Centurion, better lives for people slightly less fortunate

New interest in another company.

Centurion was a CD producer, and still is.

That is opposite of what I like.
I like new technologies.

But the company is bold enough to transit into something very different.

They are the only company in Singapore that are doing workers' dormitories.

Which is also something I like.

I like the idea of a company building cheap and better accommodation to help people that are in a worse position than me.

I like that idea that my money is use to do some good for other people.

I like the business idea, and next is the financials behind the company.

Mostly checked my list.

PE of around 8.

Price book around 0.7.

Currently the price is trading at the lowest point in 2 years.

Dividends decent at around 4%.

Income should be growing steadily.

Many projects in the pipeline, including investments into student accommodations in UK and Australia.

But something made me pause and monitor at the moment.

Its debt to equity ratio is 130%.

Long term debt (538m)/ (Retained earnings (317m) + common stock (90m) ) = 130%

That means that debt is 130% of equity.

Warren buffet prefers a ratio of under 50%.

I would feel more comfortable if it is 100%.

So, I shall just keep it in the list and do nothing.

Straco, will I have you?

Currently this is a company that interest me the most.
I was drooling over DBS for some time, but its price has risen too much for me to turn my head away.

Straco is trading at around 0.8 now.
Which makes me unsure if I should buy it.
Its PE ratio is around 14, which is not attractive to me.
PE ratio over 15 is over priced.

from Yahoo

I always use technical analysis when it comes to deciding when to enter.

The closer support zone is around 0.75.

But looking at the chart, it seems to be on a downward trend.

It may be due to sentiments about China economy.

The next support is 0.6, which is the price in 2014.

That level seems more tempting to me.

For me now, I should just be passive.

It may keep going up from here, but whenever I am unsure what to do, it is better to just do nothing.

Why do I like the company?

The business is easy to understand.

It owns a few tourist attraction in China, and the Singapore flyer.

The population of China will keep getting richer.

China wants to shift to become a consumption economy.

When the middle class is richer, they will start to flood these attractions.

I like Straco's mission too.

It seems like they want to promote the environment and history.

I also feel happy owning something that brings joy to people.

I love the idea that money comes from fun and happy memories.

If I visit China and go to one of them, when I pay the entry fee, I feel like one of the many other thousands of people paying myself.

I also look forward to them buying other kinds of tourists spots if I own their shares.

Sembcorp Industries and DBS

Sembcorp ind: I bought the 2nd patch, after I promised myself when buying the 1st batch that I will continue to buy (if it dips to the next support level), so that I do not feel sad buying at higher price.

I liked the company, and they seem to be investing for the future.
They made many investments in other countries in clean energy.
Something that I am also found of. Sustainable and energy good for environment and humans.

I wanted to buy DBS also, one company that I liked too.
The CEO Gupta, seems to be like a brilliant person.
And DBS is the most important bank for Singapore to me.
Singapore will look after it.
Its PE ratio dropped to around 7.
Its dividends is also 4.5%.
Current price is 13+, from a peak of around 20 after months ago.
But these few days, the price rose again.
My target entry is around 12.5 (a bit above major support level).

Another reason for me not buying is that I am also keeping an eye on my leftover funds.
The market can still continue sinking, or crash.
I want to have an amount of money to invest even more if that happens.
I shaved off quite an big portion of savings this month.
I am happy with my purchases.
I also want some security, to have some amount in the bank to take on more opportunities (if there are).

So for now, I will rest a bit and see how things go. It is important to have a certain level of cash in your portfolio.

First REIT

Another stock that is added into my portfolio.

Like Silverlake, it was also hit by bad news.
Some reports mentioned that they plan to list in Indonesia, after Widodo took over the government and offer better incentives for companies to list.
Because of Widodo, I also foresee good potential in Indonesia.
Widodo seems to have quite a modern thinking, and there is a surge in internet start-ups.

I always liked First REIT, and the price has dropped to a level where I feel I am better off than those people who bought at the peak of 1.4.

Their PE is around 12, which is boring.
But their current Dividends is around 7%. A good boost to the free money I can collect monthly.

And I like the business of health care, and I wanted something to capture the trend of rising aging population.

Another thing is that the CEO has also been recently amassing its share.

Silverlake

I bought it. Currently their decline was due to a short seller saying bad things about them (around august 2015). Things like the CEO is doing things for his own benefits, or the company has many funny transactions to make itself seem more profitable.

In Jan this year, their audit report came out and say that they are pretty ok.

The price has not yet picked up.
I researched on the company.
Their CEO seems to be a math genius.
I always wanted to invest in internet companies.
The only one I have is iFast, which I do not really have a good idea what they are doing.
Silverlake help major banks with their back end systems.
They are further integrating even more things.
And also expanding their type of clients.
They mentioned that they do not want to expand so fast to an extend that it is not sustainable. Something that I like to hear.
In many things, I always believe in having a strong foundation.

I am happy to have another tech stock in my portfolio.
And hopefully they can go on to take over a greater portion of the world.
It has the most potential to have a nuclear growth among all my shares.

Switch of construction stocks

Relative to the size of my portfolio, there had been some heavy transactions in the start of 2016.

I sold Low Keng Huat and bought Lian beng.

Both transactions were around the same amount, just different no. of shares.

I did this as I do not want to add another construction share.

I always liked Lian Beng.

Their low-budget website (I interpret it as they do not spend on fancy stuff).

Their crazy PE ratio of 1.8.

Their annual net income growth.

Their agility due to smaller size. They seem to bid for minor government projects that they can earn. They seem to be practical and take on jobs that are required and they can earn.
They also went into JV with another company to build dormitories for foreign workers, and did a decent and clean job.
I think there are many big companies that do not want to take on smaller jobs, because they may think they are more glamorous.
Lian Beng gives me a feeling of they are practical, and they do not mind doing things what others do not want (hardworking and down to earth).

Many other reasons.

And I sold Lau Keng Huat as their earnings are declining.

And the reason why I bought them in the first place was not very valid.

They own Carnivore, a restaurant that has decent food, but seems to be disappearing into the dark.

They do not really have any properties that I respect.

So it made perfect sense to be to swap my share of LKH to Lian Beng.