price requirements, resulting in the share price to be adjusted to $0.90 to $1.00 range.

Ever since the failed management takeover in 2013, the company has been in divestment mode.

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Stocks

Big boys shorting Keppel Corporation relentlessly

Last week, the big boys, the so-called “whales” are in action again. Keppel Corporation was the subject target and was relentlessly shorted in huge volumes. The short sell orders executed were:

  • 25 January 2016: Short sale volume: 4,918,000 worth SGD 24,158,094
  • 26 January 2016: Short sale volume: 5,875,800 worth SGD 27,831,381
  • 27 January 2016: Short sale volume: 3,895,600 worth SGD 18,456,686

It seems like the whales are hell-bent on lowering the value of Keppel Corporation as oil prices crash to a 14-year low. Due to the oil crisis, Keppel Corp latest Q4 profit fell 44% and its 2015 profit dropped to a 5-year low. Incidentally, Keppel Corp is also a conglomerate with stakes in the property sector, which is also facing a slowdown. The double-whammy gave the whales the perfect opportunity to “wallop” Keppel Corporation and short the counter like nobody’s business.

Of course there were other blue chips which suffered from the recent whales’ attacks but the data from SGX’s Marking of Selling Orders revealed that Keppel Corporation was consistently being shorted for practically the whole of last month. If you are holding on to Keppel Corp shares, you have to be careful because this is abnormal. If the whales consistently targeted and whacked your stocks ferociously, it could mean something big is looming.

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Stocks

Committing suicide due to stock market crash

In perhaps one of the most disturbing scenes ever shown on TV, Adam Cheng’s character in TVB’s block-buster drama threw his four sons from the top of the stock exchange building after losing his fortunes in the stock market. That was in 1992 and the controversial scene was aired during the first episode of the epic drama. If the Hong Kong producers wanted to deliver a devastating impact on viewers, they succeeded because until today, this drama set the gold standard for a stock market drama series.

I was only 12 when The Greed of Man was shown and obviously I knew nothing about the stock market back then. Nonetheless, the drama has delivered a shocking message and that is to always respect the market. You can make a fortune from the stock market and conversely, you can also lose everything to the stock market if you cannot manage your emotions. At the end of the day, you must remember that nobody can beat the market.

In the real life, many Singapore investors and bloggers were taught a sobering lesson on how cruel the market can be. Within a year, the mighty Keppel Corporation’s stock price plummeted from $9.00 to $5.00.

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Stocks

Raffles Medical Group’s stock price is worth only $0.10?


Benjamin Graham invented the Net Current Asset Value per Share – NCAVPS, which he used to determine the value of the company he invested in. Based on his formula, Raffles Medical Group (RMG)’s stock price is worth only $0.10, way below the $4.00+ currently traded at the Singapore stock exchange. Being one of my favourite stocks, let’s look into whether the company is undervalued or overpriced.

Market Trend

First of all, from a macro viewpoint, the healthcare sector is an evergreen industry because of Singapore rapidly ageing population. In the coming years, as Singaporeans grow older, the demand for quality healthcare will grow as well. In fact, in the past few years, the Singapore government has been implementing measures to address the bed crunch situation faced by many public and private hospitals. New hospitals will be built and collaborations between the public agencies and private hospital will be developed to alleviate the pressing issue.

An example is the Emergency Care Collaboration between Ministry of Health and Raffles Hospital. Under the collaboration, first announced in December 2014, SCDF ambulances will send patients assessed with non-life threatening conditions to Raffles Hospital’s Emergency Department for treatment if it is the nearest available and appropriate hospital.

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personal finance

CPF: 3 ways to avoid spending your golden years in “survival mode”

In recent years, there have been many articles of old folks in Singapore living in poverty. This prompted Dr Alexandre Kalache, former head of ageing issues at the World Health Organization (WHO) to voice concerns that Singapore still has much room for improvement in terms of helping elderly to age with dignity.  Whilst I do not have the data to illustrate the profile and root causes leading to the plight of these people, at the back of my mind, I wonder to myself what it is like to spend my golden years in survival mode. Can CPF savings be your ticket to retirement?

Perhaps one of the most controversial topics among Singaporeans would be – Do you really need your CPF to retire? Is the CPF scheme still effective in addressing the retirement needs of Singaporeans? To tackle these questions, one needs to trace the history of CPF and its original intent.

Implemented in 1955, CPF is a compulsory savings scheme that requires all employers and employees to contribute a portion of the employee’s monthly gross salary to their CPF fund. In those days, most workers depend solely on their personal savings when they retire and most employers did not provide any form of retirement benefits to their employers.

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Stocks

OCBC Bank stock price crashed to six year low

One of the largest local banks in Singapore, OCBC stock price closed at $7.77, a six-year low. The last time OCBC shares traded below $5.00 was during the Great Financial Recession, recording a low of $4.14 on 6 March 2009.

OCBC will be releasing its full year financial results on 17 February 2016. However, based on its 3Q results in October last year, the Net Asset Value for each OCBC stock price was $7.78, slightly above today’s closing price. It is still premature to assess whether OCBC stock price is undervalued because the latest data has not been released. But given the current weak market sentiments, OCBC stock price is expected to slide further.

Stock Market
SG Wealth Builder

The non-performing assets (NPAs) were S$1.93 billion as at 30 September 2015, up 41% from S$1.37 billion a year ago. The year-on-year increase in NPAs was largely attributed to [This is a premium article. The rest of the content is blocked and can be accessible by SG Wealth Builder Members only. To read the full content, please sign up as member.]

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Stocks

SGX plunged from $15.90 in 2007 to $6.82 in 2016

Many investment bloggers can quote Warren Buffett’s famous saying “Price is what you pay, value is what you get”. But how many of them can actually truly understand what he means?

One of the greatest cardinal sins made by investors is to fall in love with the stocks they have invested in. In doing so, they suffer from investment blind spots and subsequently sustain heavy losses when market turns sour. It is as though they go to sit in for an examination without studying for the subject and then expecting to obtain an ace for it.

Many investors don’t determine the value of the stocks and don’t set entry/exit levels. Most of them buy stocks based on prices. The key reason for this folly is because most investors cannot differentiate between price and value.

SGX

A classic example would be Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX), Singapore’s stock market operator. The counter surged to a high of $15.90 in 2007 and then dropped to today’s $6.82. Die-hard fans who bought the counter in 2007 at such price would be staring at massive losses now.

Even though the company has been consistently paying good dividends, the amount of losses would have wiped off the dividend gains accumulated throughout the years.

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