The US-China trade war escalated further this week. On Monday, China increased its tariffs on US$60 billion worth of American imports to between 20% and 25% from the previously imposed 10%. This was a response to the US increasing tariffs on US$200 billion worth of Chinese imports to between 20 and 25% from 10%. Unwilling to back down, the US released a list of around US$300 billion worth of Chinese imports that could face a 25% tariff. The complete list would encompass almost all of Chinese imports into the US. Investors reacted to the news, with the S&P 500 falling more than 2% on Monday, 13 May. Economists said that China has a 25.1 trillion yuan unspent budget that they could use to stoke the economy if the trade war really hurts its economy. Meanwhile, Malaysia’ economic growt

Frasers Centrepoint Trust (SGX: J69U), or FCT for short, is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns retail assets in Singapore. Its portfolio comprises six suburban retail properties – Causeway Point, Northpoint City North Wing, Anchorpoint, YewTee Point, Bedok Point and Changi City Point, with a total combined appraised value of S$2.75 billion as at 31 December 2018. The REIT also owns investments in Hektar REIT (KLSE: 5121) and PGIM Real Estate AsiaRetail Fund. FCT has a long and enviable track record of raising its dividends every single fiscal year since listing, which is impressive considering the malls are mainly heartland malls and that the REIT has made only one acquisition (that of Changi City Point in 2014) since its IPO. Investors may be wondering if this superb tr

“Why go to a shopping mall when you can shop online, right?” Analysts and market ... Read more >>

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) own income-producing real estate assets such as shopping centres, offices, and, business parks. They are a popular investment vehicle for income investors since they give out regular distributions, usually every quarter. Before buying a REIT, though, we have to ensure we are getting enough value for the money we pay. To value a REIT, we can look at its price-to-book (PB) ratio and its distribution yield. The PB ratio is calculated by dividing the unit price of the REIT by its book value per unit (also known as net asset value per unit). In theory, a PB ratio that is below 1 means that the REIT is selling at less than what it is worth, and that makes the REIT undervalued. The distribution yield is similar to the dividend yield of a company. With that, l

We’ve been making our way through a checklist of questions adapted from Michael Sheen’s book “The Investment Checklist.” The time has come to look at the best ways to assess the quality of management. 1. Does the CEO love the money or the business? The best CEOs are passionate about their businesses and view money as secondary. One indication of a passionate CEO is one who rejects offers to buy out the company, as we can assume he is passionate about building the business and seeing things through. If a CEO has passion for the business, he might also continually seek to learn and grow so as to better serve the company and its shareholders. Compare this to CEOs who just work for the money — they may be poached by competitors when offered a better remuneration p

Frasers Centrepoint Trust (SGX: J69U), or FCT, is a REIT with a property portfolio comprised of the following suburban retail properties in Singapore: Causeway Point, Northpoint City North Wing (including Yishun 10 Retail Podium), Anchorpoint, YewTee Point, Bedok Point, and Changi City Point. It also holds a 31.15% stake in Hektar Real Estate Investment Trust, a retail-focused REIT in Malaysia. The manager of Keppel DC REIT gave a presentation on the REIT’s latest results, and in it were three slides on the REIT’s business that I think investors should pay attention to. Overview of results Source: FCT’s Result Presentation The REIT had a positive year, with most metrics coming in stronger on a year-on-year basis. The growth in net property income (NPI) was across the board. In part

Bear markets are brutal and savage events that can leave many investors scarred and horrified. Sometimes investors get mauled so badly by the bear that they quit investing altogether and park their money in “safe” savings and deposit accounts, not caring if their money is eroded by inflation. Such investors may not be aware of how to react during a bear market. A bear market is characterised by three distinct phases of psychology. By understanding each phase, investors can become more aware of how they should think about companies and also how to deploy their capital. With this knowledge, investors can hopefully improve their performances and have peace of mind. Denial phase In the denial phase, the market takes a dip from bull-market highs. However, the majority of market part

In the first quarter of 2019, local benchmark Straits Times Index ended flat as investors juggled between worries about higher US recession risks and the impending outcome of the US-China trade talks. The only bright spot was the S-REIT sector as it outperformed on the Fed’s dovish interest rate hike forecast. The slowdown in hike came from lower GDP growth expectations and rising unemployment, leading to the inversion of US yield curve to heighten recession fears. According to DBS, here are three investment strategies for you to jumpstart your portfolio. Investors Takeaway: 3 Investment Strategies To Jumpstart Your Portfolio By DBS Strategy 1: ‘Peak’ Interest Rate, Uncertain Growth Environment Calls For Greater Focus On Yield/Defensive Stocks According to the Fed’s dot plot, they

A look at 10 points from Frasers Centrepoint Trust’s (SGX: J69U) latest result announcement.

