Hyflux - where we stand

I think at this point of time, it would be good to know how much vested interest there is among the key stakeholders in Hyflux to help the preference shareholders ( N2H), perpetual shareholders (BTWZ)  and the ordinary shareholders (600).

It would also be good to know as a really rough gauge, how many people are affected. I should make it clear that this number is just a very rough ball park figure because some of the securities( N2H, BTWZ, 600) are held in nominee accounts which can hold for many different shareholders, information is based on public available information updated sometime ago, people buy and sell and rounding off errors.

Amount of money at risk for Hyflux directors

The following is the amount of money at risk for the directors. This information is taken from the annual report of 2017.

Number of affected shareholders

Based on the 2017 annual report, there are 20,104 (N2H) holders.
Based on the IPO allocation table, there are 23,868 (BTWZ) holders.
I am unable to find info the number of 600 holders.

N2H holders

BTWZ holders

Further reading :
1) Considerations about Hyflux
2) The fate of Hyflux

About rental car excess insurance - Apex vs Jucy - New Zealand holiday

Rental car insurance is a rip-off. Be careful of excess insurance reduction from rental car companies as the list of exclusions are difficult to interpret OR easily manipulated to fit into their definitions.

We have narrowed down 2 rental car companies that gives real value for money in New Zealand.
Apex car rental and Jucy. These are considered 2nd tier rental companies. 1st tier ones would be Hertz, Avis e.t.c who generally uses very new cars with little mileage but the prices are easily 20-40% more expensive.

Apex and Jucy prices their cars  roughly the same but here is why Apex beats Jucy hands down.

Roof damages

Apex Car Rental (top)

Jucy (bottom)

For full excess reduction insurance, it cost $20 per day for both companies. Apex will cover any roof damages, period. ( standard tncs apply). However, for Jucy, it doesn't cover any roof damages regardless of any circumstance . This was quite shocking to me as Jucy further elaborated that hail and falling of a tree branch, both being quite possible and through no fault by the driver, is not covered.

Claim Administration fee

Jucy also charges NZD 75 bucks per claim, irregardless of having full excess reduction insurance or not, or whether one is at fault or not, while Apex doesn't have such a fee. This fee by Jucy feels very ridiculous to me.

Authorised driver

Apex allows one to add authorised drivers for free while Jucy charges $2 per day, per additional driver. While this cost is not a deal breaker ,do note that the rental insurance is only valid if the driver was added.

Toll and infringement administration fee

Jucy charges NZD$60 for each toll/infringement claim incurred but Apex charges NZD$10 for each toll claim and NZD$25 for each infringement claim.

Opening an Australian bank account by a Singaporean

I have been getting some queries on my post on opening an Australian bank account. I guess the reason is because the aussie dollars have reached parity with the Sgd lately and people are becoming more interested.

I have kept my Australian account for about 2 years 5 months just purely for holidaying and have not been taxed a single cent on my interest income. I will summarise the way to avoid taxes legally or at least minimise the tax incurred.

1)  Put a non-Australian address ( a.k.a put your Singapore address)

If you put an australian address, maybe because you have an investment property there, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) will deem you a resident and tax your interest. As you are not working there, you have no tax file number ( TFN) and so will leave this field as blank. That's spells disaster!

The bank will, by default, charge you the highest tax of 46.5% on your interest earned.

By putting a Singapore address, your interest income is subjected to 10% tax.

2) Keep the total annual interest income lower than $120

With my National Australia Bank (NAB) earning about 2.5% pa annually, my full interest income will be taxed once the deposits reaches about $4800 ( interest is compounded monthly since interest is credited monthly so the threshold is actually slightly less than $4800) . 

Now, knowing this, i would open in my wife, father, mother, sister, helper, mother-in-law, father-in-law name, friend name, so that i have many accounts to squirrel into to be below the threshold. BUT, one need to be there in person to open. Haha... no free lunch!

3) Open the account in your children's name

The annual interest income threshold for a child is $420, which is deposits less than $16,800 ( the threshold is lower based on the reason i cited above). They still have to be there in person to open.

Anyway, i will gladly pay the 10% anyway if i were to invest in Aussie dollars while waiting for the commodities super cycle since, i will still be getting 2.25% pa NETT interest without the many hoops i have to jump across of local banks and the caps that each have. (UOB one, DBS multiplier, BOC smartsaver, Citibank Maxigain, SCB bonus saver).

Are you Return-focused OR Return on Risk Focused?

Taking the opportunity to sell into strength! Please go higher and higher!

Which would you rather pick? The bigger apple may not be better - Nasdaq.com

My thoughts about the Singapore property market

Everywhere i turn, i can't escape from someone getting a windfall from their enbloc sale. My parents, my secondary school friend, my client, my cousin and the newspapers. And i didn't. Horror of horrors!
The following are taken from SRX.
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Private property ( non landed) Sale - above and Rental- below index
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HDB Sale- above and Rental-below Index

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1) For private property, the price is increasing but the rental is decreasing. Coupled with increasing interest rates, i wonder what is the fuel that will sustain the price increases? Euphoria borne from the spate of enbloc sales? 

2) HDB is following a more logical path, price goes down and rental also go down. And not all HDB dwellers are with a bank loan as they can take HDB loan. Such will be immune to interest rate rises going forward.

3) If HDB rental continues to fall, where is the "floor" to support private property rental rates?

4) I can see on hindsight how property prices continued its appreciation till 2013 as property price increases are coupled with rental increases. ( not to mention low ir).