Tea with AK71: Breakfast at Long John Silver's.

I think breakfast at Long John Silver's compared to McDonald's offers better value for money.

Thick slices of toast with turkey bacon, eggs and cheese. Yummy! I am not crazy about the hash brown though.

Iced Milo! Slurp!

Price: $5.10 with tea or coffee. Add 50c to upgrade to an iced Milo. :)

From their website:

Caution: Waiting time can be quite long if they are busy. I would usually avoid if I see long queues or many tables with a number standee which means diners are waiting for their meals to be sent to them. In terms of efficiency, McDonald's still takes the top spot.

Sabana REIT: 3Q FY2011.

Sabana REIT together with AIMS AMP Capital Industrial REIT are my top investments at the moment. Together, they account for a lion's share of my passive income generated from investments in the Singapore stock market.

Sabana REIT has declared a DPU of 2.14c for 3Q FY2011. Based on today's closing price of 91c per unit, this represents a distribution yield of 9.4% based on an annualised DPU of 8.56c. Beats leaving money in a savings account and being paid an interest income of 0.05% per annum, doesn't it? The best one year fixed deposit I know of pays an interest income of only 1%.

Sabana REIT will also legally complete acquisitions of four properties in 4Q 2011. These acquisitions are DPU accretive since they are fully funded by debt. This is possible due to its very low pre-acquisition gearing level. So, expect DPU to bump up in the coming quarters. Good news for anyone investing for income, surely.

NAV per unit after distribution: $1.05
Interest cover ratio: 7.6x
Estimated gearing, post acquisitions: 35%

Sabana REIT's total AUM is set to cross $1b with the completion of the said acquisitions and the REIT is bound to deliver on its promises made during its IPO.

The counter will go XD on 25 October and the income distribution is payable to unitholders on 29 November.

Read related posts on Sabana REIT: here.

Old Chang Kee: Initiated a long position at 26c.

If we go out in the evenings or on weekends, we will see most of the restaurants packed and some of the more popular ones even have long queues. 

A friend of mine invested in Soup Restaurant which gives its shareholders a card that gives a 15% discount off the total bill for dining at their outlets.

Personally, I like going to Soup Restaurant too. However, I think of it as more upmarket, similar to Lao Beijing. 

In a recession, their businesses could take a hit. In this respect, I find Old Chang Kee to be a more attractive proposition.

Old Chang Kee's food kiosks are ubiquitous and always seem to be doing good business. Well, at least for those I see. 

I doubt very much that, in a recession, we will see people cutting back on their favourite curry puffs, sotong sticks or yam cakes in a big way.

Old Chang Kee's shares are thinly traded and it is rather risky to put in overnight buy orders.  

I look at it from time to time but did not do so recently for a few days when it touched a low of 22.5c a share. Less than 200 lots changed hands in 4 sessions at under 26c a share.

When it was trading at 38c and higher just a few months ago, I found it too expensive for my taste (pardon the pun). 

Now, at 26c, I decided to take a nibble (sorry, another pun) as it is definitely more attractive.

Six months basic EPS improved from 1.03c to 1.28c, year on year. 

However, as the company issued warrants in August last year, on a fully diluted basis, EPS improved from 1.03c to 1.07c year on year. 

It is quite obvious to me that this is a growth company.





Warrant holders are also in the money since they paid only 5c per warrant which has an exercise price of 10c. 

A good investment they made in Old Chang Kee, no doubt.

Gross profit improved 11.6% while net profit improved 25.9%, year on year. 

A pro forma full year EPS of 2.14c would give a PE ratio of 12.15x for the company. 

The company's balance sheet has also strengthened with lower outstanding bank loan balances. 

Cash and cash equivalents also increased almost 50%, year on year. Strong cash flow from operations has been cited as being the main reason for this.





The company could continue to pay a dividend of 1.5c per share which means a dividend yield of 5.77% at 26c a share.

The only other blog post I had on Old Chang Kee was rather tongue in cheek, if you remember. 

