Earnings Season - CMT and FCT Financial Results

Its earnings season again which means time for more dividends. I've owned Reits for a long time now where I can get stable and recurring income from these investments. Shopping mall Reits are attractive in Singapore and 2 of the most popular ones are Capitaland Mall Trust (CMT) and Frasers Centrepoint Trust (FCT).

CMT and FCT both reported their financial results just a few days ago and I must say shopping malls in Singapore are still quite resilient. The management of the malls is quite important as I personally saw a few malls become dead because of incompetent management. CMT and FCT are not the incompetent ones.

CMT financial results

For CMT, its 3Q financial results is nothing spectacular. DPU came in flat at only +0.3% year on year. The closure of Funan for redevelopment has affected its DPU as rental income decreased without Funan in its portfolio. Fo other malls, net property income remain largely unchanged.

Its NAV is currently at $1.95 and share price trading at $2.03. Its still a stable Reit to hold for the long term where I bought it back at $1.88-$1.90. I will still be holding this stock for its dividends. Dividend yield is about 5.5% base on current price.


FCT financial results

Frasers centrepoint trust is another resilient shopping mall reit which I have in my portfolio. It reported strong 4Q17 results where DPU rose 5.5% as compared to last FY quarter. Its portfolio occupancy rose to 92% from 89.4% and rental reversion was +8.3%. FCT has delivered 11 years of consecutive DPU growth. It is quite impressive to be so resilient and still has some steady growth.

Artist impression of the new Northpoint city.
Adapted from http://www.fraserscentrepoint.com.sg/mega-development-northpoint-city-set-welcome-shoppers-q4-mall-track-soft-opening-close-90-leased/

For its portfolio, the higher income came mainly from the following:

Causeway Point
This is the shopping mall at Woodlands. There were renewed and new leases signed which contributed to a 2.5% increase in rental rate.

Northpoint City
The shopping mall at Yishun has been going through AEI works for quite some time now. The enhancements are progressively completed so there is higher occupancy and rent from the new tenants. There is also additional revenue from Yishun 10 retail podium which was acquired on 16 November 2016. This improved the revenue by 27.4% year on year

Changi City Point
The shopping mall right beside Expo MRT is doing well too. Higher rental rate from renewed and new leases signed, and improved occupancy contributed to an increase of 13.6% in revenue.


The only lagging mall in FCT portfolio is Bedok point which saw a drop of 26.4% in revenue. However, it is only 2.8% of all of FCT's NPI so it isn't much of a concern. The largest contributor comes from causeway point at 50.6% of FCT's NPI. Causeway point occupancy rate is still impressive at 99.5%. Northpoint city will be the next major contributor as AEI works are progressively completed. Occupancy rate stands at 81.6% currently so there is lots of room to continue growing.

FCT has provided me dividend income of about 6% p.a. Dividend yield is about 5.4% at current prices. It is trading at a price to book ratio of 1.08x which is slightly above its net asset value. I wouldn't consider accumulating more at this point but will continue to hold this for dividend income.

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One Year After I Stop Tracking My Expenses Daily

Its been more than a year since I stopped tracking my expenses on a daily basis. When I first started out my financial journey, I wanted to find out how much I was spending on each specific item so that I can streamline it accordingly. However, after a few years doing that, it became quite pointless and it also restricted my life too much as when I spent a little more for any day, I would feel the pinch. So, I decided to gave it up and just keep track once a month instead.

I wanted to know how did I fare after I lessen my tight on my spending so I reviewed the numbers and plotted out some charts:

Unfortunately, I lost some of my expenses data in 2016 as I accidentally deleted the sheet in my excel file. Looking at the other months, there were some months which I over spend especially for this year. The green bars shows my basic monthly income from my full time job while the blue line shows my monthly expenses.

Instead of focusing on reducing expenses, I focused on increasing my income instead. Despite changing job in Jan this year, it wasn't really a big difference as the pay increase is just about 10%+. On the other hand, I manage to get side income through other means such as providing consultancy services, working with affiliates and sponsors on my blog and dividends from stocks investment. This is how the chart looks like with the total income:

The income bars become very irregular as the income from other sources are unpredictable, sometimes more while sometimes less. It is also because of the other sources of income that I can still have some substantial savings despite the increased expenses.

In fact, other sources of income this year so far has been able to cover all my expenses which means I could save 100% of my full time job income.

It took many years of hard work and opportunities seeking to get other sources of income which is a goal I embarked on many years back to create multiple sources of income after getting inspired by a book I read.

To create more income, one thing I learnt is that we must find something which we have the passion for. I have the passion for finance, investments and housing and property so I went into mortgage consultancy. After 2 years of doing it, I still feel passionate whenever I can advise someone on their affordability for a new property they are intending to buy or I can help someone save some money through refinancing their loans. It also helps that I do the consultancy service without relying on the income for survival. I can give advise without expecting to earn from it.

Blogging is also a passion. Writing on finance and investments is what I like to do. This blog has existed for 4 years plus now and I can't believe how I can still manage to write. To me, this is like a journal as well as a platform where I hope to reach out to more people on the importance of financial planning. This was the purpose which gave birth to this blog and it has been an amazing journey where I got to know some friends along the way and receive heartwarming emails from readers like yourself.

Hope this post is an inspiration on what you can do for your future too.

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A New Cashback Card with Up-sized 3% Cashback

There seems to be competition among the banks in Singapore which is good for consumers as they start to give more interests and benefits to get more customers. Previously, many cashback cards were launched with no minimum spend and no other conditions. You get cashback for any spending.

Today, there's a new cashback card which gives up to 3% cashback. This is the NEW Standard Chartered Spree Credit Card. Again, to match the competition in the market, there is also no minimum spend to get cashback. Here are the details I managed to pull out from the bank:

• No minimum spend and up to $60 cashback monthly
• Earn 3% cashback on all online spends in foreign currency and all vPost spends
• Earn 2% cashback on all online spends in local currency, all contactless and mobile payments
• Earn 1% cashback on all other retail spends
• Many other privileges for Singapore Post and vPost services
• Annual fees waived for 2 years
• Minimum annual income of $30,000 for Singapore Citizens and PR

This card seems to offer the highest cashback of 2% for all online spend and also all contactless and mobile payments. Its easy to find contactless payments now all around Singapore which shouldn't be hard to get the 2% cashback. Just use visa pay wave easily at many locations island wide. 

If you're interested, apply from now till 15 November to get $150 Grab Gift for use for your Grab car rides. This is for new SCB cardholders only and not eligible for any other promotions from the bank. Apply here today to get your $150 Grab Gift and get your cashback started!

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