Property is the safest way to invest

Liquidity risk: If your objective of purchasing properties is to leave your child or children with a sizeable monetary legacy when you pass on, there may be other viable alternatives.

Works on fundamentals still vital

TIME and time again, we hear about the need to save up to buy our first property. Then we hear about why we should save up to buy the next property (presumably for the “certainty” of investment gains), and the success stories of those who made their first million, primarily through property investment.

So, anyone who has received a healthy dose of these for a few years would naturally deduce that in order to gain significant returns to our investment portfolio, the key is property. This does not always hold true.

As with any investment, you must still go through the fundamental questions that help you ascertain whether property is the right tool for you.

We will get back to what these fundamental questions are after forming a backdrop from two somewhat representative examples.

In 2009, 38-year-old Albert bought a 4,300 sq ft condominium at a prestigious location in the heart of Kuala Lumpur for RM4.3mil. At RM1,000 per sq ft, many would deem this a good buy; more so now that the current market value has risen to RM5.1mil.

Now, let’s see this “gain” from a different perspective. Since Albert bought the property for investment purposes, he had two options to earn returns from this investment – either rent it out for an amount higher than the loan repayment value, or sell the property to monetise the higher market value.

Unfortunately for Albert, he has as yet not been able to find a buyer even though it has been six years since he bought the property. Given the softer property market, although he has been lucky to find a tenant, he is receiving a rental yield that is lower than his loan repayment. This is fine as long as Albert remains gainfully employed and is able to afford the loan repayment for as long as it takes to sell the property.

Capital gain

Let us look at another property owner. Also in 2009, Nik and Sara, a newly-married couple, purchased a 3,100 sq ft landed residential property in a fast-developing suburb in the Klang Valley for RM350,000. Unlike Albert, they bought the property for their own residential use.

Over the years, given that their home is located close to a major shopping mall and to the highway, the market value of their property rose to the current RM1mil.

Did they “gain” from this property? Similar to Albert’s case, in order for Nik and Sara to make capital gains from this property, they would need to sell it to lock-on the value.

However, since they are residing in that property, selling it would mean looking for alternative accommodation.

Would they be able to maintain the same standard of living (i.e. an equally convenient 3,100 sq ft living space, and so forth) with the proceeds received from the property sale? If not, then like for Albert, the higher market value would not have resulted in any direct investment gain for them.

But unlike Albert, it doesn’t matter as they did not purchase the house as an investment instrument and the loan repayment does not result in any unexpected negative cashflow.

So on the backdrop of both these scenarios, we are ready to move on to the fundamental questions you should consider when assessing the suitability of any investment instrument, property or otherwise. The six most fundamental considerations are, perhaps, best rendered acrostically as O.H.A.M.L.A.:

• Objective – or what you hope to use of those funds for (i.e. the capital) in the future; 
• Holding period – the length of time you are able to sustain financially without touching the returns    or capital for that investment; 
• Affordability – would you need to compromise your standard of living if there is no cashflow from     the investment throughout the holding period; 
• Market risk – the quantum of price movement that you could stomach during the holding period; 
• Liquidity risk – how long would it take for you to sell the investment and receive your funds; and 
• Alternative instruments – are there any that could achieve the same investment objective with lower risks attached.

Going back to Albert’s case; he bought the condominium with the objective of making significant capital gains in five years (i.e. the holding period).

At the point of purchase in 2009, he assumed his employment status would not change and that he would earn the same or a higher salary over the course of his holding period. However, he is now self-employed, hence his earnings are no longer fixed each month.

Therefore, the affordability factor is now compromised as he needs to ensure his loan commitments are met each month despite a fluctuating income.

Next, although he made the fair assumption (which turned out to be right) that the property would appreciate in market value in the future, he underestimated the liquidity rush when investing in properties, i.e. finding a willing buyer for the price he is willing to sell and getting the cash from that sale within a short period of time.

As many of us may have experienced, due to legal and loan documentation requirements, it could take up to a few months to get back our funds even after a willing buyer has been identified.

Lastly, unfortunately for Albert, other alternative instruments that could perhaps meet his investment objective for significant returns (eg. investing in high risk companies in the stock exchange or investing in a start-up company) also carry similar, if not higher, risks.

First-time buyer

That said, property or real estate remains an important instrument for most investors. For a first-time property buyer, owning a property that you could live in removes the risk that rental prices could escalate where you may be forced to compromise your lifestyle to find alternative accommodation.