Now that I am a shareholder of the company, eating a curry puff will be a somewhat more savoury experience. I hope so, anyway. ;)





Read the Half Year 2011 report here.

Related post:
Old Chang Kee: Filling not enough.

K-REIT: 17 for 20 rights issue.

K-REIT will be seeking approval at an EGM for a rights issue priced at 85c per rights unit. 

This is to partially fund the purchase of Ocean Financial Centre. 

Mr. Market does not like this whole deal and sold down the units to a low of 93c this morning.

What do I think? 

Well, the whole exercise is expected to be DPU accretive which is something investors for income want to see. 

DPU is expected to increase from 6.37c to 6.72c.

Using the low of 93c per unit this morning, the TERP is 93c x 20 + 85c x 17 /37 = 89.32c.  

A pro forma DPU of 6.72c means a distribution yield of 7.52%.




Ocean Financial Centre is currently about 80% occupied. 

If the REIT manager is able to bump up the occupancy rate, we could see DPU and yield increase further. 

However, with the current softening office rentals which is likely to get worse, it could be an uphill battle. 

Commitment by the vendor to provide rental support for a period of five years.

Personally, I have a very small position in K-REIT from a long time ago. 

When I was deciding to invest between K-REIT and Suntec REIT more than two years ago, I chose Suntec REIT for its almost equal exposure to office and retail spaces. 

I have pared down my investment in Suntec REIT some time ago since, expecting its exposure to office space to be a drag on future performance. 

In short, I am not feeling sanguine about office space rentals and have not increased exposure to the corresponding REITs.

Having said this, given my very small position in K-REIT, I will most probably subscribe to the rights issue. 

If I were not invested in the first instance, I would not bother buying in now to gain exposure.




Some important numbers:
Gearing: Increases from 39.8% to 41.6%
All in cost of debt: Decreases from 2.48% to 2.23%
Interest cover ratio: 4.6x to 4.3x

See the slides presentation here.

Related post:
Office S-REITs VS Industrial S-REITs (2).

Hock Lian Seng: Insider buying.

There has been quite a bit of insider buying going on in Hock Lian Seng as its share price plunged in recent weeks to hit a new low of 23.5c. I know Hock Lian Seng to have a rather robust business although it is in a cyclical industry. So, I decided to take a look at its numbers.





Revenue for 1H 2011 reduced 32.3% compared to 1H 2010 due to the completion of  Marina Bay Station project. Other than this, the rest of its numbers still look good.

I like very much how its cash and short term deposits increased 11.7% from $149.7m to $167.156m. Order book stands at $272m as of 30 June 2011.





Hock Lian Seng is most probably capable of continuing a dividend payout of 1.5c per share when the time comes. At today's closing price of 24c per share, we are looking at a potential dividend yield of 6.25%.

Could its share price weaken further? It could and I would like to buy at a price closer to its NAV/share which is 17.8c. Having said this, at 24c per share, it is already a value proposition, I believe.





See 1H 2011 report here.

NOL: A messy ascending triangle?

Could this be an ascending triangle I see in NOL's chart?

Although ascending triangles are usually seen as a continuation pattern in an uptrend, a breakout could send NOL's share price higher to test resistance provided by the descending 100dMA which is currently at $1.32.

The 20dMA is set to form a golden cross with the 50dMA and is likely to provide immediate support at $1.115 in case of a pull back.

MACD shows that momentum is clearly positive now while the MFI shows higher lows, suggesting that demand is strengthening. The MFI which takes into account both share price and trading volume could test the 50% line for support if volume continues to dwindle while price stays at resistance.

As NOL's share price seems to be finding a floor if not bottoming, looking at the Stochastics provides us with insight as to why it seems to be having a hard time moving higher. This momentum oscillator is, after all, more accurate in situations where prices are moving sideways. The Stochastics has risen into overbought territory.

All in all, this TA seems to suggest that buying if the share price should pull back to support is a good idea because there seems to be a bias for an upward movement in the shorter term.