For Just A Moment - David Foster

A beautiful song and a nostalgic one at that for me from one of my best loved versatile artistes of our life time, David Foster, a great musician and a talented Canadian.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri 2014

Maaf Zahir Batin

I would like to wish all my Muslim patients and blog visitors "Selamat Hari Raya AidilFitri, Maaf Zahir Batin" or "Happy Eid Fitr".

After a month of fasting, the Hari Raya, the first day of which falls on Monday 28 July is indeed a celebration of gratitude born out of strict self discipline and rejection of physical and psychological temptations.I salute all of you who have gone through this rigorous mental and spiritual exercise.

During the feast remember the Ministry of Health guideline in its campaign against rising obesity in Malaysia. It is called 55555 guideline. Here they are:

1. Eat 5 food groups a day to get a variety of nutrients
2. Put not more than 5gm or one teaspoon of sugar in your drink
3. Eat not more than 500 calories at each meal
4. Eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day
5. Exercise 5 times a week

Celebrate but keep your discipline developed during the fasting month and stay healthy, avoid obesity.

Obesity leads to shortened and poor quality of Life ;
Don't  contribute to an early statistic

ASN2 - Unit split : Time to invest more.

Last week PNB through ASNB announced on the share split of 1 to 1 for ASN2. This is the first time since the unit's launch in 1999 that such an exercise is undertaken. The split is based on the number of units held on 18 July 2014. So if you have 50k units on that date, you would now have 100k units but the values will remain the same as the unit's price (NAV) from 1.3576 ( the one recorded on 17 July) was adjusted by half to 0.6745 on 21 July.

Encouraging growth performance

PNB stated that as at June 30, ASN2 ( a variably priced equity growth fund), has consistently outperformed its benchmark consisting of Bursa Malaysia Top 100 index and three-month KLIBOR. ASN2 apparently has managed to record 89.72% of cumulative return, higher than the total cumulative return of 66.51% recorded by its benchmark during the five-year period until 30 June.

Moreover, PNB maintained that the annualised returns of ASN2 have shown encouraging growth rates during the three-year, five-year and 10-year period of 10.01%, 13.66% AND 10.86% respectively.

The split offers an opportunity for new investors to invest in the unit trust and for existing investors to buy more units at a lower price. For those eligible to purchase these units, this is the right time to do so. I notice the price since last Monday 21 July is declining as is the case for this product following the dividend distribution on 30 June. It was 1.4135 on 24 June before it was suspended for dividend calculation and distribution at 6.90 per unit; 0.02 sen lower than last year's rate at 7.10.

According to ASNB, the income distribution portion involved  a total payout of RM18.77 million, an increase of 48.9% compared to the RM12.61 million paid out last year.The payment has benefited 9,822 unit holders which currently hold a total of 272.04 million units of ASN 2.

For those of you who are averse to risk-taking at the stock market, products such as ASN2 will give you a good dividend yield along with your capital appreciation as the dividend is automatically reinvested into your account. In another word, make money while you sleep.

Memories of FIFA World Cup Brasil 2014

This YouTube video and the iconic song by Shakira really cement my memories of the exciting FIFA World Cup 2014 from Jun 13 to July 14. From the round of 16 I was rather "addicted" to the games, watching them with my equally football-crazy better-half.

 I was impressed with those teams from Africa and South America especially Costa Rica which came out top of its group and was advancing in the quarter finals.

Names like Naymer of Brazil, James Rodriguez of Colombia, Messi of Argentina, Ronaldo of Portugal and of course that infamous Suarez of Uruguay littered the games with excitement.

 Memorable times like Germany's thrashing of host Brazil 7-1 at their semi-final, Naymer's foul by the Colombian player, Van Persie's goal as well as Suarez's bite of the Italian player come rushing in when I watch and listen to this video.

Thank you indeed to the uploader for cementing  my memories.

 At the final, I was supporting Argentina to win the coveted Cup only to be disappointed by that German, Mario's fantastic goal! Argentina lost 0 to 1.

 Waiting for 2018 when Russia is given the turn to host the Cup.

IPOs - Icon Offshores and Boustead Plantations: Between Failure and Success

By now most of us IPO applicants of Icon Offshores and Boustead Plantation stocks would have known whether we have been successful or not in our applications.

On 11 June, I found out that I did not have luck on Icon IPO and naturally felt rather down. I had a wrong strategy of applying at a lower amount and so had to face with a lower chance of being successfully balloted. However, for Boustead I went for a bigger amount and of course have a higher chance of success and sure enough (plus better luck here), I am being rewarded with 25% the number of shares I applied for. I just found out about this an hour ago online through my Maybank Account.