Individuals with significant excess funds after investing in a diversified portfolio consisting of instruments such as high yielding deposits, blue chip shares, unit trusts, endowment insurance plans and bonds, should consider property as the next instrument to augment their investment portfolio.

If you are an investor seeking a consistent stream of income, other than rental income, alternative instruments that could give you that regular payout could be unit trust funds with an income-generating mandate, endowment insurance plans, high dividend blue chip stocks or even bonds.

With all these instruments, especially unit trusts and endowment policies, you would be able to easily liquidate your investments and get your sale proceeds within 14 days or less. This is important when you do not have a significant amount of excess cash in hand for potential financial emergencies.

If your objective of purchasing the property is to leave your child or children with a sizeable monetary legacy when you pass on, there may be viable alternatives. For some, this means building up a stable business for the children to inherit.

For many others, there is always the traditional portfolio that consists of shares, unit trust funds, bonds and so forth.

The lesser-known alternative would be to purchase a universal life insurance policy that would ensure your beneficiaries receive a sizeable payout after you have passed on.

So if you are 40 years old, instead of spending RM2mil to buy a bungalow in Kajang that your children may likely liquidate anyhow once you have passed on – after all, your intended legacy was the cash value of the property – you could instead spend a little over quarter that amount to purchase a universal life policy that would pay RM2mil in cash to your children once you are gone.

By using O.H.A.M.L.A. as a guide, your investment universe could open up your world to a wide array of instruments beyond property to help you meet your objective. As the old proverb goes: There are more ways than one to skin a cat.

By EVELYN YEO - FINANCIAL MYTHBUSTER

Yeo is OCBC Bank (M) Bhd head of wealth management.

Related:

In uncertain environment, keep cash and be flexible
Funds likely to flow back to emerging markets
Another battering for stock markets, KLCI down 18 pts

Related post:

World economy flying on one engine !

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde participating in the Asia Finance Conference at the Bank of Indonesia, in Jakarta, Indonesia o...

World largest IPO: Alibaba shows optimism for China initiates new era and changes in Internet

Video: Alibaba's long road to Wall Street

Alibaba IPO shows optimism for China 

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba made its debut successfully on the New York Stock Exchange Friday, becoming the world's second-largest Internet company after Google. The complicated structure of Alibaba and the hype by mainstream media outlets in the US about its operation risks have failed to hold back global investors from chasing after its stocks. Its shares surged 38 percent on the first day of trading.

The growth of Alibaba is an unusual experience integrating China's opportunity and national conditions with Western capital and the world's confidence in the Chinese market. It has wielded a super influence upon the Chinese market and won the utmost confidence from the market. The impressive IPO, the biggest ever in US stock market history, can be viewed as a union connecting Chinese society and the rest of the world.

The West also thinks highly of what China regards as quite promising. This is what the New York Stock Exchange told us on Friday.

The complexity of China can hardly be thoroughly understood by ordinary Western investors. Alibaba was preparing its IPO amid economic transformation in China. When the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange rang, people bet not only on bright prospects for the company, but also on the stability of China's gradual market-oriented reform. The IPO demonstrates that the predictions of the West toward China are not as pessimistic as some media have reported.

There are two reasons why Chinese people have confidence in Alibaba. On the one hand, Alibaba is deeply rooted and also rises from the market; and on the other, the public has recognized that e-commerce represents the future. They are in increasing favor of marketized private enterprises and the high degree of market economization is affecting social confidence and resource allocation.

Now it seems that the rest of the world sometimes follows in the footsteps of the Chinese. China's huge potential, developed with its own Chinese characteristics, is now making its mark, which may lead Westerners to redefine their attitudes in accordance with the wishes of Chinese people. Both Chinese and Westerners need to adapt to and accept the reality Alibaba displays and comprehend its predictions about the future.

Why Alibaba decided to list in the US, though a shallow and improper question, involves a healthy and active aspiration that is not contradictory with the general global trend. Alibaba represents an era of the development of China's private Internet firms.

More support is needed for a new era. Chinese investors should not only play a major role in such feasts as Alibaba's IPO but also possess the ability to share the prospects. Will Alibaba surpass Google and become the largest Internet company in the world one day? Perhaps. China now boasts more than 600 million Net users and Alibaba displays a more genial access for new users throughout the world.- Global Times

Alibaba IPO initiates new era in which China changes Internet

Chinese Internet-based e-commerce giant Alibaba launched its initial public offerings (IPO) in New York Stock Exchange on Friday. After pricing its stock at $68, Alibaba surged high on the opening day with its price soaring to $92.70, which gave the company a valuation of about $228.5 billion.

