Haw Par Corporation Ltd (SGX: H02) has released its full-year 2018 earnings yesterday. The group is well-known for its global Tiger Balm brand of ointments and mosquito patches, which have a long history. Aside from the healthcare division, Haw Par also owns strategic stakes in both UOL Group Limited and United Overseas Bank Ltd, as well as commercial and industrial properties for rental income in both Singapore and Malaysia. The company also has a small leisure division which runs Underwater World Pattaya in Thailand. Here is a summary of their latest earnings. 1. Revenue increased by 6.8% year on year from S$222.8 million to S$237.8 million, lifted by its Healthcare division holds its Tiger Balm products. 2. However, due to rising commodity prices, cost of sales increased by a higher 10

A raft of Jardine companies are pencilled in for results next week. Jardine Cycle & Carriage (SGX: C07) said in November that underlying profit rose 21% thanks to better performance at its Astra unit. Revenue was up 10%. Hongkong Land (SGX: H78) said in November that it’s financial position remains strong. It added that it saw positive rental reversion in its Central office portfolio as market supply remained tight. On the food front, Dairy Farm International (SGX: D01) expects full-year results to be impacted by increasing costs from its continuing programme of investment in technology, supply-chain infrastructure, stores and people. It also warned of weakening margins from increased rents. There are also results from conglomerates Jardine Strategic (SGX: J37) and Jardine Matheso

Haw Par Corporation Ltd (SGX: H02) is the maker of the Tiger Balm brand of ointment. Other than its healthcare arm, it also has strategic stakes in UOL Group Limited and United Overseas Bank Ltd. At a current price of S$12.22, Haw Par’s stock price is 4.8% higher than its 52-week low of S$11.65. Is Haw Par cheap now? If so, it might be a good opportunity for investors to start or add to a position in the stock. There is no easy answer to the question “Is this stock cheap?”, but we can get some insight by comparing Haw Par’s current valuation with the market’s valuation using three common metrics: the price-to-book (P/B) ratio, price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, and dividend yield. I will be using the SPDR STI ETF (SGX: ES3) as a proxy for the market; the SPDR STI ETF is an

Investors periodically face tough periods in the market where nothing they do seems to work, and investments may deliver negative returns in the short-term. While the idea of long-term investing remains sound, investors may feel temporarily discouraged and emotionally drained by the negative returns and find it hard to focus on a multi-year investment time horizon. As with any aspect of life, challenges do pop up now and then and make us question if what we are doing is sound, or whether we should take action and switch paths. With that, here are three reasons to keep the faith despite facing challenges and hurdles. Stock Markets Rise Over The Long-Term Economic cycles and industry cycles cause revenues and profits to fluctuate, and this is a normal aspect of business and should not alarm

It’s interesting that a friend of mine brought up the topic of share prices, and whether liquidity (or the lack of it) would constrain proper price discovery. To explain a little more, price discovery is a term which indicates that a particular share is transacted at what is understood to be the approximate fair value of the company. If price discovery is poor or weak, then the transacted price may distort the fair value of the company or be grossly inaccurate. Some reasons for this could be — liquidity issues, neglect, lack of understanding of the company or a one-time major negative event which has temporarily weakened the company but does no long-term damage. In this article, I will be looking at the topic of liquidity. Defining Liquidity – Willing Buyer, Willing Selle

So, the US Government is over for now. Should we be relieved? The shutdown should tell us that there is something very fundamentally wrong with the way that America is run. Whether we agree or disagree with Trump’s building of a wall to separate Mexico and America, a shutdown is not the way to go about sorting out budgetary differences. How is it possible that one man can hold an entire country to ransom, just because he hasn’t been allowed to have everything his own way. For goodness sake, America is the largest and most developed economy on our planet. Yet it behaves no better than a banana republic. The damage that the shutdown has done to the US economy may be temporary. It is estimated trim about 0.1% of America’s economic growth for every week that the shutdown was in place.

