Core holdings quarterly report (October to December) Part 2 - Non-Reit

This is part 2 of core holdings quarterly report which focus non-Reit counters.

iFAST and 800 Super replaces Micro-Mechanics and SingTel in the core holdings since the last quarterly report. Micro-Mechanics was divested before its last quarterly results as my return provided 5 to 6 years of dividend which was my initial investment reason. Since my divestment, its price has continued to hit new high to remind me of my pain. SingTel just dropped out of the core holdings as I purchased more of the other counters.

The tables below summarizes their performances for the latest quarter.

A+

Valuetronics

Another fantastic quarter by Valuetronics. Revenue and net profit increases for the seven consecutive quarters, contributed by both CE and ICE segments. The strong performance for the past few quarters have been attributed to smart lightings of CE segments. The ICE continues to grow but at a slower rate. 

It also declared its first interim dividend of HK 7 cents. The momentum should continue to carry on for a few more quarters and I hope to hear more growth from its ICE segments, since it has increased its capital expenditure for the last 2 quarters on new machineries.

At forward PE of about 12x (and only 9x excluding cash), and probable yield of about 4.6% (based on $1 price), it is not a compelling buy. Having said that if the price corrects to around $0.90 or more good news is announced in the coming quarter, I might add more.

A
Food Empire
Food Empire reported another good quarter with a minor increase in its revenue and a higher growth in its net profit. From the beginning of its turnaround last year, it has continued to generate good cash flow. Coupled with its regular scheduled repayments of its debt, the company  is finally in net cash position after being in net debt from 2013.


Going forward, the growth might not be as strong with management highlighting stiff competition for IndoChina market and maturity of its ingredient business. With the positive experience in the ingredient business and increase in cash, I am confident that the management will announce further expansion in the upstream project in due course.

Having average up a few times over the past year, Food Empire is currently my top holding, occupying 8.5% of my portfolio (by cost). While I believe that it will continue to do well and pay out more dividend, I will not add on more shares as its growth might slow and currency risk while reduced, is still a concern.


iFAST
iFast continues with a strong showing this quarter as compared to previous year. However, the increase is much lesser from previous quarter. I expect the momentum to continue and its Q4 will be about the same as this quarter, with the potential of upside surprise. The company has also increased its dividend by 10% from $0.0068 to $0.0075.

High valuation of PE 29x if Q4 results is within my expectation and PEG of about 1. So pretty much fairly priced but I continue to like how the company goes about executing its strategies. While China loss widens, it continues to establish itself. the recent step in an institutional business partner in China (Beijing Financial Alliance Technology Co Ltd) is evident of its effort. 

I am happy with the gradual growth for the next one to two years with the a possible explosion in growth (and price) once it establishes itself in the China market.  

B
Straco
As I was expecting quarter three to continue its growth momentum from the previous two quarters, I was disappointed to see the dip in performance when I first took a glance at the results. Feeling more neutral when I realized that the weaken performance is largely attributed to UWX due to a restriction of visitor to the island. The other attractions reported an increase in revenue. 

Straco continues to generate a large amount of cash and now has a net cash position of 137 mil. With a quarter to go, I would expect its net cash to be in the range of 140 to 150 mil by the end of this financial year. That is a whooping $0.17 per share.

Before Straco bought Singapore Flyer (SF) in 2014, it generated about 12 to 15 mil per year. When it acquired SF, its net cash was at 110 mil. After SF, it has been generating about 40 mil per year and with the record cash that it is holding, I am pretty confident that it will increase its dividend for this year.

Hence, I will continue to hold on to my current stake. I am unlikely to increase my stake further until there is more clarity on how the company is going to deal with the cash that they have.

800 Super
800 Super produces a stable quarter with minor increase in revenue and minor decrease in net profit compared to previous year. However, its performance is better than the previous quarter and net profit margin is back to 11%. 

It has obtained TOP for its WTE plant and will be carrying out testing of its biomass boiler. The plant is expected to commence operation from 2018 first quarter. The development of sludge treatment plant is in progress and is on track for completion in 2018 second quarter.

Looking forward to the completion of the above two projects in the coming quarters.

