Caveat Emptor

Highlights I have gleaned from Raffles Medical AGM 1) Revenue stream 56%Hospital 40% healthcare 4% investment holdings,  There is a sharp increase in investment holdings revenue due to Raffles Holland V rental business / contribution (Similar to REIT business) . Raffles Medical is focused on acquiring space for land intensive hospital business and is converting space to acquire rental.   Prevailing trends and strategy 2) In 2017, due to the economic downturn, there is significant price cutting / negotiation in corporate services. Companies are lowering their quotes for insurance and clinic contracts. As Raffles medical is focused on bottom line profitability and not top line sales revenue, they are turning down contracts that have low profit margin to reduce unnecessary expenditures.  3) There is strong price competition from Malaysia and Thailand. This is worsened by high medical charges in Singapore. This led to industry wide decrease in fore...

High level summary of raffles medical 1) Financial health Strong operating cash flow Portfolio of investment properties (freehold clincs), which are marked to market and a potential asset play Increase DPS Increase revenue 0.8%, increase NPAT 1.1% Strong insider shareholding and insider uptake of share options Potential asset play with strong portfolio of freehold and long lease investment properties and clinics (marked to market, might be illiquid) Drawing down in free cash flow and increase on short term and long term unsecured  debt 2) Risks and prospects (to be raised during AGM) 2017 is a challenging year for medical tourism and may have understated it's potential. Do you foresee and short term or long term recovery? Whom are your possible competitors? Scored high in client satisfaction index. Expanding network and services, opening 4 clinics. Also expanding in Hong Kong and Indochina. Is recruitment efforts in Chongqing going well especially for the 700 bed hospi...

Annual report 2017 summary Could be Diwosifying in energy and environmental services which is out of its circle of competence. Very hard to gauge. Not focused on core water treatment business and lowering costs. Great effort in cleaning up balance sheet of perpetuals but still drawing down from project loans and not profitable Hyflux trying to grow it's way out of insolvency and indebtness. I don't see it happening for this company in the next 2-3 years unless it can sell of TianJin Dagang and Tuaspring to generate free cash flow, and reduce its capex. Price spike due to unverifiable factors. May be a good chance to divest most of my miniature position. Energy market play Expected to be losing money continually for 2018. Even if the energy market recovers, I don't expect Hyflux energy to be profitable due to the fierce competition of the energy industry in Singapore. I don't see a reasonable chance this company will regain profitability in the next 2-3 years. 201...

I recently attended a talk at thomson toastmasters which is conducting a MBTI workshop. For those whom are unfamiliar with MBTI, it is a popular personality test used by companies to screen for the personality profiles for their candidates. It is regarded well enough to be placed into academia although the reliability of its methodology and results is often criticised. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers–Briggs_Type_Indicator https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test Personally, I have taken the test and find it to be pretty descriptive of my thinking and behavioral traits. However, the speaker presents a differing point to it. Granted, he is not a professional speaker or an well grounded expert in this particular field, but he provided plenty of food of thought regarding how MBTI should be used. ESTJ : extraversion (E), sensing (S), thinking (T), judgment (J) INFP : introversion (I), intuition (N), feeling (F), perception (P) A lot of people focus on the Int...

There was the nifty 50 on the 1970s and 1980s. There was the tech boom in the 1990s. There was a tulip mania in the previous centuries (1637) , and now there is the "mooning" of the cryptocurrency in contemporary times. And now we come to the FANG, a group of US technology companies which share value has appreciated tremendously in recent years. Facebook Apple Netflix Google Unlike Peter lynch or Warren Buffet, I don't have a strong opinion about whether technology companies are worth their salt or not. Both talked about buying simple business that even a idiot can run, a balance sheet that is clean and relatively debt free, capable management, investments moat and that can generate good returns with low capex,  and whether it is within your circle of competence. For facebook, it is a different ball game altogether. Facebook is very management driven and led by leaders with strong vision and personalities to make things happen. Granted strong management can give ...

http://m.scmp.com/business/article/1975392/noble-groups-amazing-story-how-soar-then-fall-back-earth?amp=1 https://www.asia.finance/why-noble-group-may-never-recover-from-its-crisis https://www.asia.finance/why-noble-group-may-never-recover-from-its-crisis https://www.google.com.sg/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1GZ1UF?espv=1 1) Noble, like Enron, had a great story to tell. True, no one outside the company was exactly sure how it made money but the proof seemed to be in the pudding as its share price rose and rose again. The heady rise in its market capitalisation was frequently punctuated with news of acquisitions and fabulous deals; only wimps questioned how they were leveraged. 2)  they are all suffering from acute amnesia. Some, however, claim not to have forgotten but are bitterly accusing Elman and his colleagues of misleading them. Others, with the benefit of hindsight, are busy claiming a degree of foresight that they remarkably kept under wraps. 3)It reco...

Silver Lake axis - a silver lining in sight? I went to the Silver Lake axis EGM on 01 Mar 2018 to vote for the EGM regarding the acquisition of 3 subsidiaries. To be frank, I half expected a google like buzz and more hip and coming investors and tech geek, being a fintech company and all. In actuality, most of them look like senior citizens at retirement age, some hardcore retail numbers savvy investors, and a few fund managers / securities analyst whom mainly kept silent throughout the egm.  In fact, I think I am the youngest person on the room apart from the ushers. I believe I saw Rusmin Ang, the guy whom wrote articles about agm/egm in his website the fifth person, taking down notes there too. Now without further adieu, I will like to detail on the proceedings of the egm proper.  The first part of the EGM has the main board of directors. They are holding a q and a with shareholders about the acquisitions. The questions are numerous and I took down some of the mo...