Investment Portfolios Updates (29 August 2025) - Net Investment of S$813K and Projected Annualised Passive Income of S$48K.

Hi Folks, welcome back to my bi-monthly investment portfolios update. With the anticipation of the long awaited lowering of US interest rates finally having a high chance of materialising after Powell's recent speech, REITs' rally became more sustainable from the expected higher distributable income from much lower financing cost. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the September 2025 first rate cut of 25 basis points happen as per anticipation- I really have enough of the roller costal ride over the past year. With the recent strong rally from REITs, my overall gross portfolios hits S$1.08Mil while net portfolios after leverage hits S$813K. This is a drastic improvement of almost +S$80K in just 2 months from the market recovery. As a mainly dividend focused strategy investor, it is not this capital gain that excites me but rather the upcoming additional cashflow expected from the lower interest rate effect on my various investment portfolios and additionally, the significant savings from my margin loan. 

1. Portfolio 1- Stocks Held in SGX Central Depository 

Not much changes here except for the improved market valuation of equities during the recent rally.

2. Portfolio 2- Margin Purchased Securities

(Note: My margin purchased securities has grown to a sufficient scale to sustain itself and can pay off annual financing charges as well as to gradually pay down the margin loan through the dividends generated.) 

Keppel and Lendlease continue to perform exceptionally well. The gross dividend yield is currently on the low side as Keppel Pacific Oak US REIT is still in the midst of distribution suspension and will only resume its payout in 2026. Also, there is around S$15K invested in Alibaba when its price drop below HKD110 per share recently.  

3. Portfolio 3 (with Tiger Brokers and MooMoo) 

(Venture into higher risk as well as capital growth stocks here)

4. Portfolio 4 (Endowus Unit Trusts & Other Investments)

I continued to add to my Endowus bond funds of PIMCO and Pine APB to diversify away from excessive heavy weightage of my entire gross portfolios in equities. This may also be the last opportunity to accumulate interest income as former attractive bond interest yield is fast coming down. Going forward, I will also be drawing down the pay-out from this particular portfolio for daily uses. 

Parting Thoughts

Well, I am happy that the interest rate cuts from my wish list is finally materialising. Ok, that's all the updates I have for today folks. Have a great week ahead!

Investment Portfolios Updates (27 June 2025) - Net Investment of S$750K and Projected Annualised Passive Income of S$46K.

Singapore REITs suddenly sprang back to life with the anticpation of 2 more rate cuts in 2nd half of FY2025. More funds also moved from overseas markets into the local SGX. My gross portfolio managed to hit the above S$1.02Mil mark again albeit the see-saw ride from Donald Trump's erratic policies from import tariff fight with other countries (the most recent one is with Canada and sending US airforce to bomb Iran). Net investment (including cash) is approximately S$750K as at 27 June 2025. I guess this is not bad considering that I had cashed out S$10k from my unit trust bond funds for personal expenses usage.

1. Portfolio 1- Stocks Held in SGX Central Depository 

2. Portfolio 2- Margin Purchased Securities

(Note: My margin purchased securities has grown to a sufficient scale to sustain itself and can pay off annual financing charges as well as to gradually pay down the margin loan through dividends generated.) 

Have continued paying down my margin loan from S$272K to S$267K. Going forward, will target to bring the margin loan utilisation down to S$250k hopefully by year end in case Donald Trump screw up the world economies again.

In addition, I have also sold off part of my Keppel Corp stocks (1,000 shares) as its price hit over S$7.35 per share to recycle the capital into Alibaba (9988).

3. Portfolio 3 (with Tiger Brokers and MooMoo) 

(Venture into higher risk as well as capital growth stocks here)

I have added 400 shares of Alibaba when its price drop back to HKD110- HKD113 range over the past few months as it is now a cloud and also AI tech play on top of its usual core E-commerce business.

Also added 10,000 units of Lendlease Commercial REIT in end May 2025 when its price plunged to S$0.480 per unit. Its price has since recovered to S$0.525 per unit as at 27 June 2025.

4. Portfolio 4 (Endowus Unit Trusts & Other Investments)

I have taken out S$10K from my Higher Income Endowus portfolio for personal usage. Also did a bit of rebalancing and direct purchase of PIMCO bond fund as well as Pine Bridge Asia Pacific fixed income fund. 

In addition, decided to buy into the Fidelity APAC Dividend Fund to to reduce US equities exposure in my unit trusts portfolio as US market is way overvalued (near 52 weeks high and extremely high PE ratio for many US firms) right now. 

