The hidden effort behind every visible results

In a meritocratic system, where hard work is the foundation of success, does it also mean that failure is the result of the lack of hard work? This question bothers me enough to write about it. Let's imagine a scenario. John and Jane are in the same class and they took a math exam recently. John got 80 marks and Jane 40. We naturally congratulate John for his good results and at the same time, lament that Jane should work harder. We assume that...

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AIMS AMP Capital Industrial nil-paid rights counter are listed

Thanks to a reader, I'm alerted to two new counters in SGX that is listed but not traded yet. These are the rights counter set up to allow holders of AIMS AMP Capital Industrial reit to trade their rights issues. They are AIMS R (counter code: TZ7R) and AIMS R25 (TZ8R). AIMS R should have a board lot size of 1000 shares and AIMS R25 should have a board lot size of 25 shares. With the R25, any holders who don't want to hold odd lots can trade to buy/sell enough 25 shares to round up their holdings. The only thing that is not clear is whether...

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Why my parents are so eager to invest

My parents passed me another 60k to invest around early Feb. This is after the initial tranche of 50k. I found out a bit more why they are suddenly so keen to put their money to work. They said that they've put it in the savings account for almost 10 years, then realised that the interest is so pathetic, so they wanted to get their money to work harder for them. Initially they wanted to put into some fixed deposit that pays about 1.18% pa, which is way better than the interest from savings (maybe 0.05% now), but still pathetic. I managed to...

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How I suck at primary school math

A good friend of mine asked me to solve this primary 5 math problem for her. It goes like this: At a charity walk, 150 participants were adults. 1/3 of the children were boys. If 1/4 of the participants were girls, how many people were at the charity walk? Can I do it? Of course, but I've to use algebra. I managed to get it in the first try, maybe in less than 3 mins? But you and I know that primary school maths do not involve a lot of algebra, if at all. And the way to solve such problems is to use the 'model' method and I know how I suck...

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How to apply for rights and what are the options?

Wow, sometimes I surprised myself by my older post.. I did a newbie guide's to shares long long time ago. Happened to click on it again and I saw that I had made a very detailed guide to apply for the rights, right down to which option to choose when pressing on the ATM! It's very useful for me because it's been a while since I last had a rights issue. So here we go, I attached the part that is relevant here for your reference. But the rest of the newbie's guide is here. I did the same thing on a FAQ site found here too, if you find it a bit...

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Capital Mall Trust (CMT) bonds balloting results are out!

The balloting results are out for the Capital Mall Trust (CMT) bonds. The announcement is made here. Some comments: 1. The balloting ratio of 1:1 means that everyone who applies will get some. Might not be all but at least you won't go empty handed. 2. They are quite kind to small investors. Everyone who subscribed 2 to 10 lots will get 100% allocation. This means that if you apply for 8 lots, you'll get 8 lots of the bonds. 3. As usual,...

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Capital Mall Trust (CMT) bond issue timeline

I finally managed to get a digital copy of the prospectus for the Capital Mall trust bonds. Couldn't find it at MAS Opera site, as promised by them. Anyway, when I tried to get the bonds through internet banking, the prospectus are there for all to read. No mention of any early redemption or special step up interest. But again, the clauses inside the prospectus must have included something for them to exit the bond, subject to certain conditions...

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How to hack AIMS AMP Capital Industrial reit Rights Exercise

AIMS AMP capital industrial reit announced a rights exercise last Friday. It's a confusing 7 rights units  for every 40 shares of mother shares at a rights unit price of  $1.08. I can never understand how they derive these kind of strange numbers. Anyway, I'm interested to arbitrage on the rights issue and I'm sharing this on the point of view of someone who has no shares of aims at all and is looking to start a position. I've written...

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DBS 4.7% preference shares redemption part 2

Seems like there's a lot more to say about the DBS 4.7% preference shares redemption. I've been a little unfair to DBS on this previous post here. From well informed friends (thanks cory and pero), I learnt that DBS actually exchange that preference shares with another one with higher payout and shorter tenor around Nov 2013. This is done because the older preference shares no longer qualify as Tier 1 capital under the new Basel III capital adequacy requirements implemented by MAS on Jan 2013. I cut and paste the notice here, for future reference: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DBS...

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DBS 4.7% preference shares redemption

I was alerted this morning by a notice from DBS to redeem the 4.7% preference shares. It's here. My first thoughts are that I haven't even got the interest yet from the preference shares and now they are redeeming it?! Upon closer examination, I realised that they are redeeming back another preference shares, one with the same coupon interest of 4.7% but not listed in mainboard SGX. This one that they are redeeming is the 250k per bond one. A few issues: 1. In the prospectus for that preference shares, they noted that the first call date...

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Growing alfalfa sprouts

As you can see from my previous post on growing wheat grass, I'm starting to become a urban home gardener. It's the first step to take control of the things that we eat, which I believe will directly affect our health. There's a lot of advantages to growing your own produce. I think firstly, you'll be able to save a lot of money. After growing some wheat grass and alfalfa sprouts, I realised that the supermarket variety is just way too exorbitant....

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CMT retail bonds

Capital Mall Trust (CMT) made an announcement today that they are going to issue retail bonds. The terms of the bonds are as follows: 1. Years to maturity = 7 years2. Interest = 3.08% pa, paid semi-annually on 20th Aug and 20th Feb, starting this Aug3. Capital guaranteed if held till maturity since it is a bond4. Issue price is $1.00 and the par value is $1.00. Should be in board lot size of 1000 shares5. To ballot for it, you need a min of $2k, with incremental multiples of $1k  You can ballot for it by going to ATM at 9am on 11th Feb...

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Clearing the clutter

Do you believe in clearing clutter? I do. And I've been procrastinating for years and today I've finally done it! The clutter had been there even before I've moved to my new house and had been lying there for another 2+ years before I finally can't take it anymore and went to settle all of them. Some of the documents go way back in 2010, so it had been lying there for 3 years! The clutter I had are mostly papers, consisting of bills, statements,...

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Running yourself like a company - Cash flow analysis II

I think it's important to take a look at your cash flow pattern throughout a year, so that you can plan out a budget or simply have the cash ready for big payments in certain months. I know, nothing ever works according to plan, but knowing what will definitely happen and what can happen is the first step to navigating this world that is full of uncertainties. Certain category in my monthly cash flow are fixed. I don't ever want to think about...

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Running yourself like a company - Cash flow analysis I

I've been running a series of posts on the theme of managing yourself like how you would run a company. There are three important financial statements to report to regulating authorities or to investors; these are the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement. I've already commented on the first two. The links for them are listed below: 1. Running yourself like a company - income statement 2. Running yourself like a company - balance sheet The third one, cash flow statement, is really important in a company because of the way...

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