How can I focus better in 2017

There are a lot of things which I will like to accomplish in 2017. I know there are a lot of opportunity cost and some sacrifice is necessary.

Let me list down all the critical things which I am trying to accomplish:

1. Get my remisier license which requires M1, M5 and M6A
2. Read 4 books a month which equates to 48 books a year
3. Read Annual & Quarterly Reports whenever they are released
4. ECommerce & Affiliate Marketing - I need to run Facebook marketing campaign for my store
5. Attend Options Training in May and start to practice options
6. My New Day Job (contract role)

Reading is something which I can do everyday when I commute. I have about 2 hours in total while on the road. I have no qualms that I am able to complete this target.

Reading Annual & Quarter Reports is very important as it is like a health check up for the companies. I just read the annual report of a company and realized that it has completely turnaround. If I did not do that for a week, the stock price could have gain by a few percentage. Or I could have completely miss the boat. This is very important because I have all my cash in stocks. From writing this down, I need to spend more time on this than other items.

I need to get my remisier license in order to spend more time on grooming my portfolio. I manage to get M1 out but I dislike reading about ILP in M5. I have a tendency to dislike M5 paper especially when they are talking about something which has no practical usage during practice. I will pace myself and get this out in a month's time. I will attend the M6A lesson and aim to get M6A exam out in 2 month's time. 

For ECommerce and Affiliate Marketing, I need to dedicate as least an hour a day to execute some of the tasks. 

As for the option training with VIC, I need to attend with an open mind and try to learn something new. Then I just need to take action and be consistent to practice every month. My aim is to learn how to create income through selling put option. This is going to take time to learn by doing. I will not rush into it and I will start small.

For my day job, it will be interesting. I hope the employment contract will come in soon and I can get on board by 17/4/2017. I don't know how long this assignment can last me. I will do my best and fine tune the plan along the way. I feel that it is God's hand at work, one door closes and another opens. It is very smooth and I have peace.

After writing down everything, I have a clear picture on how I should spend my time. During weekdays, I will spend the evening doing just one thing and fully concentrate on doing that. During the weekend, I will allocate more time to investment related stuff. 

General Updates over the Week

I attempted the M5 exams on 7th April and I failed.

My ex-boss is offering me a contract role to assist with him for 2-3 months. If he is able to secure the project, it may evolve into something long term. The pay is almost equivalent to what I was previously drawing. Hence, I need to proceed with it and delay getting on board my remisier role. More funds mean more ammunition for me to last this battle.

On 8th April, I went to attend Alvin Phang's Azonbible course. There are a lot of things to learn and need to do. I met a lot of interesting people during the course itself. I met full time ecommerce business owners who are doing EBay, Amazon dropshipping, Aliexpress dropshipping, etc. Amazon is changing its game and encouraging its sellers not to buy reviews or provide free samples in exchange for reviews. Amazon is encouraging sellers to advertise to improve on ranking. 

Since early January, I have been working together with three other friends on Shopify ecommerce business. We are getting slight improvement in our sales but yet able to scale it up in a way. There is only one guy who is doing the hard work on Facebook marketing and video editing which is too hectic and affecting his affiliate marketing business. Below is a snapshot of our progress. It is nothing compared to very successful ecommerce stores. However, we will start small and continue to buy data to test. Reiteration until we are successful one day.

There are other cost such as Shopify monthly subscription fees and advertising cost on Facebook Business platform. We are only at break even stage. The above picture only shows the profit margin of the products that we are selling.

The concept to success in Affiliate Marketing and Ecommerce are the same, you just need to launch fast, if it fails kill it and relaunch again until you find the winning combination, then you scale it up. It is like a data scientist who is doing an experiment with lots of different variables. He needs to keep one variable and all other constant to conduct the test. Then he records his findings. A lot people come into the business thinking that they can make some quick bucks fast and left disappointed. I was one of them but I am slowly changing my mindset. I am seeing this as a business which you need to build up over the years.

