Heavy Coffee Drinkers Beware

People drink coffee for various reasons. Many would admit to drinking many cups of coffee because they are addicted. Some of my patients who work as security guards say they drink a lot of coffee to stay awake, sometimes more than four cups a day!

The news report on the findings of a study (here) on heavy coffee drinkers should act as an alert for those in the same boat about the danger of this habit to their health. In fact, heavy coffee drinkers have an increased death risk according to the study.

I am a coffee drinker only on an occasional basis. I just do not drink any brand of coffee, though would dispense with my personal preference if presented with the choice of brewed coffee usually at my golf club or restaurants.

When I was a student in Australia my favourite coffee brand was Maxwell House (MH) and I continued with it on my returning home but gradually over the years, the brand has slowly disappeared. I tried several other brands but found them not of equal taste to MH.

When I was studying I drank coffee quite a bit. I was then suffering from leg cramps especially during winter though not as cold as the winter in England but all the same the nights could be quite cool. Anyway, these leg cramps were really bothering me, sometimes I would wake up with extreme pain and had to massage my legs frantically. The condition came about when I was a second year medical student. 

One day during an anatomy class I entered into a conversation with my demonstrator, an old Professor from East Europe and mentioned about my affliction. Without batting an eyelid he asked me to stop drinking coffee or tea for at least three weeks and see whether the cramps subside. To cut the story short, the condition disappeared after I stopped drinking coffee. I cannot find any research studies on this effect of coffee (caffeine) on muscle cramps, perhaps overstimulation? But at which level of the nervous system? I should have then asked the Prof who is now deceased.

My favourite brand of coffee

Anyway, for a long time I had not drunk coffee simply because I could not find a brand that I like and by this time I decided to drink only one cup a day. At last I found a brand that I truly enjoy the taste. It's called Kenco but it is not sold in just any supermarkets. 

I first bought it at the Pavillion, Bukit Bintang and once finished, I could not get it anymore so for nearly two years I was not able to enjoy a good coffee. Then a few months ago I chanced upon it at Jaya Grocer in Bukit Jelutong Shah Alam, imagine my joy! Unfortunately there was only one bottle left.

No, I don't suffer from cramps anymore because I only drink coffee occasionally whenever I need to perk up! Hardly a heavy drinker or rather what is elegantly referred to as a quaffer.

TM and PChem : The Joy of Receiving Dividends

I cannot help but smile when Zana messaged me that she had just received her dividend payments for TM (9.8 sen per unit) and PChem (8 sen per unit ).

The total amount is sufficient to settle her monthly car loan payment for a few months. There is a big  at the end of her message. I responded by saying that was how it should be, making her money work for her while she is asleep so to speak. She was able to make the initial investments from the salary she earned and saved while studying and later working in London for five years.

I can feel her joy as she has just been working for three years and is already saving up whatever she can for her future needs, already planning for her retirement in more than 30 years time! She has also set up a portfolio for her investing activities. Mostly consisting of dividend-paying equities, PNB unit trusts, mutual funds and a hedge fund, courtesy of her Dad. For her age, the portfolio should be more adventurous to capitalise on opportunity and growth stocks. She can afford to venture on this route since she has a steady monthly income and working in a great organisation.

BAT - British American Tobacco is a top dividend-paying stock
but its price at RM65 per unit is prohibitive for most retail investors!

This is the way to go for young people, planning financially at the beginning of their career. I also advise her to read a lot on investing, the market conditions/factors affecting them, the world economy and commodities prices to understand market volatility and to act accordingly.

For example, she may have to sell off her PetChem shares soon as the company is involved in a cyclical business where work and profit will be affected and the share price will also decline on the cycle's trough and she needs to short her position well before that and repurchase them on the next cycle.

And now that TM's share price has tumbled due to in part by Fitch Rating downgrade announced on 25 September 2013, this is the time to buy the shares as TM despite the outlook being negative currently will not be greatly impacted as it has solid business fundamentals and that its expanded broadband service will be able to maintain its strong position among the telcos.

