Jan 25 Update

Purchases

Barrick Gold: Bought small stake due to exercise of sold put options. Sold all subsequently, as it was a mistake to buy Barrick Gold at the current 'not cheap' valuation.

Atour: Bought a small stake at $25. 
- It is a capital light hotel operator (in China), with double-digit growth. 

- At time of purchase, valuation is close to 21x PE LTM, not cheap.

Henlius Biotech: Bought a small stake at $16.26

- It is a biopharma company, specialising in biosimilar. Its majority shareholder, Fosun, wants to take it private at $24 but failed. Given that Fosun wants to privatise it at $24, Henlius should have good prospects.

- At time of purchase, valuation is reasonable at around 12x PE LTM. 

KE Holdings: Bought at minor stake at $17, due to exercise of sold put options

- It is an online property brokerage in China. It's net cash is around 40% of market cap. Its business may improve if China property market recovers.

- At time of purchase, valuation is not cheap --> around 34x PE LTM, 18x PE NTM.

Meituan: Bought a minor stake at $148, due to exercise of sold put options

- It is market leader in local services in China. Basically, it gains a pool of customers via local services and sell higher margin services (e.g. merchant marketing, hotel booking) to its pool of customers. 

- At time of purchase, valuation is not cheap --> around 40x PE LTM, 16x PE NTM.

- I had very small stake prior to purchase, due to Tencent distribution of its shares in 2023.

Sino Land: Bought a small stake at $7.5. 

- Solid dividend play. It has net cash comprising 2/3 of its market cap; 7.7% dividend yield. 

Sales

Stella International: Sold all at $17.40

- Exited with some profit, as it was bought at $14.60 in Aug 2024. 

- Sold, because it may have limited growth moving forward, even though its dividend yield (incl special dividend) may be close to 10% for next 3 years. 

Stoneweg European Reit: Sold all (bought using cash) at $2.19

- Exited due to disappointment with its recent bond issuance at higher than expected interest rate. This may affect its dpu (dividend per unit) in 2025. 

- Did not sell the holdings bought via CPF-OA, as its 2025 dividend is still worthwhile compared to other Singapore Reits. 

Pentamaster HK: Sold all at $0.96

- An arbitrage play. Bought small stake in Dec 2024 at $0.93, as its majority owner wants to privatise it at $0.93 + $0.07 dividend. 

-  Sold all at $0.96 at a small gain, so that the cash can be deployed to buy Henlius.