Recently, I decided to take a closer look at the financials of Manulife US REIT as I was rather confused by some analysts asserting that Manulife US REIT has a dividend yield of 8% but when one check the SGX dividend announcements, the annualised dividend yield is only around 5.4%. Apparently, there is a "missing block of dividends". Upon closer examination, the missing block of dividends is actually the capital distribution component of the half yearly distribution. The next question would be why is Manulife US REIT paying out distribution from its capital? Most importantly, is the future distribution sustainable? Also, is there a fundamental deteroriation in the results of the REIT?1. FY2020-Manulife US REIT Making LossesYes. This is not a typo. Manulife US REIT results for the first hal

The release of the Q3 FY2019 financial results for Eagle Hospitality Trust (“EHT”) turns out to be neither reassuring nor promising. EHT missed forecast by <10.6%> and <2.7%> for revenue and net property income respectively. Since EHT did not display a convincing set of superb performance, it will lead to persistent lingering doubts over the quality as well as fair valuation of the hotel assets being injected into the Trust. Without a strong performance to quell the rumors, the share price will probably languish on for the next 3-6 months albeit some short term upside. Q3 FY2019 financial performance- Is Hurricane the main reason for poor performance relative to IPO forecast?During the previous Q2 FY2019 results announcement, the performance had already missed forecast and

In my previous free cashflow analysis post using Frasers Commercial Trust, I have briefly sidetracked to touch on the problematic nature of Business Trust and that Netlink Trust is another business that actually borrows from the bank to finance its current high dividend distribution of 5.42% (based on 9 Sep 2019 closing price of S$0.90) and that it will most likely not be sustainable in the long run due to a deficit of <S$33Mil>. I will illustrate this using a shortcut methodology below and discuss some of the main technical points:1. Is interest paid for loans an operating activity or financing activity?The good thing about Netlink Trust financial statements is that unlike many companies which deemed interest paid as “Net cash used in financing activities”, financing cost p

Frasers Commercial Trust (“FCT”) recently announced the signing of a major tenant, Google, at Alexander Technopark. Of course, with this being a done deal, many folks including myself were thus expecting the DPU to increase upon commencement of the lease next year. Upon perusal of the financial announcements of FCT in the third quarter ending 30 June 2019 and examining it in details, I decided to reduce my shareholdings by half to mitigate any downside risk at the current high valuation of S$1.60-S$1.65 range. The free cashflow available to pay out quarterly distribution turns out to be unsustainable even if you add in the upcoming contribution from Google to replace the capital component in current distribution.1. Free cashflow assessmentScreenshot 1: Cashflow Statement ExtractFCT fin