VICOM
Vicom produces another stable quarter with minor decline compared to the previous years. Next quarter's report will be interesting as we can see the effect of the minor price adjustment for vehicle inspection. 

I continue to stay confident of its ability to generate cash and am quite sure it will at least maintain its dividend by the end of the year.

C
Raffles Medical Group
Results continues to be flat with Hospital Services Division's revenue increased by 3.1% but Healthcare Services Division's revenue decreased by 4.2%. Looking forward to the opening of 
Raffles Hospital Extension by end of this year which should improve both top and bottom lines as it has been operating at full capacity in recent times.

It continues to generate strong cash flow and cash balance has maintained at  around 110 mil, even after distribution of 9 mil of dividend and payment of 31 mil for investment properties under development.

With Raffles Chongqing opening in 2018 second half and Raffles Shanghai in 2019 second half, it is exciting time for the company. 

A "C" grade for current performance but a "B" for its potential in the new few years. I will continue to hold on to my current stake and may add more at the appropriate juncture.

Buy and sell actions in October

Unlike the past 3 months, I have taken relatively less actions in October.

1. Added more iFAST as I felt excited and confident of its future growth after reading through the past annual reports. See previous post on my thoughts about the company. It now occupies 5.4% of my portfolio with my average price at $0.935.

2. Added more Hock Lian Seng after learning more about the company through the past annual reports. With a strong order book and balance sheet, feel confident that it can maintain its 2.5 cents of dividend. That gives me a yield of 5.5% with my average price of $0.454.

3. Added more Frasers Centrepoint Trust after its stellar Q4 performance and price dipped to $2.17 from the recent high of $2.2+. Expect DPU and NAV to continue to grow next year now that AEI of Northpoint is almost completed. Assuming that DPU comes in at 12.2 c, it will provide a yield of 5.6% at $2.17. My average price is now $2.06 which is only slightly above its current NAV of $2.02.

4. Bought ULTA Beauty at USD196.85. Felt that it was way oversold from its recent high of USD300 in June, especially when it is growing at 20% to 25% for this financial year. Its current PE of 25-27 is much lower than its past 5 years average of 38.

5. Bought 800 Super at $1.21. After a closer look at its business, decided that there is still room for growth in the next few years especially with the Waste-to-Energy (WTE) coming into operation at the end of this year.

6. Sold CDLHT at $1.63, making a small gain of 2.7%. DPU after rights is lower and the outlook of the hospitality sector probably need another year or two for greater clarity. So decided to sell and use the proceed for other counters.

7. Sold OUEHT at $0.805, making a gain of 5.8%. Similar reason on hospitality sector. Decided not to wait for quarterly results in the coming week as I have made a small gain and am unsure how the DPU will be affected as there will be no more income support.

A closer look at my recent buys (Part 1) - iFAST

In August and early September, I have initiated positions on iFAST, Hock Lian Seng, UMS and 800 Super (re-entered) after chancing upon their price drop of about 20% from recent high in June. I did a quick scan on their news and did not find any major fundamental change in their business and hence took a bite.

I decided to take a closer look at the them to decide if I should add more to my initial holdings. I will start with iFAST as I am most excited about it after scanning through their latest annual reports.

What do they do?
Listed on SGX on 11 December 2014, iFAST business revolves around internet-based investment products distribution platform with assets-under-administration (AUA) of about 6.1 billions. It has presence in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and China. Two main business divisions, business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) with B2B contributing 75% of revenue in 2016. About 83% of its net revenue is recurring.

Recent development, results and price movement
iFAST has a strong rebound in their 20171H results. Revenue was up by about 20% and net profit up by 75% but this came from a weak 20161H results. The poor results in 2016, a 55% drop in EPS has caused the share price to plunge from $1.35 to $0.85 for that year. The price continued to slide in 2017 till April to reach a low $0.60. The release of its strong results this year has resulted in a strong rebound of its share price, reaching a high of $1.1+ in June.

It has also launched its SGX stockbroking service in June 2017 after being admitted as a Trading Member of Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (“SGX-ST”) and a Clearing Member of The Central Depository (Pte) Limited (“CDP”).

Management
Based on what I read on the annual reports and action taken by the company, I think iFAST Chairman, CEO and co-founder Lim Chung Chun is a forward looking and strong leader who drives the company to put their company values (Integrity, Innovation and Transparency) into action. The following is the final paragraph from 2016 report.