Parting Thoughts

I am keeping my fingers crossed that there will be at least 2 more rate cuts this year so that interest rates go down and REITs continue to increase their distributions.

Investment Portfolios Updates (9 May 2025) - Net Investment of S$723K and Projected Annualised Passive Income of S$47K.

Wow, it has been a long 3 weeks since my last post. I had been super busy for the past weeks with entertainment of overseas clients and execution of a major project at workplace. Finally have some moment now to catch my breath and also do a quick post. I don't think things are fine at all albeit Donald Trump claiming that US and China having a "total reset" of their acrimonious relationship during the Geneva negotiation over the weekend. Since the "Liberation Day" trade tariff announcement by Donald Trump on April 2, 2025, stock markets worldwide plummeted. Despite the subsequent pull back of the reciprocal tariff by 90 days (except for China) by Trump a few days later, the damage has been done. My gross portfolios were not spared and fell to below S$1Mil while overall net investment after netting off margin loan hovers around S$723K.

1. Portfolio 1- Stocks Held in SGX Central Depository 

Not much changes here while waiting for the storm to stabilise. May'25 and June'25 have a couple of dividends payment. Haw Par Corp also paying out its usual dividends plus a special dividend totalling S$1 per share on May 21, 2025.

2. Portfolio 2- Margin Purchased Securities

(Note: My margin purchased securities has grown to a sufficient scale to sustain itself and can pay off annual financing charges as well as to gradually pay down the margin loan through dividends generated.) 

I closed off my ICBC China banking stock of 12,000 shares at 13% profit to reduce leverage. Also, sold off all my rights issue (2,000 units) from Frasers Centrepoint Trust to lock in the small profit. Margin loan has been reduced from S$291K to S$273k in view of the gloomy marco-economic outlook.

3. Portfolio 3 (with Tiger Brokers and MooMoo) 

(Venture into higher risk as well as capital growth stocks here)

Interestingly, Link REIT, Alibaba and Bank of China rallied after the recent emergency meeting by the Chinese government. There are plans to include Link REIT to stock-connect-the inclusion of real estate investment trusts (Reits) in the China-Hong Kong Stock Connect mechanism will expand the investor base, increase the trading liquidity and attract more listings of these collective investment schemes to Hong Kong, analysts said.

4. Portfolio 4 (Endowus Unit Trusts & Other Investments)

I have reduced the equties funds (Fidelity Global Dividend Fund & Franklin Templeton) exposure and switched them over to the PIMCO Income bond fund which is offering an attractive annual yield of 6%.

Parting Thoughts

I do not think that Trump is going to drop the China Tariff by a lot. The Chinese government are in a stronger position and it benefits China to drag on the current standoff as it is obvious that Trump has screwed himself and is in hot soup over the lack of goods in retail stores and lack of China containers coming into US ports. 

Updates as at 12 May 2025: Speaking after talks with Chinese officials in Geneva, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters the two sides had reached a deal for a 90 day pause on measures and that reciprocal tariffs would come down by 115 per cent.

Investment Portfolios Updates (28 February 2025) - Net Investment of S$722K and Projected Annualised Passive Income of S$47K.

My total gross investment rebounded back to over S$1Mil while net investment after margin loan hovers around S$722K. While SREITs continue to perform miserably with a steep drop again recently, the overall portfolio was propped up by a sudden +S$30K rally in my China stock holdings of Alibaba, Ping An, Link REIT, Bank of China ("BOC") and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China ("ICBC"). 

1. Portfolio 1- Stocks held in SGX Central Depository 

Not much changes here except to mention about Haw Par Corporation which declared a special S$1 per share of dividends on top of the usual dividends. This announcement led to a sudden spike in the share price of Haw Par.

2. Portfolio 2- Margin purchased securities

(Note: My margin purchased securities has grown to a sufficient scale to sustain itself and can pay off annual financing charges as well as to gradually pay down the margin loan through dividends generated.) 

Mapletree Industrial Trust ("MIT") crashed recently to below S$2 per unit due to analysts report that its US Data Centres will have tenants exiting and the vacancy will rise. This maybe a good opportunity to buy more of MIT which has a high distribution yield of 6.85%. Even with the upcoming fall in occupancy from its data centres in US, there will be enough buffer cushion for a 5.5% to 6% yield. The market perception of MIT prospects seems extremely pessimistic. 

3. Portfolio 3 (with Tiger Brokers and MooMoo) 

(Venture into higher risk as well as capital growth stocks here)

Alibaba finally came roaring back to life after the Deep Seek. It has strangely morphed into an AI Tech company. 