In terms of market value, Alibaba has become the fourth biggest high-tech company after Apple, Google and Microsoft, and the second biggest Internet-based company in the world.

This IPO, now the biggest ever, has become a landmark in the global history of Internet development. Showing up on the international stage as a world class corporation, Alibaba reveals new business models and ideas of Chinese style.

Alibaba's IPO signals the start of a Chinese era in the global Internet. From 2005 to 2014, the population of Net users has increased dramatically and reached 3 billion worldwide.

Chinese Internet-based companies, starting from scratch, have grown to be leaders in the Internet community, engaging in a close competition with the US.

It is the trend of the age that keeps changing the world landscape, and customers are the basic forces to transform the situations of competition. The US remains dominant in most aspects. But after this experience, China will get the baton and take the lead.

So far, the average rate of Internet use in developed countries has surpassed 80 percent. They used their language advantages, high level of development and values to preside over the process in which the world Internet population has hit 3 billion.

However, in the next process to incorporate the other 3 billion people into the Internet community, developing countries will become the focus. China's new Net users in the countryside can serve as the best example.

In this process, these Silicon Valley-based CEOs and product managers will find it difficult to master their user experience and habits.

Instead, China's local enterprises such as Tencent and Alibaba will have more opportunities to acquire leadership in the new round of competition. It is only a matter of time for the development of the Chinese Internet to surpass that of its US counterpart.

Alibaba's IPO has unveiled the competition between China and the US in cyberspace. Although the US still gains an upper hand in the contest, China is catching up with it. And as long as China employs appropriate strategies, it will go beyond the US in many terms. In the future, China and the US will coexist in a mutually competitive and cooperative scenario.

Alibaba's success in IPO signals that Chinese Internet-based enterprises are getting more involved in globalization. The Internet has changed China, and it is time for China to change the Internet.

By Fang Xingdong Source:Global Times Published: 2014-9-22

The author is director of the Center for Internet and Society, Zhejiang University of Media and Communications. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

Alibaba Claims Title For Largest Global IPO Ever With Extra Share Sales

Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma celebrates his company's IPO at the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. (Photo: Mark Lennihan/AP)

 

http://onforb.es/1C5MgFY

 

By Liyan Chen, Ryan Mac and Brian Solomon, Forbes

After claiming the record for the largest US-listed initial public offering, Alibaba Group can now say its record-breaking IPO was the biggest in the world.

On Monday, the company announced that underwriters had exercised an option to purchase additional shares at the $68 IPO price, boosting the total amount raised by Chinese e-commerce giant and its selling shareholders from $21.8 billion to $25 billion. Bankers bought an additional 48 million American depositary shares, taking the total amount of shares sold in the offering to 368 million, or about 14.9% of the company.

In raising $25 billion, Alibaba’s IPO surpassed the 2010 offering from the Agricultural Bank of China, which raised $22.1 billion in it debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Alibaba was able to sell more shares due to its over-allotment, or “greenshoe,” option, which allows underwriters to placate investor demand for the stock by obtaining more shares from the company at the IPO price.

Existing shareholders Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma, Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai and Yahoo YHOO -5.57% provided the extra shares sold in the over-allotment. Ma sold an additional 2.7 million shares, selling a total of about 15.5 million shares in the IPO, while Tsai sold 5.2 million shares, after offloading an additional 900,000 shares in the greenshoe.

By selling in the over-allotment, Yahoo became the largest seller in Alibaba’s IPO, surpassing the 123 million shares offered directly from the Hangzhou-based company. Yahoo sold an additional 18.26 million shares, offloading a total of 140.3 million shares in the IPO for more than $9.5 billion in pre-tax cash.

Alibaba began trading on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange, with shares opening up at more than 35% above the $68 IPO price. On Monday, shares have fallen below the $90 mark, down more than 4% in intraday trading.

Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank , Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan , Morgan Stanley and Citigroup acted as joint book runners for the offering.

http://onforb.es/1C5MgFY

Alibaba's IPO Pop Makes Jack Ma The Richest Man In China

By Liyan Chen, Ryan Mac and Brian Solomon

The largest IPO in US history has put a new person on top of China’s richest.

