Dividend Is King

Ascendas REIT is one of Singapore's most popular blue-chip dividend stock among investors and it is for a good reason. Ascendas REIT is Singapore's first and largest industrial REITs and has a reputation of being one of Singapore's top tier REITs in terms of stable dividends and share appreciation. It played an important role in the development of the Singapore REIT's scene by providing an attractive opportunity for investors to invest in business parks and industrial properties in Singapore. Ascendas REIT has a market capitalization of $12 billion and a diversified portfolio consisting of 198 industrial properties across the United Kingdom, United States, Singapore, and Australia worth $12.8 billion. Here are 5 reasons why Asceandas REIT is a top tier REIT.  Proven Consistent Dividend History Ascendas REIT has an impressive 18-year consistent dividend payout history, making it one of the few REITs in Singapore with a consistent dividend track record of more than 15 yea

Starhill Global REIT is one of Singapore's smaller REITs with a market capitalization of $965 million. Their portfolio consists of 10 properties across Singapore, China, Japan, Australia, Malaysia valued at $3 billion as of June 2019. Their 2 notable properties in Singapore are Wisma Atria and Ngee Ann City. Starhill Global REIT's share price has decreased from $0.710 in February 2020 to $0.445 in August 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most dividend investors in Singapore mainly focus on blue-chip dividend REITs as they are lower risks and relatively much more stable. However, small REITs such as Starhill Global REIT are able to offer more attractive dividend yields at a slightly higher risk. Should investors add this small-cap REIT to their portfolio given their low share price now? Dividend History and Dividend Yield Starhill Global REIT has a 15-year dividend history (>10 years). This means that they have been paying out dividends to shareholders consistently for 15 co

Singtel is one of Asia's leading and largest Telecommunications groups with over 700 million customers across 21 countries. They provide telecom services, cloud, cybersecurity, and digital advertising to enterprises as well as entertainment and mobile financial services to millions of consumers across the globe. Some of the popular telecom services you may have heard of include Airtel in India, Optus in Australia, and Singtel in Singapore. The share price for Singtel has fallen from $3.30 pre-COVID to the current share price of $2.44. Singtel is a blue-chip stock included in the Straits Times Index and has a market capitalization of $40 billion. Here are my top 4 takeaways from Singtel's FY20 annual report . 1. Significant Decrease in Net Profits Singtel suffered significant financial losses in 2020 with their net profit for FY2020 decreasing by 65% to $1.08 billion compared to $3 billion in FY19. They faced increased competition across all their businesses, unfavorable court r

Parkway Life REIT is one of Asia's largest healthcare REIT and one of Singapore's most popular REITs among dividend investors. Parkway Life REIT's portfolio consists of 53 properties valued at $1.96 billion. It invests in real estate used primarily for healthcare and healthcare-related purposes. Some notable properties in Singapore include Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital, and Parkway East Hospital. It also has many hospitals, medical centers, nursing homes, and pharmaceutical product distributing and manufacturing facilities located in Japan. Parkway Life REIT is currently trading at $3.63 per share and has a market capitalization of $2.1 billion. Here is my analysis of Parkway Life REIT.  Consistent Dividend History Parkway Life REIT has a 13-year consistent dividend history (>10 years). This means that they have been paying out dividends consistently without fail to shareholders for 13 years in a row. This attracts dividend investors as it shows that the

Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) is one of Asia's largest logistics REIT with a market capitalization of $8 billion. MLT has a diversified real estate portfolio worth $8 billion consisting of many well-located income-producing logistics properties across Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Australia. MLT was added to the Straits Times Index in Dec 2019, making it an official blue-chip REIT. Since then, its share price has consistently increased and it became one of the most popular REITs among Singaporeans. MLT's share price has increased more than 30% year to date from $1.50 (Aug 2019) to $2.15 (Aug 2020). Its share price has continued to increase even during this COVID-19 period which shows how much confidence investors have in its performance and management. What makes MLT so attractive to investors? Consistent Dividend History MLT has a 15-year consistent dividend history (>10 years), ranking it among the top tier REITs in terms of cons

Keppel DC REIT is the first REIT in Singapore to focus solely on data centers in Asia. A data center is a physical facility that organizations or companies use to store their computer systems or data. Data centers are gaining traction and popularity around the world as more companies are switching to online platforms for their services and work. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies have switched to online platforms for work-related purposes to ensure their employees can work from home, resulting in an increase in demand for data centers. Keppel DC REIT portfolio consists of income-producing properties that are used mainly for data center purposes. They have 18 high-quality data centers strategically located in prominent data center hubs across eight countries in the Asia Pacific and Europe. Keppel DC REIT is currently trading at $3.060 per share and a market capitalization of $5 billion. I would be analyzing Keppel DC REIT using the  top 5 things to look out for in REITs .   1.

Recently, one of my friends has asked me about my opinion regarding one of Singapore's hot dividend stocks, NetLink Trust. Here are my analysis and thoughts on the NetLink Trust (CJLU) stock. NetLink Trust is a relatively new dividend stock in Singapore that is gaining traction among investors due to its reliable and sustainable business model. The company is currently a monopoly in Singapore which designs, builds, owns, and operates the fibre network infrastructure of Singapore's Next Generation National Broadband Network (NBN). Fibre network infrastructure is required for almost every technology-associated process or gadget as it is directly responsible for broadband internet and TV. NetLink Trust's extensive network provides nationwide coverage for both residential and non-residential uses in Singapore.  Monopolistic Competition NetLink Trust is the sole appointed Network Company for Singapore's Next Generation NBN. This means they are essentially a monopoly company

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) is a large media and property company in Singapore. It used to be one of Singapore's most popular and stable stocks among investors. Fast forward to 2020, it has fallen extremely hard and is now infamous for its poor performance in the stock market over the years. Their share price has fallen drastically across the past 5 years from $4.18 per share to $1.07 per share. This is a huge share price depreciation and reflected how quickly investors are abandoning the stock. How exactly did this happen to one of Singapore's largest companies?  Failure to Adapt One of the key issues for SPH was its inability to adapt quickly to changes in technology in the 21st century. While other media companies were busy digitalizing their news platforms to accommodate the new generation of consumers, SPH was still focusing on the physical print versions. The management did not have the foresight and did not plan for the company's future adequately. They were not p

This post is detailing how one of my close friends, Daniel, started investing with $12k with no prior investment knowledge. I would be sharing his investment portfolio and background. It started in March when he developed an interest in investing after I told him that his money in his savings account was depreciating due to inflation and he should invest it instead to get higher returns. I advised him to read up more about the various investing strategies first and decide for himself which type of investor he wanted to be. Daniel researched and learned online from various sources including books like 'Rich dad, Poor dad' and 'The Intelligent Investor' (he recommends new investors read up these two books before they start their investment journey). After reading up for a couple of months, he decided that he wanted to be a dividend investor as he liked the idea of passive income and low-risk investments (compared to growth stocks). Upon hearing this, I introduced him to S