There seem to be alot of things which I am trying to achieve all at the same time. With the scatter effort, I may not amount to anything at all. I need to think whether FOCUS is the best strategy. 

Land Banking Schemes

A group of investors has filed police reports against A2A Capital Management after they failed to receive investment returns in land-banking schemes.

The property development and investment company's land-banking schemes offered generous returns for cash investments in Canada and US. 

One of the victims quoted he was impressed with A2A's marketing presentation and well-decorated office in Raffles Place. The company has vacated its Raffles Place office and moved to the Philippines.

You can read my previous post here.

I have been telling some of my friends but there was one who told me that he can stomach the losses. 

This is sad, I hope my friends can educate themselves. If the returns sound too promising it will often fail to deliver its promises. High returns also come with high risk. 

Random Sunday Rants

Recently, most of my colleagues are feeling down due to the closing of the Singapore office. One of my colleague who is about 44 years old this year, he told me that he just signed an endowment fund. He needs to contribute $200 per month. 

I was not tactful and did not think before I speak, "You just screw yourself." He commented politely, "I cannot afford to lose money." After thinking through, I must admit that I do not know his financial situation and I am sure his financial planner is an honest guy who understands his needs. The chance of losing his capital is low but does not mean it will not. I do not know how long the coverage is for, assume for another 20 years, it will probably promise a guaranteed return of about $50k. If he can spend his free time in educating himself on financial knowledge and invest for the next 20 years, I am quite confident he can achieve $100k or more.

Another colleague commented sarcastically, "You think everyone can just invest his retrenchment package? What if I lose all of them, then what do my family eat?" His remisier asked him to switch all his money in shares $8k to Ezra and it left with $800. I told him to switch it out to Genting SGD at $0.76. The win was two-fold, he saved his $800 from becoming worthless and Genting generated dividend and capital gain. That is the difference. My answer deep down in my heart is "I will invest all the money from my retrenchment package". There was never a doubt I will do that.

Another colleague asked me what should he do with his retrenchment package and whether he should do something with it to buy funds or contribute to CPF. Since he comes from a wealthy family and his wife is rich as well. I will recommend him to use his money to split into 3 sections, 1 to buy ETF and another 2 portion to buy funds. Alternatively, he can pump his money to CPF and transfer all OA to SA as he told me he will not need the OA to finance the house.

Interesting perspective from individuals as we have the different level of commitments in terms of liabilities. Many of them have only one source of income and once the main source of income is depleted, they will panic and rush to look for the next job.  I have told them that multiple sources of income are very important. I have three sources of incomes but two of them are not strong enough and the main source of income from work is drying up.

During my course of work, I have industry people who always commented that I do not stay in a place for long. They have names for me such as grasshopper, etc. I do not agree with them. If you are good, other companies will want you. If you can continue to grow your skill sets, it is important to move on to acquire them if the career growth is stagnant. There is no iron rice bowl anymore, your employer will not be loyal to you. I always consider myself as a contract worker. I always go into a job, hit the ground running and learn as fast as possible, do as much as possible. I will volunteer for all the difficult tasks and try to pick up the necessary skill set along the way. I do not sit and wait, I go out there and make things happen. That is the reason why my income continues to grow. In addition, companies do not last as long as the previous era and industry may be gone tomorrow, it is important that you continuously learn and evolve. You do not need to be branded with a certain company and be in there all your life. If you can stay in one and grow in your corporate ladder, good for you. Whereas, I choose my ladder differently. I always dare to be different. I have fallen many times but I do not regret. I will fall again in future, this I know but I will definitely stand up again. 

Pan-United Annual Report 2016

Introduction - Business 

A. Cement and Concrete

Pan-United is an Asian multinational corporation focused on concrete & cement and ports. PanU is Singapore’s largest supplier of ready mixed concrete (RMC) and cement, with over 40% share of both markets. These businesses are vertically integrated with aggregate quarrying and logistics services to maximise on the value chain. PanU is also one of the top two RMC suppliers in Asia, with a growing footprint in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

1. Ready Mixed Concrete
As Singapore’s biggest concrete supplier to the public and private sectors, PanU has the economies of scale and efficiency in supplying the widest range of specialised concrete products from the smallest to mega size projects. The concrete is batched in a network of plants located across the whole island to provide to customers.