I for one will continue to support TM and ride with its fortune. It is an excellent defensive stock which prides itself with giant anchor shareholders such as PNB and EPF. I plan on buying more TM shares at this present beaten down price using my dividend proceeds from AS1M paid out on this coming October 1 2013.

I had some PetChem shares acquired through its IPO and had cleared them all after 18 months on price upside but Zana has been keeping them for dividend purposes.

Many top dividend paying stocks like Dutch Lady,Nestle and of course BAT are expensive and not worth buying due to the low yield on your investment. A wise choice of dividend stocks will make your money grow over time.

Westports IPO - Fund Scrambling and Anxious Application

I don't know about you, but my experience with IPOs has been both positive and negative. I have  yet to find time to blog specifically on my encounters with IPOs including my recent disaster with ASTRO. Needless to say, one needs to be very selective when applying for an IPO.

 I was late in finding out about Westport's. I quickly read the prospectus and have a look at their website and note who are the people owning and managing this business and the reasons they are going public. My utmost concern is when a company is raising fund from the public to pay for their debt. I will keep away from such an IPO unless their fundamentals are strong. I will also keep away from an IPO of a newly established company whose business has too many competitors and risks: the main reason I gave AirAsia X a Big X.

I like the first two words: PROVEN and TRUSTED

I have a different feel though about Westports. This is a company which has a good track record of growth and corporate governance. They are not issuing new shares instead releasing portions of the main shareholders' existing units for this IPO exercise. No indication that they are out to enrich themselves. And I also like that father and son.

Some people are worried about the above point simply because we have been told umpteenth time if the company's insiders are disposing their shares, we should be aware as the business might not be doing well.

I am taking a contrarian view with regards to this company and have decided to apply for their IPO. I am also comfortable with the cornerstones investors and their lock-up period of six months.

As I only knew about this IPO on 19 September the date of its launching, I was hard pressed trying to scramble the fund as the bulk of it is in Unit Trusts and as luck would have it, my HSBC ATM card has just been changed to a new one which is yet to be linked to my CDS account! And the closing date of this IPO application is on 27 September which effectively only left me with five banking days and it takes three days to activate my new ATM card to enable its ESA (electronic share application) function.

To complicate matters, the ASNB agent informed me that if I were to redeem my requested units she needed to issue a cheque which could only be cleared by the bank in three days. And on top of all this, I don't really have much time to go to all these places to complete the required transactions.

Then I thought of my banker at Maybank, good old Agnes. My SMS to her was simple: could I transfer some fund from PNB unit trusts directly into my account at the bank? Her reply was a relief: yes, no problem! And so I proceeded to Maybank at midday Friday to deposit some cash for topping up and then performed the PNB-Maybank transfers and in less than 15 minutes I was ready to apply for the IPO online through Maybank's internet banking facilities. How is that for a fast solution? No need for the inconvenient ESA and I could apply after-hours at my leisure at home.

Of all the time, I decided to go online just before midnight to perform the online application. It's another experience for me as this was my first time to do so because all my other IPO applications were through ESA. The five steps are easy enough and when you wrongly type in the number of applied units there is always the "go back" alert. Just after I printed my "successful" receipt at 11.57pm, the system automatically shutdown with a busy signal screen coming up! Then I realised that there must be a system which automatically checks the internet banking facilities just around midnight before the next day's operation.

And so it is not advisable to do internet banking especially when you are transferring fund around midnight as you might wonder whether your transaction is successful or not because you cannot immediately login again after that sudden shutdown, to find out.

Well, I managed to apply for Westports' IPO but am under no illusion that I can easily get it because the portion for retail investors is rather small. My better half has also applied and so we are waiting to see whose luck is better. While I went through an anxious time, Jeff applied his through ESA in less than two minutes at HSBC. Come to think of it, I will now transfer most of my liquid fund to Maybank to facilitate my e-share activities as I prefer an online application as it can be done anytime (except around midnight!), at home and definitely is time-sparing for a busy professional.

