Elite UK REIT Acquistion of UK Government Leased Properties-Bad Move and Shooting Existing Unit-holders in the Foot.

This is one REIT that I got roasted before talking about the possible risks arising from what everyone thought is an invincible REIT that draws rental income from the UK Government so hopefully I don't get flammed posting about it again. Elite UK REIT ("Elite") recently proposed acquiring three freehold/virtual freehold properties in the UK currently leased to government departments, representing a strategic expansion of its portfolio. I thought that Elite is taking a wrong step again following its disastraous plummet during its debt leverage crisis (spiralling towards a potential breach of MAS requirement then). It is interesting to note that Elite debuted on the SGX mainboard on 6 February 2020, trading initially at around £0.705–£0.71 but saw its unit price declined to a record low of £0.231 per unt as at 30 October 2023. Its price has since recovered to £0.31 per unit but a far cry from its IPO debut days. 

1. What happened in the past of 2023 that led to Elite's worst crisis as a REIT?  

Under Elite's original 2018 leases, around 70–83% of its gross rental income (GRI)—equivalent to 117 properties—had break clauses allowing tenants (primarily the DWP and MoD) to terminate after 5 years, with one year’s notice 

Break notices issued by UK government:

The UK Department for Work and Pensions ("DWP") exercised the break option for 8 properties, representing approximately 4.8% of FY2022 contractual rent. 

Countermeasures by Elite's management:

• For 100 of the DWP-leased properties, break clauses were removed via renegotiation with the tenant ensuring leases now run to March 2028 .

• This move stabilized lease term and income visibility for a significant majority of the portfolio (around 83% by GRI)

Throw in the high interest rate environment and consequentially, all hell break lose and Elite found itself having to get unit-holders to bail itself out in December 2023.

2. Why I think it is a bad move to acquire the 3 properties?

The acquisition of another 3 government properties smacks of a deja vu. The one primary risk of Elite is that it has an over-concentration of 1 single major tenant which is the UK Government. So I do not like it that the management decided to continue adding on properties being leased to the UK Government. We have all seen the myth of the "resilient income stream" from government agencies.   

I thought that Elite should focus more on buying or developing data centre properties similar to its foray into its planned development of Peel Park data centre campus. Alternatively, it should look for other non-government commercial tenants to diversify away from the concentration risk of a single major tenant. 

3. Private placement is a slap in the face of loyal unit-holders from IPO/Debut days

Elite management should have offered a rights issue to give its long time unit-holders a right of first refusal. Many have been holding on to their units from the £0.60–£0.70 days. The extremely dilutive price of £0.295 per unit private placement price is extremely disappointing from many of its long time loyal unit-holders. Only good news is that it is slightly higher than the bail out rights package of £0.27 per unit.

4. High Leverage Ratio > 40%

While leverage ratio will improve sligthly from 43.4% to 43.2% post acquistion, it is still too high and worrying.

Parting thoughts

I will continue to stay away from Elite as I do not like the over-concentration in UK government tenants. The post acquisition leverage ratio of 43.2% (over 40%) is also of grave concern bearing in mind what had happened in 2023. Anyway, above just my personal thoughts. This is a free-world....for those who still think that Elite's earnings from the UK government are extremely defensive and resilient, please go ahead to buy more to take advantage of the attractive 9%-10% distribution yield. 

Personal Updates- My Little Piece of Joy Albeit The Stock Market Doldrum.

Life is certainly dull these past few years with the asset classes (primarily SREITs) that I am vested in, perfoming mediocrally. The only little small piece of joy is that I finally won the TOTO after so many years! Well, I am not the lucky guy from Yew Tew who won the S$12Mil grand prize on 19th June 2025 but finally have the luck to be one of the winner of the 7th prize of S$10 for matching 3 similiar numbers....haha.

It is certainly easier to gain more speculating in some risky stock picks rather than ploughing hundreds of dollars that went into SG Pools but only gain a cumulative windfall of S$10. 

Fu Yu Corporation- Former Super Hero Cash Cow Became Bleeding Cow.