"We are aware that our approach may sometimes cause disruption in the financial sectors that are often dominated by traditional business approaches and mores on how investors should be treated – if it means these disruptive changes we are introducing are pro-client, we will continue to remain steadfast in achieving this outcome in the markets we operate in. When changes are pro-client, we are confident we will succeed in the longer term despite shorter-term challenges."

And I do not think it's just talk. Fundsupermart.com in 2000, FSM Mobile in 2011, Bondsupermart in 2015, and robo-advisor last year are evidences that show that the company is among the first movers.

Crunching the numbers
With the exception of 2016, iFAST has grown both its top and bottom lines, with its EPS growth outpacing its net revenue growth.

Base on the above data, I believe the company should be able to continue to grow its earning at a rate of 20% to 30% for the next few years.

Valuation
Together with the rest of the market, iFAST's price has rebounded quite a bit since the beginning of October and closed at $0.96 on 6 October. Forward PE based on the current price and projected EPS is about 26x. Assuming I am right about its ability to grow at 20% to 30% in the next few years, forward PEG ranges from 1.1 to 1.3. My personal take is that it is fairly priced with potential to surprise on the up side but risk still lingers.

When will I sell?
These four rules still apply.

a. The fundamentals of the company has deteriorate

b. The company is overvalue at the current price

c. To raise cash for a better buying idea

d. To raise cash for other reasons

Conclusion
My first encounter with the company was more than a decade ago when I opened my Fundsupermart account. Did not really use its services as I was on dollardex then. Recently, I wanted to explore its FSMone platform for stock trading and hence decided to register an account. Apparently my record is still in their data base and I need to re-activate my account which I will probably do by the end of the year.

As an investing idea, I came across it somewhere in late 2015 but the PE was crazy then. The sell down due to poor results in 2016 and the recent correction provides me an opportunity to buy a small stake in the company.

I can sense my excitement as I read the development of iFAST over the years and imagine what more can come from them in years to come. Hence, I decided to buy more yesterday at a price of $0.975 (yes, I am not good at market timing). Together with my initial purchases, my average price is $0.93.

I am prepared to add more to this counter at the appropriate junctures.

2017 9M performance

Performance
Another quarter has passed and it's time to take stock of portfolio's performance.

It is a muted performance for the quarter, resulting in a slight increase in NAV compared to 20171H performance. In fact, if not for the strong performance of Valuetronics and UMS over the past few days, this quarter will post a return lower than 20171H.

NAV of portfolio grew from $3.78 (30 Dec 2016) to $5.22 (30 Sep 2017), providing a return of 37.8% for 9 months. Definitely happy as this is well above my stretched target of 12% and also beats benchmark STI ETF which returned about 14% (inclusive of dividend) over the same period. 

The chart below shows the performance of  past 7 quarters.

The muted quarter's performance can be attributed to the following:

• weaker market sentiment for the past quarter, 
• continued sell-down of Raffles Medical Group, 
• correction of Food Empire,
• divestment of  Micro-Mechanics which shot up 20% after I sold, *ouch*
• increase in trading activities as I look for new ideas for the next few years.

Gainers and losers
The following tables show the top gainers and losers for this year thus far. The list should remain pretty much the same by end of the year.

I am glad that 7 out of my 10 core holdings have returned more than 10% thus far this year. Even with the divestment of Best World and Micro-Mechanics, the ratio of 5 out of 8 still looks good.

Looking at the table, it seems that I have a tendency to divest my non-core holding once it has done well. This is something which I wasn't aware of before this post. It will be something that I will take note of in future. Instead of divesting the counter after a strong performance, another option would be for me to spend more effort in understanding the counter and determine the possibility of turing it that into a core holding.

Punting on counters based on minimal information and uncertain business outlook continues to be a game of chance. Fu Yu went 10% up but Oceanus and Innotek went the other way. Not in a hurry to divest Oceanus and Innotek yet as amount put in was minimal, especially for Oceanus. Also, am still feeling positive of a possible turnaround next year or the year after next.

