LKY = Closing Of An Era

Today in the wee hours of the morning, the first former PM of Singapore Mr Lee Kuan Yew passed away peacefully at SGH. With his demise, this also mark the end of an era of  modern Singapore history.Together with Goh Keng Swee, Toh Chin Chye, S Rajaratnam and others, they single-handedly build a tiny red dot to a modern day nation.Rest In Peace, Sir.

Genting Singapore PLC

I am beginning to see value in this counter.Trailing PE is around 22 and P/B is approximately 1.5.Currently the business still generate more than a $1b of cash flow per year and net debt is low. There is a credit risk with VIP segment has evidenced from the larger provision in last quarter results but I expect management to tighten its credit profile.There is a new hotel coming up in Jurong which will help to drive its mass market segment. All in now, the share is now trading at its 5 year low and management has kick start its buy back programme with 6m shares just bought in yesterday through its buy back programme.It is hard to see value in a lot of counters nowadays but I decided to take the plunge on this one.Although there are casinos coming all over in asia but Genting Singapore is in Jeju and will have a good chance in Japan if regulation goes through.In terms of accessibility, Genting Singapore still command a premium over many casinos in asia.Macau may be more attractive but Chinese gamblers may be more caution over there as it is in the PRC jurisdiction.I made my bet and vested at 0.935 cents.

OLAM US$750 6.75%B180129

I received my cheque for the above for a sum of US$6512.63 today for the above. I bought 6300 units of  the 6.75% bond at a discount of 5% during the initial issue.The exchange rate then of about 1.20 plus between SG$ and US$. That was two years ago in the midst of Muddy Waters attack on Olam. Probably in a crisis would you be able to get such a deal. It has been a rewarding investment as I have gotten two years of dividends plus the gain in exchange rate. The bond was redeemed at 103.375% compared to the 95% entry price I had. I had intended to hold this till maturity but I guess olam find it onerous to continue due to the sharp appreciation of the US$. No regrets and will redeploy the funds when I find something appropriate.

I Sold SingPost

I finally decided to sell SingPost after holding it for more than 4 years.I bought it at around $1.15 and have collected 6.25 cents annually these 4 years. As it is, the current price of around $1.98 does not commensurate with its earnings of about 7 cents per annum.Despite all the hype surrounding Alibaba injection of capital into SingPost, we must remember that SingPost is actually not doing ecommerce directly but more the grunt work of delivering ecommerce parcels.Alibaba do not even want to do the logistics portion in China as it is high cost and low margin.I have watch SingPost performance over the last few years and it seems that the net EPS is fairly stagnant despite the transformation underway. The net increase in logistics EPS is barely keeping up with the fall in core business EPS.Right now, PE ratio is about 28 is which pretty high with low NAV value.SingPost Mall is outdated and relatively uncompetitive, to upgrade to compete, capital will need to be spent for AEI.All in all, I reckon it is better to redeploy my fund invested into SingPost into areas of higher returns.