What a change of fortune for Fu Yu Corporation ("Fu Yu Corp") since the original owners sold off the business to the new owner.  Fu Yu Corporation was sold by its founding shareholders-Ching Heng Yang, Tam Wai, Ho Nee Kit, and Hew Lien Lee- to a fund managed by Pilgrim Partners on 18 January 2021. On that date, Pilgrim Partners’ vehicle acquired approximately 29.8% of the company (around 224 million shares) at S$0.26 per share, in a deal valued at roughly S$58.3 million. From a former superhero dividend cash cow generator, Fu Yu Corp has unfortunately became a shadow of its former self. 

1.  Opening of Smart Factory and Venture into Bio-medical Market Segment

Apparently, the opening of the smart factory which have state of the art technologies such as 3D printing and automation in Singapore as well as the new strategic growth into bio-tech sector, did not boost revenue and net profit. Worse still, the business performance went opposite and is now operating in a net loss position. 

2. Recent New Woes- Infighting Among Internal Stakeholders

Victor Lim, one of the substantial shareholders wanted a board seat with executive power to push forward a strategic reset for Fu Yu Corp. The crash between the senior managmenet team and Victor Lim has been onging since 2024. This does not bode well for the entire business when its leadership team is distracted from running the business. Saying that, my personal thoughts are that Victor does have valid concerns on the current direction of the business which is clearly not working out as one can see from the losses suffered since the exit of the founding shareholders.

3. Corporate Governance Issues

The fiasco of the USD3Mil in unverified payments and email irregularities in Fu Yu Supply Chain Solutions seems to be unresolved and investigation are still ongoing.

Parting Thoughts

As of 18 June 2025, its share price is traded at S$0.09 per share. This is a far cry from its glorious days of S$0.25 to S$0.30 per share range before the exit of the founding shareholders. Hope that most retail shareholders had already exited last year before the crash to below 10 cents a share. 

Buying Opportunities Again- Israel Attacked Iran.

Just when everyone thought that the stock market had stabilised with the “not too bad” export control truce from the US-China trade negotiation post UK London meetup, Israel suddenly launched an attack on Iran that sank most stock markets and drive oil prices up. The devastating attack destroyed Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities and also tragically killed many of its top military leaders. Iran also counter-attacked with the launch of hundreds over ballistic missiles at Israel. The retaliatory strikes have killed many civilians and many suffered injuries.

1. Do not panic and sell all

While there is a distinct possibility of the conflict spreading and dragging in more countries, I think that most likely the war between Israel and Iran will be contained as currently, it only involves air-strikes on both sides and no ground deployment. I will thus be holding on to most of my equity portfolios.

Nevertheless, I have sold off approximately 10% of my stakes of Keppel (SGX Stock code: BN4) when its price reached a high of S$7.30 to S$7.36 on 17 June 2025 to take some profits off the table and prepare for re-deployment to other investment assets like SREITs or HK/China stocks that are trading at huge discount off their books value. Sold off 1,800 shares of Keppel at around S$7.35 per share.

2. Best time to accumulate more equities/bonds.

Come to month end, I will also be pumping in another extra S$2K into my bond fund (Pine Bridge Asia Pacific Investment Grade Bond Fund) and equity fund  portfolio at Endowus. It maybe better to also diversify widely via unit-trusts to minimise total loss from a costly investment decision.

Parting thoughts

Personally, I think that this maybe the best opportunity to accumulate more stocks. A bigger dilemma for me is whether to keep my remaining S$20K stakes in Keppel Pacific Oak US REIT ("KORE") which appears severely undervalued but facing the propsect of a US economy entering a severe recession due to the crazy antics of Donald Trump as well the ongoing Israel-Iran war that increases the propsect of high oil prices and consequently worsening demand for US Commercial office space. We may have to accept that the slum in KORE market price may continue for the next decade. Maybe better to just bite the bullet and redeploy the funds into e-commerce and cloud giant Alibaba or other SREITs. 

Asia Focused Bond Funds Besides PIMCO GIS Income Fund Which Has Overly Concentration in United States.