4. Portfolio 4 (Endowus Unit Trusts & Other Investments)

I have continued to put in additional capital into the Endowus Higher Income Portfolio since the last update in December 2024. 

Parting Thoughts

I have approximately S$13.2K of dividends payment for re-deployment in March 2025. Out of these, I intend to utilise S$6.7K to pay down the margin loan. Another S$6.5K will be used for either reinvesting into SREITs which are at rock bottom or buying into Endowus bond funds. 

Investment Portfolios Updates (30 December 2024) - Net Investment of S$709K and Projected Annualised Passive Income of S$47K.

It has been 3 months since my last update of investment portfolios on 27 September 2024. The rally in S-REITs and China stocks fizzled out quickly in a short span and it seems that we are back to square one. Overall, real estate related investment assets still make up about 60% of my combined portfolios. I have continued to work on diversifying away from real estate related businesses and have continued investing into mostly bond related unit trusts via Endowus as well as buying into F&B retail business of Kimly Group. 

1. Portfolio 1- Stocks held in SGX Central Depository 
(Note: This portfolio is designed to provide immediate dividends for use as it is under my own CDP account and the dividends credited goes directly to my bank account.)

Main changes here as aforesaid mentioned is the addition of Kimly F&B retail group here. I have also took part in the preferential rights issue for Keppel DC REIT. I retained the additional units of KDC in my SGX account while selling off the additional units in my Margin Trustee account- see below.

2. Portfolio 2- Margin purchased securities

(Note: My margin purchased securities has grown to a sufficient scale to sustain itself and can pay off annual financing charges as well as to gradually pay down the margin loan through dividends generated.) 

Took part in the preferential rights issue for Keppel DC REIT and then sold off all the 4,000 additional units in my Margin Trustee account and bought 5,000 units of Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust. 

In addition, I also invested into the Bank of China as well as ICBC Bank here. 

3. Portfolio 3 (with Tiger Brokers and MooMoo) 

(Venture into higher risk as well as capital growth stocks here)

Bought into additional units of Oceanus here as well as ICBC (Bank). 

4. Portfolio 4 (Endowus Unit Trusts & Other Investments)

The public and government objection to the Allianz acquistion of Income Ltd means that the 300% capital gain deal fell into the drain. Worst still, the suspension of public trading of Income Ltd shares on Alta platform as at 17 Octobet 2024 is a double whammy due to the fallout from the Allianz deal. Income Ltd management team screwed up big time on this one.

I have also decided to start drawing down the dividends and distribution from Portfolio 4 going forward.

Summary

I sincerely hope that 2025 will be a better year and that the run-away inflation has been tamed and that interest rate will remain as it is else any increase in rates will once again batter REITs and bonds asset prices to death. 

Would also like to take this opportunity to wish all a Happy New Year and may we all prosper together in 2025! :)😎

Investment Portfolios Updates (27 September 2024) - Net Investment of S$732K and Projected Annualised Passive Income of S$42K.

A rising tide lifts all boats indeed! Just 2 months back during my last portfolio review, it was still doom and gloom for our SREIT sector spiralling into a bottomless blackhole. Then suddenly, with the much anticipated rate cut by the US Feds finally materialising, all the SREITs counters started soaring. Considering that my REIT heavy overall portfolios makes up 66% of the entire investment, it contributed to a strong recovery. Coupled with the sudden China stimulus measures announced over the past few days, my China centric investments (Alibaba, Ping An, Link REIT and Capitaland China Trust) shot up by close to 25% which help rallied the overall gross investment value and investable cash balances to above the S$1 Million mark. Net investments after netting off margin loan stands at a record high of S$732K.

1. Portfolio 1- Stocks held in SGX Central Depository 
(Note: This portfolio is designed to provide immediate dividends for use as it is under my own CDP account and the dividends credited goes directly to my bank account.)

2. Portfolio 2- Margin purchased securities

(Note: My margin purchased securities has grown to a sufficient scale to sustain itself and can pay off annual financing charges as well as to gradually pay down the margin loan through dividends generated.) 

I think that the financing charges would have dropped to 4.75% or 5%- anyway, have not had the luxury of time to find out from my broker. So will just leave the financing rate at 5.25%. Interestingly, my wife offered to lend me funds at a lower by 1% rate to Maybank Securities but I rejected it as I told her that she can put her liquid funds to better use and a higher return.

For Keppel Pacific Oak REIT, I think that if interest rate continue to trend downwards, there will be a higher probability that the REIT Manager may resume distribution payout as soon as the 2nd half of 2025 instead of 2026. 