We all need it!

Good luck to my blog readers who are in the same shoes as I am for Westports IPO!

Happy Moon Cake Festival 2013

Wishing all my relatives and friends a Happy Moon Cake Festival today 19 September 2013. The celebration also goes by the name of Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival for the uninitiated. I prefer the "cake" name because it's synonymous with my childhood memories of growing up in Penang and seeing Aunties busily making them and how I used to gorge on those sticky cakes!  Nostalgic....

When you miss your loved ones... look at the moon and imagine,
 it's better than being on Skype!

Yes, celebrating the Moon Festival has a certain feel to it as you would be gazing at the full moon and think of your loved ones and friends far away and they would in turn gaze at the same heavenly body, how touching! This practice has, however, been somewhat usurped by modern age technology. But I still prefer gazing at the full moon.

Intricately patterned

Our friend the owner of a resort in Kota Kinabalu used to send us these delicious cakes with exquisite patterns every year of the Festival and I would look around the place trying to find ones just as lovely as a return gift. Missed those cakes of his as he is now in Timor Leste, developing yet another resort!

Delectable!

Mooncakes, we are indeed spoilt for choice with their various shapes,designs and fillings made possible by commercialisation. Anyway the Festival will not be complete without their distinctive presence. Look for those with less sugar.

AS1M 2013 - Fourth Dividend Declaration at 6.7 Sen

Today Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) through its subsidiary, ASNB (Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad) has declared a 6.7 sen dividend per unit of AS1M for financial year ending on 30 September 2013. According to PNB Chairman, Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid, RM593.06million, an increase of 30.9% over last year's RM453.03million will be distributed to 365,355 unitholders who have subscribed to 9.28 billion units of AS1M. The dividend will automatically be credited into unitholders' accounts on 1 October and will be based on the average monthly minimum balance held.

The Chairman of PNB, Tun Ahmad Sarji (L) and CEO  Tan Sri Hamad
at the dividend declaration for AS1M 2013
 (Photo by BERNAMA)

Though it is higher by 0.10 sen compared to last financial year 2012 at 6.60 sen, I am rather disappointed that the income distribution is less than those of ASD and ASM at 6.8 sen per unit declared in June and February respectively.

I note that the BURSA counters held by AS1M are on the whole the same as those in ASD and ASM the only thing I could think of is the timing of the income distribution. For those two unit trusts, the counters were profitable before the Feds gave hints of ceasing their quantitative easing activities. Then stock markets the world over started reacting the middle of year causing volatility. For example, TM one of the common counters for PNB investments for all its unit trusts started to decline. This appears to indicate that foreign investors are beginning to withdraw their funds from our market putting pressure on selective stock prices.

The difference in the rate of distribution is substantial when a unitholder owns, say more than one million units of AS1M. Anyway, this 10 billion fixed price unit trust has a quota of 50%, 30%,15% and 5% for Bumiputeras,Chinese,Indians and other Malaysians respectively. Only the Bumi's portion is still available for subscription and that also look like only 0.72 billion units are left at current figures of unit holdings underscoring the high demand for this PNB unit trust.

Notwithstanding the lower comparative income distribution rate, historically for AS1M, this year's dividend is the highest since its launching in 2009 as follows:

YEAR                  DIVIDEND RATE
2010                             6.38
2011                             6.50
2012                             6.60
2013                             6.70

And so this is the final dividend declaration for PNB unit trusts for 2013. The next one will be in January 2014 for ASB and ASN and I would like to reserve my prediction on their income distribution rates!

Sources: BERNAMA, Businesstimes

Juan Gabriel - Asi Fue

Relaxing with Juan Gabriel, the evergreen Mexican singer and song composer. He has lasted all these years with this music which makes you want to move around the floor and sway and let yourself go and be free of any tension.

Check out his "Hasta que te conoci", the audience response is just tremendous and his interaction with them is nothing but spontaneous. Good music,natural singer,sensitive composer and responsive audience. What else do we want?