As Alibaba shares surged over 35% to open at $92.70, founder and chairman Jack Ma’s stake in the company he founded boosted his net worth over $16 billion. That Alibaba stake pushes Ma above his rivals to the #1 spot as the wealthiest man in China. Ma’s total net worth grows higher when you calculate the $800 million in cash he pocketed by selling shares, which should rise to more than $1 billion once underwriters exercise their extra options. Ma also has separate stakes in private companies like Alibaba sister-company Alipay.

Ma’s rise to the top puts him ahead of former #1, Robin Li, another Chinese tech icon who founded search engine Baidu . Li sits at a net worth of $16.6 billion. Ma also leapfrogged the $15.5 billion man Pony Ma, whose Tencent is directly in competition with Alibaba over China’s growing mobile phone user base.

Ma’s net worth gain also places him into the top 10 richest people in tech worldwide, a group that includes Silicon Valley pioneers Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Read more about Alibaba’s first day of trading on Forbes’ live blog.
 

The Biggest U.S. IPOs In History

1 of 12

AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File

The Biggest IPOs In U.S. History

Alibaba broke records as the largest IPO in history after pricing its offering at $68 per share on Sept. 18, 2014. After an overallotment option the total proceeds rose to $25 billion, easily surpassing the likes of Visa and Facebook.

Alibaba Plans To Raise As Much As $24 Billion In Biggest U.S. IPO Ever

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2014/09/05/alibaba-plans-to-raise-as-much-as-24-billion-in-whats-to-be-the-biggest-u-s-ipo-ever/

Related post: 

Rightways Technologies: Showtime for Alibaba world-wide

Two weeks, three continents, and 100 meetings. That -- and founder Jack Ma celebrating his 50th birthday on the road -- is what it will take for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to pull off the largest initial public offering in U.S. ...

 

Rightways Technologies: China's Internet giants, Tencent to undercut Alibaba with billion chat app users

 

Tencent Holdings Ltd. (700) faces the prospect of losing its position as Asia's most-valuable Internet company this year after Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA) goes public. The Shenz

Expert advice on investing

Property Vs Shares : Discover your knock out investment strategy 

Author : Peter Koulizos and Zac Zacharia Genre : Business, Finance and Law Publisher : Wrightbooks >>

ABOUT three to four years ago, a friend in his 20s bought his first property. Prior to this, he was trading in stocks. His interest in the property sector came about when he saw the double-digit price increase during the run-up in the property sector in 2009/2010.

While his interest in shares continues, it was the property sector which became the main focus of his attention. His intention was to sell the serviced apartment once it was completed at a profit, a strategy taken by many during those heady days, and today. He has the same principle when it came to stocks. If he has read this book Property Vs Shares, he may have taken a different strategy for his investments.

This book serves as a guide for those who are interested in either or both forms of investments. While it was written with beginners in mind, it provides useful reference to readers on higher rungs of the investment ladder.

In Malaysia, the two most common investments are properties and stocks. While there are unit trusts, these are, at the end of the day, also linked to stocks. The last several years, a number of books on property investments have appeared on the shelves of our local book stores. Most, if not all of them, are focused on property investments alone and therein lies the difference.

Property Vs Shares compares one asset class against another. It has two authors. Peter Koulizos is the author of The Property Professor’s Top Australian Suburbs and lectures on the subject. Zac Zacharia lectures on share investment at TAFE SA and is a founder of a wealth management group.

Both of them provide some ground rules for investment decisions in today’s volatile economic climate. They look at how property and shares have performed historically and give pointers on research.

In today’s search for yield, all sorts of schemes have entered the market. They highlight some of these scams and schemes. In short, they look at investments much more broadly, and takes into cosideration the many who keep their money in time deposits.

Using the analogy of two boxers in a boxing ring, one representing real estate and the other shares, they begin with that all pertinent question Why Invest? and explains the importance of being a shrewd steward of one’s finances if one wants to retire early and richer.

They outline from the start that saving and investing are two different things. In order to invest, one must first of all, begin a journey in savings. But while saving, as in keeping money in a time deposit may be “safe” and “risk-free”, the returns are minimal. On this premise, the authors suggest other forms of investments which, if prudently selected and managed, and depending on when one enters and exits, may provide a better yield.

My 20-something friend could have just kept his money in a fixed deposit account but with the cost of living escalating, he figured he would be earning negative interest rates in no time. And therein lies the value in property and stock investments – they provide a regular income and have the potential for capital appreciation.

However, there are caveats to this and the authors explain the perils of both clearly and succintly, without diminishing the importance of diversification.

Although this book is based on the Australian property sector and the Australian stock market, it holds within its covers very insightful information and suggestions about property and stocks that are universal.