The table also highlighted the strong performance of my three counters in my CPF portfolio which returned 16% thus far. If this continues for the rest of the year, it will be the 9th consecutive year that my CPF portfolio beats STI ETF.

Allocation

Dividend vs Growth
With the divestment of two core holdings and exploration of the US market, the allocation looked quite different from the the first half of the year. Cash stands at a high of 15%. Dividend yield of portfolio based on cost is at a low of 3.4%. 

	Planned	Actual
Dividend	~ 60%	55%
REIT/ Business Trust	<= 30%	25%
Growth	~ 40%	30%
Punt	<=10%	3%
Cash	0%	15%

Singapore vs US

Being new to US market, I decided to allocated at most 15% of my fund to it till end of 2018. Currently, it stands at about 12% with 4% invested and 8% in cash.

Action

For the month of September, I have sold

• Dairy Farm at US$8.03 for a gain of 5.0%.
• Singapore O&G at $0.49 for a gain of 2.1%.
• mm2 Asia at $0.49 for a gain of 1.9%.
• Mapletree GCC Trust at $1.15 for a gain of 4.9%.

I have bought the first 3 in August due to their steep drop. Decided to divest them for a quick profit and re-invest them in other counters which I am more familiar with. As for Mapletree GCC, bought it last month with an incorrect understanding of the location of its HK property. Got lucky with it, so decided to take profit.

On the US Market, I have also sold 

• Cognex at US$114.45 for a gain of 3.4%.
• Mastercard at US$140.23 for a gain of 6.1%.
• Priceline at US$1840.60 resulting in a loss of 5.1%.
• Chipotle at US$307 resulting in a loss of 13.4%. 

Dug into the numbers and checked the PE and growth rate of my US counters. The current PE for the first 3 stocks are all much higher than its historical average and PEG are all above 2. Hence, decided to divest them. As for Chiptole, there is currently too much uncertainty and so decided to stay away from it for the moment.

I have added

• more Straco at $0.87. Continue to like its cash generating business. This article by the "Rock" in NextInsight provides a good reading.
• more Hong Kong Land at US$7.28. Same reason as initial purchase in August. Cheap P/B and good results.
• more 800 Super at $1.085 as it continued to trend lower after its announcement of its Q4 results. Two quarters of weaker performances but it has continued to increase its dividend. Looking for a better performance in 2018.
• more Japan Food at $0.435. Same reason as initial purchase - consistent dividend.
• iFAST at $0.87. Its price has slid from its high after announcing a strong 1H results. While its China business will take some time to break even, its other countries performance is growing very well.
• Hock Lian Seng at $0.445. High visibility due to strong record book. If the company is able to maintain its dividend of 2.5 cents, then the yield is about 5.6%.
• ComfortDelgro at $1.995. Bought a tiny stake as I felt that it is oversold. While Taxi business is under great pressure, rail and bus are still doing well. Due to a sudden turn in its share price, I sold it today at $2.08 for a small gain of 2.8%. 

You can click on July and Aug for my actions taken in those two months.

Core holdings

Core holdings are counters which I am more familiar with. These are counters which I am more confident of and have a more substantial holding (at least 5% of portfolio); hence I am more likely to hold them for a longer period of time.

The current average holding period is about 2.4 years, as compared to 0.5 years for the remaining holding.

Divestment of Best World and Micro-Mechanics and purchase of VICOM has resulted in partial change of core holdings. These 8 (out of 26) holdings make up 53% of my outlay cost.

1. Food Empire (9%) @ $0.46
2. Raffles Medical (8%) @ $1.41
3. Straco (8%) @ $0.85
4. Parkwaylife REIT (6%) @ $2.32
5. Valuetronics (6%) @ $0.54
6. Fraser Centrepoint Trust (6%) @ $2.03
7. VICOM (5%) @ $5.75
8. Starhill Global (5%) @ $0.70

Looking Ahead

For the remaining quarter, I am looking forward to dividend from various REITs, 800 Super, RMG, SingTel, UMS, iFast and Japan Food. 

I am also hopeful of good quarterly result from Food Empire, Straco and Valuetronics which might have a positive impact on their prices. Raffles Medical Group should report another quarter of muted performance.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, return for the year should be above 35%. With some luck, it might breach the 40% mark.