3. Portfolio 3 (with Tiger Brokers and MooMoo) 

(Venture into higher risk as well as capital growth stocks here)

I have added on to Ping An Insurance just before the huge rally in HKSE. Keppel Corp as well as a small tiny stake in Oceanus were added since the last update 2 months ago.

4. Portfolio 4 (Endowus Unit Trusts & Other Investments)

The Income Insurance and Allianz takeover deal continued to be in limbo. The Monetary Authority of Singapore has not officially given the deal a go ahead. In addition, new capital were injected into the different Endowus units trusts (picked those that are bonds focused with the exception of Fidelity Global Dividend Fund).

Summary

While the investment value of my underlying portfolios have went up significantly, the sad fact is that my projected annual passive income still remain the same as 2 months back which is a tad disappointment. I do look forward to exiting my stakes in Alibaba once it hits over HKD160 per share and then convert them into higher yielding income producing assets.

Investment Portfolios Updates (26 July 2024) - Net S$620K and Projected Annualised Passive Income of S$42K.

The recent SREIT rally has finally put a brake on the non-stop downward spiralling in market prices. There is a much anticipated worldwide expectation of a US rate cut in September 2024. Based on US inflation reports and moderate job growth data, it seems chances of a rate cut is indeed high. Keeping my fingers crossed that the recent rally in price is permanent with more to come. However, Geopolitics such as the upcoming US Presidential Election (Trump appears to be the favourite to win now after his assassination) and also escalating Middle East conflicts between Israel and Iran back military groups are causing much uncertainty in global economies. There is also the very controversial Allianz offer that affects my current share-holdings in Income Insurance Ltd- please see further remarks under Portfolio 4 section below.

1. Portfolio 1- Stocks held in SGX Central Depository 
(Note: This portfolio is designed to provide immediate dividends for use as it is under my own CDP account and the dividends credited goes directly to my bank account.)

I have given up on Capitaland Investment Limited and sold off all my holdings in it. The proceeds were used to purchase additional units of Keppel Ltd stocks at S$6.62 per unit.

2. Portfolio 2- Margin purchased securities

(Note: My margin purchased securities has grown to a sufficient scale to sustain itself and can pay off annual financing charges as well as to gradually pay down the margin loan through dividends generated.) 

I have took profit and sold off all my Ping An Insurance shares. Have used the proceeds to purchase Link REIT as well as to pare down on expensive margin loan. Margin loan thus went down from S$291K to S$281K. 

Also took a small speculative 5000 units trade in Mapletree Industrial Trust when its price plummeted to S$2.10 per unit and took profit 2 weeks later @S$2.29 per unit after the SREIT rally. 

3. Portfolio 3 (with Tiger Brokers and MooMoo) 

(Venture into higher risk as well as capital growth stocks here)

I have took profit and sold off all my Ping An Insurance shares. The proceeds were used to purchase additional Link REIT units when its price plunged to below HK$30 range (HK$29.80) per unit. Also opened up a small position in a penny stock, Oceanus, which had seen continued strong growth in its food distribution business in China. 

4. Portfolio 4 (Endowus Unit Trusts & Other Investments)

I have continued to build up my bond funds investment via Endowus platform. 

Guess the only news-worthy update here is that my NTUC Income shares market value will go up from S$1,060 to S$4,300 if the controversial Allianz offer gets approved by local regulator and shareholders. The 2 formers CEOs of NTUC Income Co-operative have come out to speak out against the deal as they do not want the insurance group to lose track of its social goal to provide cheap insurance to the lower income of Singapore society. 

Investment Portfolios Updates (26 May 2024) - Net S$602K and Projected Annualised Passive Income of S$41K.

These past 2 months have been absolutely horrendous for investors that held SREITs in high concentration in their investment portfolios. It is like putting money into a blackhole where it just kept pulverising. The only good thing is that I have diverted most of my new funds, as well as dividends received recently, into the bond funds on Endowus platform. Lots of further work in progress to diversify the portfolios further from real estate related investments.   

1. Portfolio 1- Stocks held in SGX Central Depository 

(Note: This portfolio is designed to provide immediate dividends for use as it is under my own CDP account and the dividends credited goes directly to my bank account.)

Have decided to sell off all my Netlink Trust units for now as there seems to be better opportunities out there. Also, the 6.1% distribution yield from Netlink Trust are not sustainable for the long term as Netlink Trust is actually paying out distributions from bank borrowings. Please see my YouTube Video here: "Netlink Trust 6.13% Distribution Yield Unsustainable and Ballooning Accumulated Losses of -S$617Mil".

