Bought - Frasers Commercial Trust

Still reeling from the losses realised from my ill-advised venture into Lippo Malls, I have decided to re-invest the sale proceeds plus a bit more into Frasers Commercial Trust.

Reasons:

1) I believe office space rents have bottomed out and recovery is underway. And we should start seeing positive rental reversion from 2019 onwards.

2) I like the asset quality of FCOT. For instance, their Central Park property in Perth counts Rio Tinto, DLA Piper and the Australian Stock Exchange amongst its tenants. The Caroline Chisholm Centre has the Australian Government as a tenant with a lease expiring only in 2025. There is substantial stability and income visibility.

3) The current share price already takes into account the departure of HP from Alexandra Technopark, which is now undergoing AEI. Given management track record, I believe they would be able to increase the occupancy rates of their Singapore assets. In particular, any newly executed leases would be concluded under increasingly favorable market conditions.

Accordingly, I have initiated a small position into FCOT, 43000 shares, at $1.37 a share. Fingers crossed and onwards to FI my brethren!

Comments

As a Dividend Investor - I am having fun staying poor

Recently, there was a self-styled "master" who went around dissing dividend investing, saying things like REITS will chibaboom (his words not mine). Ironically, the master also invested into "growth stocks" like BABA and notably SE before its recent implosion. Masterstrokes indeed. Dividend/income investors have borne the brunt of "have fun staying poor" taunts since the dawn of time. Previously from the crypto bros and then from the growth investors. This is nothing new. Every growth investor likes to talk about Tesla. But where are the ARK ETF investors? Where are the NIO bulls? Where are the BABA fanatics? Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Good luck to those who retired on a portfolio of "growth stocks", hoping to spend 4% annually on an expected annualized portfolio growth rate of 10%. Without dividends, one would have no choice but to liquidate part of the portfolio for meeting expenditures. The damage done might never be reco...

FIRE by 2020 has officially failed

Back in 2015, I never thought I would have to work past 2020. The idea was that I would have accumulated at least 1.7 M by Jan 2021 and would be comfortably returning 110k a year in passive income based on a 6.5% yield. How laughably naive. The optimism is commendable but misguided. Covid struck hard. Several terrible decisions were made. EHT is bankrupt. A 50k write off. Ouch is right. First REIT is trading around 20% of my cost price. Never again Riady. Never again. Yields have been severely compressed with "quality" REITS, e.g., MINT, PLife, Ascendas REIT all returning paltry yields of 3-4% or, gasps, less. With the view of improving portfolio resilience, I made a conscious decision to rebalance my portfolio to go REIT-lite (well, lighter) and increased my holdings in DBS, UOB, OCBC. The MAS cap on banks' dividends does mean that these companies are returning 3% or less per annum. Sigh. All in all, pr...

The FI Checklist

You are on the verge. So close your ears are tingling with anticipation. Your fingertips rattle across the keyboard. Your lips purse into a wry smile. You can barely contain the pent-up ecstasy as the words appear on your computer screen: "... I would like to resign my position with effect from.... " WAIT A MINUTE. I know you have literally waited a decade to type this letter. But hold your horses first. Have you done the FI checklist? The FI Checklist 1. Have you set aside a cash buffer for income tax payments, which will persist for at least one more year in your unemployed life? Since you would no longer have an active income, it is pertinent that you have set aside sufficient cash reserves to meet your tax obligations. If your passive income level is high enough to cover your expenses plus taxes, good on you. If not, prudence dictates that you ring fence some money for Singapore's most powerful debt collector. ...

The Unnecessary Job

Search This Blog