I am waiting for Boustead Plantations' listing day on 26 June to see how it would debut but as usual I am going to hold these precious shares for some time and see how the CPO price is trending in the medium to long term.

As for Icon, to be listed on 25 June, I will definitely buy on the market. It's going to be a steely watch over the debut but my broker has been well informed on what to do in case I am not able to keep glued to the screen.

From now on, it's going to be a fun ride with these two new stocks, one obtained through luck, the other would be through sweat. I will keep a close monitoring of these two companies and observe how they perform and have some time blabberings and commenting on stock analysts' reports.

Congratulations to those of you who are successful in your applications and to others you can still make something if you are able to time your purchase at market price. At any rate, good luck to all my reader-investors.

Remember, between failure and success, there is still an opportunity.

This skin infection is preventable

A 36 year old woman came to the clinic with a five-day history of pain and swelling of her right thumb. She is not suffering from diabetes. She claimed that there was initially some redness and itchiness on the skin of her affected thumb with a small scratch which later developed into a larger area with pus formation.

Instead of letting the pus drain naturally, she went on to squeeze it and applied some rice powder paste for good measure and the local swelling worsened to involve the lower two-third of the thumb (proximal phalanx and first metacarpal).

This is how her thumb looks:

Cellulitis of thumb.
Note the small depressed ulcer where it started

There is the rare risk of the infection extending to the joint of the digit (proximal inter-phalangeal) that can turn into septic arthritis and damage the joint affecting its function.

I have come across quite a number of patients with cellulitis ( superficial infection of skin surrounding a boil or carbuncle) because they prick, probe and squeeze the swelling and apply all sorts of concoction from herbal paste to traditional oil.

The best method is to leave it alone and let it drain. If it gets bigger with increasing pain then an incision and drainage will be undertaken by health personnel with or without an antibiotic cover. 

IPO - ICON Offshore

Coming up fast on my IPO radar is Icon Offshore, an oil and gas support service company which launched its prospectus last Friday 30 May 2014. It is a pure-play OSV (Offshore support vehicle) company with a fleet of ships used for transporting people, goods and equipment to offshore rigs. 

The company was formed in 2012 through the merger of  Tanjung Kapal Services Sdn Bhd and Omni Petromaritime Sdn Bhd. It is the first of the spin-off companies under government-linked private equity, Ekuinas, to list on the main market. It is reported to have the youngest fleet of ships compared to its competitors.

Though its valuation is high at RM1.85 (trading at 17-18 times its estimated earnings in 2014), investors however, are not deterred by it. So far it has managed to rope in cornerstone investors such as Permodalan Nasional, Tabung Haji, AIA Bhd and several major funds. Together they have taken up more than 50% of the offered units. These investors will be subject to a lock up period of six months.

According to its prospectus about 35m shares are made available (compared to 64m shares by BPB) to the public via balloting. Applications are being accepted till 6 June at 5pm and balloting on 10 June, allotment of shares to successful applicants on 23 June and listing on 25 June, a day before Boustead Plantation Berhad (BPB).

I don't know about you all, but I think any stock related to  an oil and gas (O&G) industry has always been investors' darling irrespective of analysts' reports. 

 I missed out on UMW IPO last year as I was not happy that they were raising capital to pay off their mammoth debt. I advised some relatives not to apply as well: it was at an IPO of 2.80 (listed on Nov 1 2013) and look at it now, last closing price on Monday June 2 2014 was 10.80! And this fantastic rise is recorded slightly over six months. 

On the other hand, I thought the port operator; Westports was a better choice as they did not issue new shares to pay off any debt at their listing around the same time as UMW. And look at the performance of the two stocks: Westports hardly moved from its IPO of 2.50 over the six months' period from the date of its listing.

Needless to say, I have not been popular ever since. My relatives have stopped asking for my opinion. Well, it's okay as I won't ever get blamed again :)

By the way, there are risks in this O&G industry as it is a cyclical industry coming in waves of five to seven years and an analyst has opined that local OSV market could currently be at the top end of the cycle but did not see a downtrend any time soon.

Other risks are well spelt out in its prospectus which includes business related factors such as governmental regulations, high gearing, Petronas policies towards the oil and gas industry, stiff competition and its dependency on limited customers.

Unlike Boustead Plantation, it doesn't have any fixed dividend policy.

And so for Icon Offshore IPO, I have chosen to review my decision on the amount of fund to be used in my application for BPB IPO as I am going to also try my luck for this O&G related stock. 

To all of you it's "Caveat Emptor", good luck and happy investing!