Good music is truly invigorating,refreshing and rejuvenating and believe it, healing as well. Have you all heard of Music Therapy?

MALAYSIA - 50 Years old today- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Together We Prosper

Today 16 September  in 1963 Malaysia was formed when Malaya (Malay Peninsula) , Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak came together to be one country but Singapore left us in 1965.

And today this country turns 50.

The significance of this date was largely ignored for some years till the people in Sabah and Sarawak promoted its significance vigorously. Without the two East Malaysian states there would not be MALAYSIA but just MALAYA. A fair argument indeed.

So let us celebrate today's date Malaysians! 50 years old and still together, fantastico!

Happy Malaysia Day!

Raul Di Blasio - Aguas de Invierno

At last I got hold of this musical piece which I used to love hearing and yes, dancing the Salsa with it at a five-star hotel I once stayed for two weeks while undergoing a course. It kept playing non-stop and no one seemed to know its title. It's very nostalgic for me because this has brought a flood of memories of things,foods, colleagues, guests' greeting on the corridor and helpful staffs.

I have not realised that it is performed by Raul di Blasio, a famous Brazilian pianist whose music Corazon De Nino is my all time piano musical piece favourite. I must thank the uploader for sharing this.

AMB Value Trust Fund (AMBVTF) - 2013 Income Distribution

Despite Bursa FBM KLCI against which AMBVTF is benchmarked,  having an uptrend this year, the 2013 gross income distribution declared on 06 September 2013 did not assume the same direction. Last year's distribution at 10 sen per unit was the last of a string of stellar performance since 2009 for the fund.

 All the same, the seven (7) sen per unit declared gross income distribution is translated into about 11% total return based on the calculation of capital return and income return. This is less than last financial year (2011/2012) as there was a decrease of about 8% in NAV recorded over the 2012/2013 financial year. Will have to wait for the report to see the actual total return.

The third week of July 2013 saw the NAV registering a high of 0.5699 and it gradually went down along with the  market's downward movement and just before the declaration of dividend,  it was at 0.5444 on 30 August. As expected after the dividend payment, the NAV decreased to 0.4709 on 02 September. And that was time to accumulate more units be it at 6.5% sales charge or if you acquired it online from FundSupermart, the sales charge is lower at 2%. My calculation shows that if I purchased 50k units at 0.4709 at sales charge of 6.5%, it is cheaper than if I were to purchase the same number of units at a higher NAV, say 0.5000 even at a discount rate of 3% sales charge.

As my initial fund is purchased from Maybank, I have decided to stick with it mainly owing to familiarity with the banker who goes out of her way to remind me regularly when the best time to purchase the units. The personal touch is important.

As stated in the prospectus the main focus of this fund is for capital growth as opposed to income distribution and the medium term period suggested is three to five years. The reason I like about this fund is the compulsory reinvestment of units generated by annual dividends. This suits me fine as I have set my target period of investment.

From May to November 2012, I had made four purchases at 3% sales charge. My first gross income distribution, duly reinvested, was at 10 sen per unit in September 2012. And as at end of financial year on 31 August 2013, with the second reinvested income distribution of seven sen minus fixed charges, my capital appreciation is approximately 15%. It is clear that  investing in this fund has given me  double the returns of all the other individual ASNB funds over a 15 -month period.

The return has motivated me to remain with the fund for the longer term despite the following examples of specific risks faced by AMBVTF (or any other mutual fund for that matter) :

• Market - volatility
• Individual Stock - fluctuation
• Credit/Default - on fixed income securities
• Interest Rate - up and down
• Currency - changing in value
• Country - socio-political turmoil
• Manager - non-compliance/fraud

Suffice to say the Fund has in place mitigation measures to reduce those risks.

True indeed!

But, really if you are worried about the risks, you should put your money regularly in the bank at 2-3% interest per annum with PIDM protection ( make sure you know the set maximum savings though). You may sleep better but you will have to work harder to create wealth and take longer to achieve your financial freedom.

Happy investing!