UOL Group Limited (SGX: U14) is a Singapore-listed property company with S$20 billion of assets under management. The property group has is spread across many aspects of the property market such as property development, property investments and hotels operations. Some of the notable properties in its portfolio include Novena Square, United Square, and Odeon Towers. Between 1 Jan and 31 Dec 2018, UOL’s total return, which includes reinvested dividends has lagged the STI index (SGX: ^STI), with the former dropping 28.8%, while the latter fell 6.5%. Is UOL a bargain at current prices? For this, the price to earnings (P/E) ratio, the price-to-book (P/B) ratio, the dividend yield and the net debt-to-equity ratio could provide some useful clues. The real estate conglomerate has a trailing tw

The Straits Times Index (STI) is made up of the 30 strongest and most liquid stocks listed in Singapore. Comprising close to 80% of the entire market value in Singapore, the returns that the stocks on the STI provides is essentially the market returns or benchmark returns. For investors who are new or prefer taking a hands-off approach, being able to invest in the STI can be the most practical way to invest. This is primarily because it offers several advantages such as diversifying our investment portfolio with just one investment as well as receiving the market returns without requiring much knowledge or spending time monitoring and adjusting our portfolios. Currently, there are two listed STI exchange traded funds (ETFs) – the SPDR STI ETF and the Nikko AM Singapore STI ETF – that w

2018 was a challenging year for Singapore investors. The Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI), Singapore’s stock market barometer, was down by 9.8% in 2018. There are a number of stocks, however, that saw poorer performance in 2018. In this article, and the next, I will look back into the year and identify six of the index’s biggest losers. The sixth worst performer The conglomerate UOL Group Limited (SGX: U14) captures the sixth spot with a 30.2% decline in its stock price in 2018. As a quick introduction, UOL is a property company that is involved in property development and management, property investments, and hotel businesses. In its latest earnings for the third quarter ended 30 September 2018, UOL reported that revenue was down 3% to S$523.8 million. Yet, UOL’s attributable profit

UOL Group Limited (SGX: U14) is a property company that is involved in property development and management, property investments, and hotel businesses. At the current price of S$6.26, UOL’s shares are just slightly higher than the 52-week low price of S$6.00. This raises a question: Is UOL cheap now? This question is important because if the firm’s shares are cheap, it might be a good opportunity for investors. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. However, we can still get some insight by comparing UOL’s current valuations with the market’s valuation. The three valuation metrics I will focus on are the price-to-book (PB) ratio, price-to-earnings (PE) ratio, and dividend yield. I will be using the SPDR STI ETF (SGX: ES3) as a proxy for the market; the SPDR STI ETF is an e

Here are some of the most popular articles that have appeared on The Motley Fool Singapore’s website for the week. 3 Singapore Blue-Chip Shares That Warren Buffett Might Like Ever wanted to invest in stable companies that are part of the Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI)? Look no further. In this article, I look at three blue-chips that have wide economic moats and why they could make good investments. Companies discussed in the article: Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX: S68), DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX: D05) and SATS Ltd (SGX: S58). 3 REITS That Have More Than 8% Yield Right Now Lawrence Nga explores three real estate investment trusts (REITs) that have distribution yields of above 8%. They are not excessively valued in terms of their book values as well. REITs discussed in the article a

Property stocks took a beating in July when the Singapore government implemented additional property cooling measures. Since then, private condominium prices have declined for two straight months, and analysts expect further corrections in the months ahead. That said, I still believe the long-term prospects of property in Singapore remains sound. The Monetary Authority of Singapore has said that it wants property prices to rise reasonably and in tandem with wage increases. As such, over the much longer time frame, property prices should increase as wages rise in Singapore. With property stocks trading some way off their peak, now may be a good time to look for bargains. Here’s a quick look at how the three blue-chip property stocks are valued now. Price-to-book ratio The price-to-book ra

Haw Par Corporation Ltd (SGX: H02) is the maker of the Tiger Balm brand of ointment. Other than its healthcare arm, it also has strategic stakes in UOL Group Limited (SGX: U14) and United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11). At Haw Par’s share price of S$12.57 currently, the company has a trailing dividend yield of 2.0%, which is low for income investors. Is there room for the company to increase its dividends in the coming years? Let’s find out by using Haw Par’s free cash flow figures and other metrics. Tiger’s clues A company’s free cash flow shows how much cash the firm has to pay out dividends to shareholders, buy back shares, make acquisitions, or strengthen its balance sheet. To calculate a company’s free cash flow, we can take its operating cash flow (typicall

Haw Par Corporation Ltd (SGX: H02) owns the Tiger Balm brand of ointment. Other than its healthcare business, it also owns strategic stakes in UOL Group Limited (SGX: U14) and United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11). Shares in Haw Par have fallen by some 14% since the peak seen in early-May 2018. Due to the dwindling share price, there could be some opportunity with the company. However, before a concrete decision can be made to invest, one has to look at its historical financial performance to understand if it has a strong business. With that, let’s learn more about Haw Par by looking at its critical historical financial figures. Revenue and profit We will start with the income statement. This statement, also known as profit and loss statement, shows us how much revenue a company brings in