Private Shield - is it worth a buy?

Let's talk about the single most important thing in one's personal finance, Hospitalisation and Surgical Insurance.  Read this and this and that on such H&S insurance matters.

Having read the articles above, i somehow had this impression that Medishield gives more value to those Private Shield plans. (Note, i use the word value, not cheap and i use the word impression , so it is just my opinion. Just for the record, I am an absolute newbie in insurance,

Prices

 Comments
I have used Enhanced Income Shield (BASIC) insurance as comparison as it's the most " apple to apple" .
Medishield covers grade B2/C wards. Incomeshield covers B2/C wards AND B1 wards.
85 years above is not covered under Medishield. Honestly, i have damn good genes...and i think i will live till above that age, barring any suay events like slashing or stabbing incidents by the 369 gang or ang soon tong or 18 sio li ho or Kuti PiSai Motorcycle gang linked to Columbian Drug lords .(Eh Ah Beng reading this ...relak la bro..just joking ). At most, Incomeshield is only 2.87 times more than the premium of medishield  and it is covered by Medisave, money one can't touch.

Coverage ( Very General and Brief)

 Comments

In term of coverage, Incomeshield (Basic) trounces Medishield big time.The above table is just a portion of the difference in coverages, if you have so much time to spare for analysing, look here for Medishield and here for NTUC incomeshield.

Honestly, i think a limit of $50,000 for a policy year for Medishield is kinda low. So, do you think paying 2.87 times ( at most) for the 'as charged' ( means unlimited in a sense) feature and the coverage beyond 85 years of age is worth it?

Sabana Reit and Mapletree Industrial Trust

Lockup period
Sabana Reit-Period of 180 days from listing date. Thereafter, 50% will be locked up for the following 360 days from the end of the 1st lock up period.
MIT - Period of 180 days from listing date.

Gearing/Leverage
Sabana Reit - 26.5%
MIT-38.5%

Performance fee Paid to manager
Sabana Reit - 0.5% per annum on Net Property Income if DPU grows at least 10%
MIT-3.6% per annum on Net Property Income

Sabana Reit's Alignment with Unitholders
The Manager has elected to receive 80.0% of the base fee in the form of Units for the Forecast Year 2011 and the Projection Year 2012 and (if payable) 80.0% of the performance fee in the form of Units for the Projection Year 2012, except that where the issue price (which is equal to the Market Price (as defined herein) of each Unit) is at a discount of at least 20.0% to the NAV per Unit, the Manager shall receive the base fee for the Forecast Year 2011 and the Projection Year 2012 and (if payable) the performance fee for the Projection Year 2012 wholly in the form of cash.

Honestly, comparing MIT and Sabana, it seems that Sabana is more aligned with their Unitholders. I like that they will choose to receive their base and performance fees in cash instead of Units if the Units are undervalued ( underlined above).

I also like that Sabana set an extremely high performance target of being paid a performance fee if they grow the DPU at least 10% from the year before, unlike MIT's target which is so, well, duh! MIT will still get paid performance fee as long as they have some income. I think my grandma can do that!

Gearing of Sabana looks good too and their dividend yield of 8.22% is pretty attractive........i must say..BUT...here's the catch before you go blindly into such an investment...Read below
http://www.investmentmoats.com/money-management/reit/why-reits-and-business-trust-are-not-always-good-investments/

Which bank will benefit the most from a rise in SIBOR?

A wrong move made!And another wrong move!Its so hard to find good investment opportunities these days. Anyway, with all the talk about how interest rates are so low now and the only way forward is for it to move up gradually, let us try to position ourselves for this expectation shall we?

SIBOR stands for Singapore Interbank Offer Rate - simply put,interest rates for deposits,loan e.t.c rise if SIBOR rises.

NIM stands for Net Interest Margin which is measure of the difference between the interest income generated by banks or other financial institutions and the amount of interest paid out to their lenders(for example, deposits), relative to the amount of their (interest-earning) assets. )

Development Bank of Singapore (DBS)
See how it correlates with the SIBOR......when sibor goes up, DBS NIM ( net interest margin goes up)

United Overseas Bank ( UOB)

Hmmph, NIM seem to be negatively correlated with SIBOR....

