Frasers Centrepoint Trust Preferential Offering

Fraser's Centrepoint Trust is one of my top 10 largest holdings, mainly because I bought it under $1 during GFC and it doubled in price. For 10 years, FCT never had rights issues and preferential offerings then it starting joining the crowd. Now in 2020, there's a PO of 290 new shares for every 1,000 shares held in order for FCT to buy the remaining interest in AsiaRetail Fund from Fraser's Property (via a subsidiary). With this acquisition, FCT establishes itself firmly as a local suburban mall play unlike some REITs that seem to be randomly acquiring properties. 

I like patronising suburban malls though the suburban malls I regularly visit seem to all be linked to Capitaland, probably because I live in the West. But from the foot traffic that I've seen, suburban malls seem to be doing pretty ok.

Unfortunately, the PO price of $2.34 is pretty close to the market price (on 11/12 Oct, the low price was $2.35, just $0.01 but as of 13 Oct it seems to have inched upwards).

I'm holding FCT in CPFIS and CDP, and I have applied for 9,000 which is more or less equal to my entitlement. Don't feel the need to apply for excess given the small gap between PO price and market price.

Dividends: September 2020

 

A number of UK dividends this month including Aviva and SSE. SSE's dividends are pretty high - as a utilities counter I guess their income is stable. Also dividends from Telstra. Many Singtel analyst reports saying that Optus is losing to Telstra. Always good to diversify.

Strategy: Sep 2020

I sold $20k of SIA 3.03% bonds this month to free up more funds for equity purchases. Glad it is still above $1 despite the depressed market for airlines.

I have been buying a little bit more in September because:

• I am cautiously optimistic regarding COVID19. Infection rates have really dropped in Singapore and the Govt even announced that 50% can go back to their workplaces.
• Abbot's cheap and fast COVID19 test gives hope to a restart of air travel. Airlines/ IATA are pushing the use of this cheap test instead of quarantine.
• September was a down month for the markets (S&P down 5.8%, Nasdaq down 7.3%), and I always prefer to buy in falling markets.

Added to my Vanguard High Yield ETF (VHYD), Euro Stoxx 50 ETF (CS51), and variously individual counters like VOD, SAN, HSBC, Aviva, ING, LGEN.

Also bought some Sembcorp ex-rights at 1.27 then after that the price kept on shooting up. Now I have to figure out whether I want to set a target price for my SembMarine shares since I do actually want to sell them eventually - this specialised O&G sector is not my preferred focus area - I would rather go for diversified O&G like Shell. 

Dividends: August 2020

 

STI ETF dividends this month.

Vanguard HK exiting (ETF delist?)

 The news reported that Vanguard HK is exiting the HK market including their ETF business. There is no news on the Vanguard site whether the ETFs will be delisted and NAV returned, or whether the ETF will so sold to another provider.

This is one of the small risks any investor takes. Its a small risk because you are getting your money back but you incur transaction costs moving to another ETF. That's why I usually hold both Vanguard and iShares ETFs. For HK, I am also holding iShares 2801  and the 2800 tracker fund.

I am vested in 2 Vanguard ETFs 3085 and 2805 and will need to move them to the iShares alternatives. A small annoyance is the fact that the iShares alternative 3010 is listed in HK$ but declares US$ dividends so if I want to reinvest I will have to change US$ to HK$ and pay 0.25% forex comm. Or maybe I just transfer the US$ dividends to my SCB US$ account.

Standard Chartered Complimentary WSJ subscription

 

SCB is offering Complimentary Wall Street Journal subscriptions to PB customers who opt-in as AI, no strings attached. This is very nice of them and I like the WSJ subscription a lot more than the Priority Pass which I have no use for.  If you hit the next tier, which is Priority Private, you even get a Barron's subscription.

Of all the Premier/Priority/Privilege banking offered by our local banks, SCB's PB has to be the one with the most benefits, yet the 'easiest' to qualify because your shares/ETF count towards the $200k AUM.

Strategy: August 2020

 

While COVID19 rages on and US-China tensions seem high, I feel that this is an opportunity to continue accumulating. I have been buying normally through July and early August, topping up 

• Foreign shares:LLOY, AV, GSK, SAN, TEF RDSB, PUK, WQDV, VHYD, 2805.HK, 2800.HK (RSP).
• Local shares: CapitaCommTrust using SRS, topped up some ART and CDG

Sold $25k of SIA 3.03% at above face value (around $1.01) to build up cash reserve. Plan to sell more in the coming weeks. Submitted CDP linkage form for FSMOne so that I can use FSMOne to sell  my CDP holdings at a lower $10 commission.

Based on a rough back of the envelope calculation of my portfolio, my portfolio is 56% Singapore stocks, 44% foreign stocks. While my target is 50%+ foreign stocks, the STI currently looks rather attractive so I am really tempted to continue buying local stocks.