In Singapore, PanU has supplied an array of concrete solutions for large-scale developmental and infrastructural projects commissioned by government agencies such as the Housing and Development Board, Land Transport Authority, Public Utilities Board, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Environment, Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, Ministry of Education, Jurong Town Corporation and Maritime and Port Authority. => Strong track record

PanU has strong partnerships with local and international construction companies, geo-technic specialists, pre-casters, distributors and other industry specialists. => Strategic network of suppliers and partners

2. Cement

PanU is Singapore’s largest supplier of quality cement. PanU is the industry leadership stems from two key strengths - long-term partnerships with leading cement manufacturers in Asia, and highly efficient operations from own cement terminal at Jurong Port. => Industry Leadership and has already pumped in CAPEX to build all necessary infrastructure

Customers are assured of consistent cement supplies stored at custom-designed terminals, which are the largest in Singapore. These terminals have dual-cell silos and a total storage capacity of 115,000 tonnes, with an annual throughput capacity of 3.0 million tonnes.

PanU will become a supplier of ground granulated blast furnace slag – a recycled cementitious material – when its new plant in Malaysia is completed in 2017.

3. Supply
Granite aggregates are shipped from own quarry in Indonesia. P.T. Pacific Granitama which operates one of the largest granite quarries operations in Karimun, with a capacity of 350,000 tonnes a month.

4. Innovation

PanU set up state-of-the-art Innovation Centre in 2012 to continue with R&D in creating a broad range of highly specialised concrete solutions for customers. 

B. Port

Xinghua Port Group in China has built up strong trust in providing vital integrated logistics hub services from its ports in Changshu City. Counted among China’s Top Ten river ports, they serve as the hub for import cargoes such as pulp and logs for robust domestic markets, and exports of high-value finished steel products and equipment. The ports’ strategic location on the Yangtze River Delta is a key competitive edge, both as an international port and as a cargo transshipment gateway for eastern and central China.

Xinghua Port Group has a proven track record in managing two of China’s fastest growing ports. Despite the slowing Chinese economy, it has grown in strength. In 2010, the Group handled 7.7 million tonnes of cargo. Within five years, cargo volumes have swelled nearly 70% to 13.0 million tonnes in 2015.

Helmed by an experienced and dynamic management team, the Group operates two adjacent ports - Changshu Xinghua Port Co Ltd (CXP) and Changshu Changjiang International Port Co Ltd (CCIP).

PanU ports are the main distribution hub for the Central and Eastern regions, which comprise the Yangtze River Delta. The Delta hinterland accounts for more than 30% or over one-third of China’s total foreign trade. It also makes up about one-fifth of China’s GDP.

Financials 

Revenue has an upward trend but stagnates around 700. 

Free Cash is inconsistent, for last 2 years the FCF has been negative and FY 2016 has seen positive Free Cash Flow.

ROE does not meet the requirement.

Net Debt to Equity Ratio are high for the last 3 years and there was not any signs of reduction. My concern with increasing interest rate environment and inconsistent cashflow, will the company become harder to compete in new market environment?

Price

After the FY results were announced in February 2017, there was price movement and it is $0.69 as of 2/4/2017. 

Conclusion
I need to understand the future direction of the company. How is the company intend to grow their markets in Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia? How will PanU get their financing? Which other projects in Singapore are they getting involved?

I have not got the time to digest past 5 years financial report and events such as divestment of their tugs and barges business back to the owner, special dividend issued in the past, etc. 

I also need to read up on the Chairman's letters to shareholders. Currently, on first look, I will archive this company. The business has its moat in Singapore but I am not familiar with regional countries' concrete industry. Hence, I will pass this.