What does Frasers Centrepoint Trust (SGX: J69U) say about the debate between offline and online shopping?

First Real Estate Investment Trust (SGX:AW9U), Frasers Centrepoint Trust (SGX:J69U), and Mapletree Industrial Trust (SGX:ME8U) have grown their dividends over the years.

3 Things that should bring a smile to Frasers Centrepoint Trust's (SGX: J69U) unitholders

Frasers Centrepoint Trust (SGX:J69U) has a good track record of growing its dividend over the years.

Frasers Property Limited (formerly known as Frasers Centrepoint Limited) is a multinational integrated real estate conglomerate with assets located in Singapore, Australia, China, and Europe. Frasers Property is active in property development, management, REITs, and investments. As at 30 September 2018, Frasers Property has a total of S$32.4 billion in total assets. In this article, I’ll revisit its fundamentals, provide an update on its latest results, and evaluate its valuation. Here are 10 things to know about Frasers Property before you invest. 1. Singapore: Profit before interest and tax (PBIT) grew 17.8% year-on-year to S$481.0 million in 2018. This was due to an increase in development profits from key projects, namely: Park Life EC, North Park Residences, and Seaside Resi

After steadily raising interest rates for the past 2 years, the Fed is indicating that it could take a pause from more interest rate hikes. The officials are signalling that they will wait and monitor the market before deciding whether the economy is strong enough for another rate hike. With interest rate risk deflating and the flight to safety trend, most S-REITs are showing significant positive return over end-2018 share price. KGI notes that this will continue to be the dominant trend moving forward. As such, despite recent capital gains, KGI believes that the current valuation of S-REITs is still moderately attractive for investors to enter into S-REIT investments. KGI: Ranking S-REITs On 4 Investment Criteria To help investors decipher which S-REITs to invest in, KGI categorised the S

In early 2017, Sabana REIT has been getting a lot of attention when a small group of unitholders moved to kick out the manager for delivering poor performance since its IPO in 2010. Early investors who bought Sabana at an IPO price of S$1.05 are now sitting on huge losses – Sabana last traded at just 41.5 cents per share at time of writing. If we look at the history, Sabana REIT isn’t alone. There are several other Singapore REITs (S-REITs) like Saizen REIT, MacarthurCook Industrial REIT and Allco REIT that have run into trouble before and caused a dent in Singapore’s REIT sector. Despite some casualties, Singapore’s REIT market remains vibrant – largely thanks to the majority of S-REITs that continue to deliver good results to income investors. In this article, we look at the pe

The US Federal Reserve has indicated that 2019 will likely see slower interest rate hikes. This comes on the back of mounting macroeconomic uncertainties, that has seen investors turn to less risky investments. This may benefit REITs in three ways: # 1 Traditionally, REITs take on a lot of debt to fund its capital-intensive property investments. Slower interest rate hikes in 2019 will ease the growing pressure on REITs, in terms of debt repayment. # 2 Markets are efficient – which means that prices of REITs would have taken into consideration that rate hikes would continue as normal. This stance of slowing down the interest rate hikes in 2019 is new information for the market, and may give REITs a boost. (Do note that most of this new information should already be priced into the markets

In this article, we will compare the valuation for Frasers Centrepoint Trust (SGX: J69U) and CapitaLand Mall Trust (SGX: C38U)

In this article, we will compare the debt profile for Frasers Centrepoint Trust (SGX: J69U) and CapitaLand Mall Trust (SGX: C38U)

In this article, we will compare the growth in distribution per unit for Frasers Centrepoint Trust (SGX: J69U) and CapitaLand Mall Trust (SGX: C38U) for the last 10 years.