While Sea Group has run up in share prices, my holdings in Elite Commerical fell. So its both happiness and sadness. I have sold both of these companies and bought Nanofilm & China Construction Bank. A partial divestment was done for my long held Yangzijiang Financial to fund the nanofilm purchase because nanofilm seems to have better recovery prospects. Nanofilm is a company that does coating using its unique technology and has factories across Asia with its largest factory in China. It is a proxy to the state of China's manufacturing and consumer activities. In my view, the lowest point ..read more

I am not vested in Manulife US REIT (MUST), but am following it because it reflects the state of the US Office market which affects my other 2 investments. Recently, MUST insiders have been buying up shares which is good news. However, a recent news of Brookfield asset sale in Figueroa might dampen news, it does not seem like its good news in the progress of Tranche 1 asset sales for Figueroa. BrookField Asset Sale Just 1 block away from MUST's Figueroa property, Brookfield has sold off its 777 South Figueroa street at US$145 million and with 15 offers. The office tower was only 50% occup ..read more

 Yangzijiang Financial Holdings (YZJFH) delivered a result which was within expectations. Summary Earnings per share of 5.5 cents Dividends of 2.2 cents Done slightly more than 10% of share buyback since spin off Currently YZJFH trades at a share price of 32 cents or SGD$1.13 billion market cap. $900 Million in Cash and Cash products in Singapore One important point from the year end results is that YZJFH has transferred a significant amount of cash from China to Singapore. With the cash in Singapore, it can be easily verified and reduces the allegations that the cash items in its bal ..read more

The full year results for the 3 US Office REITs are out. Downward valuations, as expected were reported with varying magnitudes. Below are their current financial health: CAPEX Shock To me what came as a surprise is the CAPEX needs of KORE's property portfolio. KORE spends more CAPEX than the rest. This is due to KORE's portfolio being the oldest among the 3. While KORE claims the higher CAPEX is needed to retain tenants, the main (probable) reason is due to the need to refurbish its old buildings to match tenants needs. As a result of the higher CAPEX needs as compared to PRIME US, KORE has ..read more

Alibaba latest quarterly results revealed how its largest 2 performing segment- local E commerce and cloud, have evolved into a mature state business. Revenue is growing in single digits which shows the difficulty of the company growing further.  Cainaio is the only positive with a large growing in revenue and further steps to profitability. My Thoughts Alibaba China e commerce have cloud are still churning through with margin improvements being made. This has helped the company to report flattish profits. However, what is terrible was its digital commerce group, in particular South East ..read more

In the latest financial result, KORE announced the surprise of suspension in dividends. The REIT elaborated it had considered other avenues such as fund raising and sale of building, but they were not beneficial to Unitholders. While the REIT is rational, I feel the REIT is being too cautious with its cashflow. Debt Profile KORE has US$78 mil of debt due in 4Q2024. With a cash generation ability of US$77 mil, expected CAPEX of US$30mil and cash balance of $43.7 mil, KORE is too cautious with expectations it is unable to refinance its tranche due in 4Q2024. With its cash flow and cash balance ..read more

Manulife US REIT has announced its year end valuation and it did not look pretty. For year 2023, Manulife US REIT reported a 22% drop in valuation, primarily due to increase in discount rate and cap rate assumption used. How about PRIME US, Keppacoak REIT? Cap Rate assumption, discount rate and higher leasing cost will definitely affect the 2 REITs. PRIME US REIT will be affected more due to its loss of tenants especially for One Washingtonian Centre. For PRIME US REIT, I am looking at a decline of valuation of 14% while for Keppacoak, it should be an approx decline of 10%. Effects Keppacoak R ..read more

 Measures have been announced that China has decided to reduce its reserve ratio rate to boost liquidity of its monetary system Is it Over? Optimism has come in with a slight boost in share prices of Chinese companies. However, I would caveat against being too optimistic if it is a turnaround Poor Government and Civil Service Messaging One would remember back in Oct 2022 after President Xi's cabinet reshuffle investors were spooked due to the installing of his yes men; the president and cabinet shortly came out to reassure investors that business regulations will be lessened in an attempt ..read more

This is a strategy I am executing so I am putting my mouth where my mouth is. Dividend Yield of Local REITs Singapore REITs are currently valued at 4-8% dividend yields. It is indeed one of the highest in investment recent times due to the hike in interest rates. However, on the SGX, there are a group of overseas REITs which presumably have a stronger balance sheet and are near double digit yields. Just look at Keppel Pacificoak US REIT, Utd Hampshire REIT US, Elite UK, Cromwell Europe REIT. In terms of dividend yield, they are at an expected forward yield of 12.5%, 11%, 9.5%, 9% respecti ..read more

By now, investors would be aware there is intense competition in South East Asia's e commerce scene. Bytedance's Tiktok has entered since early 2023 and been utilising its US$10+ billion annual profits from China to subsidise the large losses incurred in South East Asia, the aim is simple to be the one of the de facto 2 e-commerce players (given South East Asia population and lesser spending power, it seems this region can only support 2 profitable players) Shopee (Sea's arm) demonstrated how profitable e commerce could be when it posted 2 quarters amounting to an annual US$1 billion of annual ..read more