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Showing posts from July, 2019

The Infantilisation of the Poor

Over the weekend, I became vilified on Facebook. For the crime of daring to own an opinion. A respected friend of mine had posted a link to a book published by Liyana Dhamirah, Homeless. This book is basically a feel-good, comeback story, about someone who overcame great odds, to re-plant her feet firmly on the ground. In an interview with Mothership , the author recounts being pregnant with her first at age 16, and tolerated a repeatedly infidel husband. Both her and husband were eventually cast out by her mother-in-law on Hari Raya no less, and ended up on Sembawang Beach. By that time, she was already pregnant with her third child.  Bizarrely, she also quit her job at around the same time. Her story goes on to detail the bureaucratic hoops she had to jump through to qualify for public shelters. A few questions immediately burned in my mind. 1) Is it not irresponsible to bring a child to this world at a tender age of 17 when you can barely fend for yourself? 2) Is it not

Ascott Residence Trust (ART) buys Ascendas Htrust (AHT) for S$1.0868 per share

AHT last traded at 0.975. My average entry was 0.82 for 235,000 units. The purchase price of 1.0868 represents about a 32.5% gain over what i paid for the shares, excluding dividends received. Including dividends, the XIRR rate of return would be about 26.7% - possibly one of my best performance in 4.5 years of investing. Value Date BUY -141432.15 07-Sep-17 Div 4641 12-Dec-17 BUY -51492 06-Apr-18 Div 7356 19-Jun-18 Div 6603 07-Dec-18 Div 7567 18-Jun-19 cash out 255398 03-Jul-19 XIRR 0.267298812 The low down The purchase would be paid in both cash and Ascott units. I would have preferred an all cash deal.  ART's units are severely over-valued and AHT holders are being shortchanged by being paid in ART shares, which appear t