Overseas Chinese Bank of Singapore (OCBC)

There don't seem to be any correlation between SIBOR and NIM. Is there?

With hyperinflation and a gargantuan wave of hot money coming in, are you ready?

A Little Spare Cash, Unattractive Stock Valuations, Low interest Rates. What to do?

September went by without any correction in the stock market. Boring!Hopefully October gets more interesting. We recently sold the Taisin shares we bought on 7 September 2010 and lock in a gain of about 22% in 1 month. The run up in it's share price on 5th and 6th of October was unexpected and we decided to sell it instead of being too greedy.We don't know why it went up, but who cares...seriously as long as money is made. We still like the company due to it being shareholder oriented BUT their recent offer of a scrip dividend scheme, we dont really like.

So, with a little cash, what do we do with it? Stocks are abit overvalued, interest on bank deposits are low, property rental yields are low at 4-5%? Processing.......

The Small Caps Stock Adventure

No investment has been done since the beginning of 2010 till today 7 September 2010. Stocks, especially blue chips ones, have been running up like crazy. We missed an opportunity last week to load some more Singpost due to trying to gain a 0.01 cent advantage...damn it! See how far it rose from $1.13 to $1.23 within 1 week!!!Arrgh. I spotted the aggressive quantity of share buybacks of Singpost, whenever it touches $1.12 or $1.13 and therefore entered with CONVICTION but missed just cos i queued at $1.12."%%$#*@&@^!%@#$@%@". But its alright..hehe..another one will come as always and i have vested in it last year, so nothing to complain. Just for your information on the performance of Singpost, up up and away!










Having about 90% of my portfolio vested in blue chip stocks during the crisis,the valuation of such stocks are not very attractive, having reached near their 52 week highs and price exceeding their net asset valuation by quite a bit. Europe and US seems to be sputtering along and the asian region seems to be doing better. In very general terms, the economy is on a better footing than before though risks still remain but the probability of going back to the crisis again is low. (We are still keeping some opportunity cash just in case). Investing in companies that are focused on the asian region seems like a logical choice now. Given this backdrop, we have started to look at small cap to medium cap stocks whose revenue is predominantly derived from asia.Honestly, we find it a challenge to research and source out for the perfect small-medium(SM) cap stock. Unlike the blue chips ones,for SM ones, there will always be an aspect to it that is an eyesore like everything will be good about it, but they are giving out too much rights or everything about it will be good but directors have bought it cheaply at low price before, so buying it at a higher price feels damn sian to me. Nevertheless, i bought into Tai Sin today having considered the pros and cons.





We like it that they are giving out dividends consistently every year. This shows that they are shareholder oriented. This is bloody important. This stock can be a capital growth stock, and dividends along the way just makes the wait for the capital growth more bearable. At current price, dividend yield is approximately 7.5%. According to their latest financial statements, there is one upcoming dividend ($0.01)as it has been recommended by the board, but yet to be reflected on SGX website as of now.















We like that their current price is below their Net Asset Value per share.






We like that their directors are buying at $0.225.Go to Tai Sin insider trades. If you look further back through the months, some of their directors have paid prices ranging from $0.34 to $0.15. See for yourself. The interesting part is that some of the shares were given as a gift for a daughter's wedding from the parents and uncles. This further point to the likelihood of focus on shareholder value. Come on, will you give your close kin shares which wont add value. Possible, but unlikely.







We like it that they are pretty near their 52 week low. See for yourself....you unbelieving soul!




Just for your information, here is a look at the historical prices since 2005. Tai Sin has hit a high of $0.595 before in 2007.

On a final note, go look at theprojects they have done in the past, from circle line mrt, marina barrage, bedok water reclaimation plant, sentosa development project, changi airport....Remember the national day rally about the $60 billion upgrading rail lines government project announced by PM.....hmm maybe,maybe, only time will tell. As an endnote,this stock is still not perfect.........Do your research yourself!

Important: The objective of the articles in this blog is to set you thinking about the company before you invest your hard-earned money. Do not invest solely based on this article. Unlike House or Instituitional Analysts who have to maintain relations with corporations due to investment banking relations, generating commissions,e.t.c, SGDividends say things as it is, factually. Unlike Analyst who have to be "uptight" and "cheem", we make it simplified and cheapskate. -The Vigilante Investor, SGDividends Team