What Happened Last 6 Months? Brexit, Pokemon Go, Schooling and Swiber

I realised my last post was 6 months back! Indeed I'm a lazy investor. Maybe i shouldn't even call myself an investor. I managed to increase my portfolio by another 100k in the last 6 months, buying into more SOILBUILD, CRTC , AIMs, STARHILL and SUNTEC.

 Besides my personal stuff, what has happened in the global scene? BREXIT, i like the period leading up to BREXIT. It was so exciting. I was hoping UK will remain in EU, and will not make the global economy even more gloomy. Turns out, BREXIT was good for my REITs portfolio as that makes the FED think twice abt increasing the interest rates. Good! Before BREXIT, my portfolio was down ( not including distributions), now it is actually green!

Next is pokemon Go. Almost everyone is playing it. From fanboys to those who dont even know what is pokemon, just so that you are not seem as so backdated. I tried for 10 mins, requires too much effort. Im shock with the number of people who actually "camped" at hougang to try to catch a rare pokemon. During my mmorpg days, i always camp at sites where rare spawns are, but in the comfort of my bed. So this pokemon takes it further. Kids (and adults) sacrificing sleep just to catch a snorlax or dragonite or something. Totally dont understand. Maybe im old..

And we have the Olympics, and Singapore getting our first gold medal through Joseph schooling! It's abit sad to hear that the government didnt sponsor much for his training, and the parents had to sell their house to come out with in excess of a million SGD just so that their boy can further his dreams. Good parents, and goes to show that perhaps to become a successful sportsperson in Singapore, you either need to be a Foreign Talent or..with very rich parents. I'm annoyed that the government is now trying to ride on Schooling's coattail. It is as if all this was through their support and sponsorship. Disgusting. If we can stop the foreign talent scheme and spend some money on our local sports people, that is even more meaningful. I don't support the sports Foreign Talent Scheme. It's a waste of money. Back to Joseph Schooling, i hope he gets exemption from NS. Considered his NS duty done and let him concentrate on bringing more gold medals for Singapore.

For the local business scene, i guess the biggest news was the attempt by Swiber's Management to wind up the Company. The day before of the wind up application, a group of us colleagues were just talking cock and happened to talk about Swiber and whether or not the Company will survive. These were my exact words " Nah, SWIBER is abit of a too big to fail in Singapore context. None of the banks will let her fail." The term too big to fail is borrowed from the 2008 financial crisis. It was used on AIG back then. Quoting from an article from investopedia : Falling Giant: A Case Study Of AIG |" An incredible amount of institutional investors - mutual funds, pension funds and hedge funds - both invested in and also were insured by the company". In lay man terms, if AIG fails, alot of other Companies will be dragged together in the shit. In Swiber's case, DBS's 700m loan to Swiber was brought into light. When i heard the news, i was like "Oh shit, it is happening" I literally had to eat my words 10 hrs after i said it.  A day after the winding up news, Swiber decided to withdraw the application and go for judicial management. I guess the banks especially DBS were caught off guard. Surely a Company with a billion dollar backlog wasn't going to be broken by claimants of tens of millions. Guess i was right after all, Swiber was abit of a too big to fail. The banks refuse to let them roll over and die. Why? Simple. If Swiber liquidates, that's the end of the music. Whatever the banks can recover is whatever that is available to be sold off. If Swiber is still alive and kicking, there is still a fighting chance that interest will be paid off. If you ask me, this is just changing the scenario from instant death to slow death. It is gonna be painful.

Most people didnt realise that before Swiber, there was another O&G related Company that was placed under JM as well. It's also a listed Company. Technics offshore. However, it was very much smaller in scale. Thus, not much focus on it. The signs were there right from the start, just that nobody has noticed it. Especially DBS i guess.

I have something to say about Technics offshore but i guess ill leave it to the next post. It's abit too long for a 3rd post!