2. Portfolio 2- Margin purchased securities

(Note: My margin purchased securities has grown to a sufficient scale to sustain itself and can pay off annual financing charges as well as to gradually pay down the margin loan through dividends generated.) 

The valuation of SREITs in my margin portfolio continued to nose-dive. Dividends from stocks were used to pay off margin loan financing as well as foraging into the HKEX in the form of Ping An and Link REIT after seeing signs of recovery in the China and Hong Kong market. 

3. Portfolio 3 (with Tiger Brokers and MooMoo) 

(Venture into higher risk as well as capital growth stocks here)

I opened up another online trading account MooMoo here to further diversify the online brokers and also the lower commission on offer by MooMoo. MooMoo is also giving away more than S$280 worth of US shares for signing up. Have took up additional stakes in Alibaba as well as Ping An Insurance. 

4. Portfolio 4 (Endowus Unit Trusts & Other Investments)

I have continued re-investing dividends from my Portfolio 1 mainly into the bond funds on Endowus platform. The market value for Endowus bond fund approximates the historical cost (with the exception of Income Insurance share price) hence I did not make any further fair value adjustments. From various sources that were using Philip Securities, privately held Income Insurance seems to be trading privately from S$20 to $22 per share on the blockchain powered Alta digital exchange platform. Logically, I think I should be selling it off if it is really at more than 100% capital gain and then reinvesting the proceeds. Nevertheless, since the amount I am holding is just a small stake, I think I will just keep it as a form of souvenir. 

Investment Portfolios Updates (28 March 2024) - Net S$594K and Projected Annualised Passive Income of S$41K.

Gross investments (including deployable cash) is at S$880K. Net investment value is currently at S$594K (after margin financing) with projected passive income of only S$41K due to Keppel Pacific Oak US office REIT suspending dividends for 2 years. SREITs have again sunk to the bottom of the ocean after rising up in earlier part of the year. Going forward, I have included a "Portfolio Allocation" pie chart to keep track of my current shift away from intense SREITs focused investment portfolios.  I have been busy investing and diversifying into Bond Funds via Endowus before the official announcement of the widely anticipated interest rate cuts by the US Fed in 2nd half of 2024. 

(Note: Please also refer to my other Family Portfolio which is projected to yield +S$20K of passive income per annum).

1. Portfolio 1- Stocks held in SGX Central Depository 

(Note: This portfolio is designed to provide immediate dividends for use as it is under my own CDP account and the dividends credited goes directly to my bank account.)

I have sold off part of my DigiCore REIT units to buy into Mapletree Logistics Trust. In addition, I have also sold off all my holdings in Capitaland Integrated Commercial Trust and bought into United Overseas Bank when there was a decline in its price. 

2. Portfolio 2- Margin purchased securities

(Note: My margin purchased securities has grown to a sufficient scale to sustain itself and can pay off annual financing charges as well as to gradually pay down the margin loan through dividends generated.) 

(a) Bought into 3,0000 shares of China Ping An insurance group as its price has reached one of its all-time low. Bought it more for capital appreciation recovery play and its attractive 8% dividend yield (albeit a 10% withholding tax). I think that the high dividend yield will more than compensate the possibility of long waiting time for its stock price to recover by at least 50%. 

(b) Have also paid back some margin loan as well as converting more expensive USD loans to SGD denominated since my natural forex hedging strategy against USD assets held is no longer effective with the huge drop in valuation of US Office REITs. 

3. Portfolio 3 (with Tiger Brokers)- Venture into higher risk as well as capital growth stocks here

(a) For the last 1 week, I have been using Tiger Brokers and this portfolio to do some short term trading between UOB and Mapletree Logistics Trust and managed to make some side income of S$400. Will probably be taking this money out for spending on food. Inflation has been crazy for the past year.

(b) Added Ping An insurance group to this portfolio too.

(c) Added more into Alibaba when its price dropped below HKD70 a share. 

4. Portfolio 4 (Endowus & Other Investments)

(a) While others folks have bought into more REITs to exploit on their extremely low market prices, I have been building up my stake in bond funds via Endowus. The high interest rates lead to many bond trusts paying out higher distribution as interest rates rise. If interest rate were to be cut, bond prices should further appreciate. In addition, have also been buying into global equities fund for further diversification and long term capital appreciation.  

Summary

I used to have more than 90% of my overall investments concentrated in SREITs. It is still a long way to push it down further to my own targeted reduced allocation of 50%. With the expected cuts in interest rates by the Fed since the last Powell announcement, SREITs valuation are currently rallying again which is like a game of see-saw. It is also a long long way to go to re-build up my annual passive income distribution from the SREIT cut in dividends and higher borrowing costs.