With the numerous online concern by many folks over the weakening USD and US inflationary pressure from Donald Trump's import tariff, the popular PIMCO GIS Income fund and other US bond funds which are heavily concentrated in US assets has been making people very uncomfortable. The funny thing is that the market cannot decide on whether it will be an inflationary environment or a declining interest rate environment (from imminent rate cut due to worsening business sentiment). There are currently 2 Asian bond funds which I have considered for diversification away from US geographical sector over-concentration.

1. PineBridge Asia Pacific Investment Grade Bond Fund

The 12mth yield for this fixed income fund is at 5.63%. Howver, annualised 1 year return has only been at +2.70%. Strangely, despite it being an Asia Pacific focused bond fund, it contained 2.16% of US bonds in its portfolio- but I guess this is a lot better as compared to the Fidelity Asian Bond Fund which I will discuss further below in Pt 2.

2. Fidelity Asian Bond Fund

As aforesaid mentioned, a surprising high amount of 27.32% of its investment in bonds is in the United States albeit being an Asian focused fixed income fund. It is giving out 5.65% of distribution yield. Its annualised 1 year return of +2.56% is almost similar to the PineBridge Asia Pacific Investment Grade Bond Fund. 

Parting Thoughts

I am currently vested in the PineBridge Asia Pacific Investment Bond Fund as it has the least concentration of US assets in its geographic allocation relative to Fidelity Asian Bond Fund. My personal experience of a higher return fixed income fund is still PIMCO GIS Income Fund which delivered an annualised return of 4.61%. With the economic downturn, it is inevtible that the distribution yield of all bond funds will continue to go further down and prices of bond funds will have potential upside. Anyway, good to put away some of my investments in bond funds which do help a lot in reducing wild volatiltiy in valuation as compared to my equities holding. 

Shocked to Learn that 90% of Pre-University Space Reserved for Indigenous Population- Be thankful!

Snippet Extract from The Straits Times on 9 June 2025 "Malaysian top scorers’ hopes for pre-uni spots dashed, reigniting fairness debate"

I was shocked beyond words that Malaysian top scorers scoring 10As in our neighbouring country of Malaysia does not guarantee a spot for public Pre-University programme. Apparently, 90% are still being reserved for indigenous population. I thought that things have improved slightly since the new poltical parties coalition took power. If separation from Malaysia did not happen in 1965, Singaporeans would also have faced the same policy and the only way out were to send your kids to costly private college programme. Think we should be grateful that our local meritocracy system (albeit its con of highly stressful education environment) creates a equal opportunity environment regardless of race and religion.  

Alibaba Shares Dropped Back to HKD110 Level- Thanks to King of Mayhem Donald Trump.

Interestingly, Alibaba has been on a wild see-saw ride over the past year with unprecdented level of violatitlity thanks to the antics of the King of Mayhem Donald Trump who ranted on China for violating the trade pact reached in Geneva to avoid punishing Geneva. On mid-may 2025, Alibaba hit a high of HKD131 per share but yesterday it went down to HKD110 on 2 June 2025. This is a crazy drop of 16% within 2 short weeks. 

1. Added 300 Alibaba shares at HKD110 per share

When I happened to see the sudden dip to HKD110 level just before lunch break, I decided to take action and accumulate additional 9988 stocks. I pumped in S$2K and also sold off all my Industrial and Commercial Bank of China stocks to raise funds to purchase 300 Alibaba shares. Alibaba cloud busines looks promising in the long term with ambitious global growth-this is now the new growth engine of Alibaba. 

2. The famous AK71 now also buying Alibaba

When you see long time critic of Alibaba and China stocks now changing his stock pick to Alibaba, it does point to the severe undervaluation of its current weak market share price relative to its underlying business growth potential. But I kinda find it amusing that AK71 just changed tune like that when over the past few years, his stand on China was that it was uninvestable due to political/policy changes risk.

Parting thoughts

I may acquire further Alibaba shares if the price plunge to HKD100 level or below. In addition, Alibaba will be paying out its annual dividend soon. For those interested, it will ex-dividend on 11 June 2025 (Wednesday) and payout US$0.2501 per share on 3 July 2025 (Thursday). This is a 1.7% dividend yield and not too bad while waiting for the market to re-price Alibaba.