The last several years, there has been a great interest in property investments on a global scale with Malaysians buying real estate at home and abroad, and with it comes currency risks. The Malaysian stock market has generated both interest and returns for investors. What and where one buys, or feels most comfortable with, depends on many personal and individual factors as well as global and national events.

Investment markets are inter-related, like a big jigsaw puzzle. When property prices dip, the shares of property companies may dip. When interest rate goes up, there may be less application for housing mortgages, which in turn affects bank revenue and bank stocks.

The importance of having some knowledge of economic and investment cycles are clearly spelt out with graphs and tables. But these details are used sparringly.

As mentioned earlier, my 20-something friend may have taken a different route had he read this book because in the middle of this reference guide, the authors draw the distinction between trading, investing and speculating.

The main difference is the investment timeframe. Trading on the stock market can occur within seconds whereas speculating on property can occur within weeks or months. They suggest taking a longer time frame with both.

Only you can decide why you are in the game – is it for capital growth, or for income, or both? Do you want to fund a certain lifestyle, or are you hoping to retire richer and earlier? If you are able to answer the above, you will be guided as to what suits you best. This book will set you on the road to investing with some insightful information in hand.
 
There are many nuggets of gold to be found in this book. Whether your preference is for stocks, properties, or both, there is a place in your book shelf for this slim volume.

 - Contributed by Thean Lee Cheng The Star/Asia News Network

Financial talent crunch worsen

PETALING JAYA: The talent crunch in the local financial services sector is expected to worsen in the coming years partly driven by the Gen Y segment that currently makes up about 25% of the workforce in the banking system.

Asian Institute of Finance (AIF) chief executive officer Dr Raymond Madden said that the talent shortage could be due to the lack of understanding on how to cope with the Gen Y group.

Madden:‘At the moment this group of people (Gen Y) makes up about 40% of the current workforce in Malaysia.

“Within the next eight to nine years, we expect the Gen Y workforce in the banking system to rise to about 50% from 25% currently, which means that almost half of the people working in banks will be Gen Y employees, namely those below 30 years of age.

“At the moment this group of people (Gen Y) makes up about 40% of the current workforce in Malaysia and in many Asean countries. This number is expected to increase to 75% within a relatively short span of time,’’ he told StarBiz.

According to the Financial Sector Blueprint published in 2011, the workforce number in the financial sector stood at 144,000. It is anticipated that over the next 10 years, the sector would require a workforce of about 200,000, an increase of 56,000 from the current 144,000 employees.

Madden said among the sectors in the financial services industry that were facing talent shortage was in Islamic finance, notably in the areas of syariah expertise.

Besides this, he added, the crucial areas in the banking system facing talent shortage were in credit and risk management, corporate finance, treasury and wealth management.

He said due to the expected rise of the Gen Y workforce in the financial services in the coming years, banks and other financial services sectors needed to have a better understanding and knowledge of this group.

This group, he said, was looking at what he termed as the three E’s – engage, enrich and empower. He described Gen Y as an impatient lot as they wanted to be prominent in the organisation and would join another organisation if they did not achieve their targets.

As this group was ambitious and wanted to climb up the career ladder as quick as possible unlike their older counterparts, hence employers needed to know how to deal effectively with the Gen Y segment.

Towards this end, Madden said AIF – through its four affiliate institutions – was working closely to beef up talent in the financial services sector.

The affiliates are Institute of Bankers Malaysia (IBBM), Islamic Banking and Finance Institute Malaysia (IBFIM), The Malaysian Insurance Institute (MII) and Securities Industries Development Corp (SIDC).

For example, he said the Financial Sector Talent Enrichment Programme (FSTEP), which is run by IBBM, had played an important role in training new graduates in the financial services industry.

FSTEP is an intensive-training programme that prepares trainees for the operational aspects of finance and banking.

AIF in collaboration with UK-based Ashbridge Business School carried out a survey this year, which among others, showed that 22% of Gen Y employees in Malaysia believed it was reasonable for them to be in a management role within six months of starting work at their respective organisations.

Commenting on the survey, he said there were also inter-generation gaps that existed in the financial services industry between the Gen Y and their older managers, adding that there was a clear difference in perception of Gen Y managers and Gen Ys themselves.

The survey polled 1,200 financial services professionals, including senior human resources personnel who actively manage Gen Ys in their respective organisations.

Contributed by by Daljit Dhesi - The Star/Asia News Network