My stocks portfolio - Sep 2008

My overall portfolio was down by 44.58% at the end of September 2008. Almost half of my portfolio had been wiped out so far. If there isn’t any diversification, I am sure the figure will be much more than that. As usual, I continue to pick up some stocks that are beaten down and appear as value buys to me.

There were two transactions for the month of September.
Bought Raffles Education, price at $0.834
Bought Pacific Andes, price at $0.207

In a continuous effort to diversify my portfolio, I have added a stock from the education sector. The fall of Raffles Education by more than 50% from the previous high had prompted me to look at its valuation. At the time of purchase, it was still at an expensive valuation of 20x historical PE ratio. This is where the ratio may seem meaningless when used alone. It is also recommended to do a comparison among its peers as well. I got two sources of comparisons which are published by DBS Group Research and CIMB-GK Research.




The peers comparison include some of the big education names from the US and India. I did a search on the internet and education stocks are indeed always trading at expensive valuations in the past. It is probably because investors are expecting strong future growth in the education companies. Being the largest private education group in Asia, I strongly believe Raffles Education can grow its presence further by acquiring smaller education companies especially in China.

With a potential of future growth, dividend yield of almost 4% and pay out of almost every quarter, I find the purchased price good enough for me.

Another heavily beaten down stock is Pacific Andes. This stock had fallen by more than 80% from the previous high. A look at the financial report and latest news, doesn’t explain anything for the fall. If the fundamentals are still intact and Mr Market presents me a very good offer, I will grab it. I don’t understand how one of the world’s largest integrated seafood companies with almost a global market can be dumped so easily.

At the purchased price, it was about 60% discount from its Net Asset Value (NAV). NAV may not be an accurate reflection of this company because if you look at the balance sheet, they have a huge chunk of intangibles. Strip off the intangibles from the NAV; you will get the latest Net Tangible Assets of around $0.234. Therefore the purchased price is definitely a steal to me. Also with the latest dividend yield of around 10%, there is nothing more you can ask for except for the sky. Discount the yield by 50% which gives a yield of 5% is still good enough for me.

I received rights shares from KS Energy. Due to bad market sentiment and since share price is trading below the conversion price; it does not make sense for me to subscribe to the rights. It is painful to see the value of my KS Energy rights shares go to 0 which does not even allow me to sell. What a bad time to raise capital.

I received total dividends of $300.88 for the month of September 2008.

No	Stock	Mode	Unrealised P/L
1	ALLCOREIT	CASH	-52.09%
2	ARA	CASH	-49.07%
3	CAPITACOMM	CASH	-34.76%
4	CHINA HONGXING	CASH	-49.57%
5	CHINA MILK	CASH	-20.70%
6	COSCOCORP	CASH	-55.56%
7	COURAGE MAR	CASH	-42.67%
8	FIBRECHEM	CASH	-58.60%
9	FSL TRUST	CASH	-29.52%
10	GEN INT	CASH	-30.43%
11	JAYA HLDG	CASH	-44.74%
12	KS ENERGY	CASH	-27.10%
13	MACQ INT INFRA	CASH	-54.87%
14	PAC ANDES	CASH	15.94%
15	RAFFLES EDUCATION	CASH	-14.27%
16	ROTARY ENGRG LTD	CASH	-68.44%
17	SWIBER	CASH	-49.36%
18	TAI SIN	CASH	-57.81%
19	UOB-KAY HIAN	CASH	-46.88%
20	VICOM	CASH	-6.87%
21	VANGUARD EMER MRKTS	CASH	-20.52%
22	BH GLOBAL	CPF	-54.55%
23	COSCOCORP	CPF	-48.94%
24	SIAENGG	CPF	-51.98%