11/2022
I am frequently asked, “How can I become a savvy sagacious REIT investor and retire in my 40s like you did?” One of the most advices I have proffered is – Make the Intangible Tangible.
At GCP Global where we have been an Investment Educator for the past 33 years, we use only primary data sources, such as REITs quarterly results presentations/business updates and annual reports. We also do our own independent computation of how acquisitions do/do not increase yields or DPU yields, which sometimes run contrary to what REITS presented in their justifications for an acquisition.
Make the Intangible Tangible
Familiarizing and recognizing that your understanding of financial metrics and how REIT management present them in their presentation materials matter. Make your intangible skills tangible via in-depth understanding of key REIT dynamics hold the key in seeing through how certain transactions are actually yield or DPU decretive, if not for some of the onerous assumptions used by managements in their assumptions used in calculations.
Such understanding allowed us to turned our 33-year experience in markets – I was possibly one of Singapore’s youngest Equity Head of Research in the 1990s when I join Nikko Securities before I went to head Institutional Sales at a couple of prominent brokerage houses, into knowledge. Knowledge in markets give us the foresight. That was how we were able to warn in our weekly YouTube videos about “How to prepare for Market Corrections” and “Where does Hot Money Head to Next” more than a year ago.
Role of Markets – The Honest Truft
The other concept that we have always taught is – Markets provide a valuable feedback mechanism for assessing the savvy sagacious REIT investor skill sets and investment calls. Thus, honestly noting down the prices of REITs on the day that we buy/sell them and tracking them to understand the long-term accuracy of our calls provide the best brutal honesty of how savvy and sagacious we are as a REIT investor. It does not help that many social media only carry “positive” calls by supposedly “experts or influencers”, but one should be honest with oneself to really learn anything. Understanding where one’s analysis went wrong and then striving to improve them is as good, if not better in improving our REIT investment process.
The above has been instrumental for GCP Global in picking out and warning on Value Traps like Manulife REIT and Prime REIT in our investment classes, 3 years ago, way before these REITs turned out to be Value Traps. Not surprisingly, both Manulife REIT and Prime RIET turned out as the 2nd and 3rd Worst Performing REITs in YTD end-Oct 2022, down 45.5% and down 43.7% loss respectively. The capital loss has been devastating, something that we have forewarned much earlier.
How to know if Facts are really Facts
Popular media and so called “experts” liken investing as about facts, models, mathematical models and analysis. But at GCP Global, we have always taught that there is no such thing as a future fact. Facts, by definition, are historical and are something that have happened in the past.
What this means is that investing is as much a creative and intuitive process as it is an analytical process. Thus, we have always trained our REIT investor students to think in both creative as well as analytical way, by making assumptions that have high accuracy of happening. We have always emphasized that a savvy sagacious investor will depend on your ability to synthesize information and to see things that no one is able to see or refuse to see/imagine.
After all, by definition, if you want to earn outsized returns that no one is earning, you have to do things that others will not do/lazy to do.
For more on making Intangibles Tangible and knowing if facts are indeed facts or projections made up by REIT managers to justify a fact, do join us for our next Quarterly REIT class on 26 Nov 2022 to be held at the prestigious Hilton Singapore Orchard where we will continue to identify for you QUALITY REITS and those that are VALUE TRAPS. We are indeed humbled and honored that OUE Group has recognized our Investors Education endeavors of the past 33 years and will be the Official Venue Sponsor.
OUR LATEST MEDIA INTERVIEW ON REITS, TECHNOLOGY & DISRUPTOR INNOVATORS –
1. UPCOMING Q3 RESULTS WILL BE PIVOTAL FOR S-REITS FOLLOWING ONE OF THE WORST ROUTS – Thu 20 Oct 2022
2. IS THAT WHY ASCENDAS REIT SURGED TODAY? OUR LIANHE ZAOBAO INTERVIEW TODAY FRI 9 SEP 2022 – Fri 9 Sep 2022, LIANHE ZAOBAO
3. REITS AS GREAT INVESTMENTS – National Day Interview 9 Aug 2022, BIZ TECH
4. S-REITS MARKET MUST STEP UP – 19 Jul 2022, BUSINESS TIMES
5. 6. FOCUS ON ROIC & EV/EBITA TO EVALUATE REIT MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS – 17 Mar 2020, BUSINESS TIMES
6. TOO MANY REITS S-REITS MAKING CASH CALLS THAT DON’T ADD VALUE FOR UNITHOLDERS – 16 Mar 2022, BUSINESS TIMES INTERVIEW
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gabriel-yap-8745b822_our-business-times-interview-today-in-activity-6909691754426351616-qA2Z?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web
7. BETTER INVESTOR EDUCATION AND PROTECTION FOR A THRIVING REIT MARKET – 26 May 2022, BUSINESS TIMES
8. FIGHT HOTS UP FOR LOGISTICS ASSETS – 24 Nov 2021, BUSINESS TIMES INTERVIEW https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gabriel-yap-8745b822_fight-hots-up-for-logistics-assets-as-well-activity-6869183538760159232-lDej
9. CHINA REITS COULD GIVE S-REITS SOME COMPETITION – 21 Jun 2021, BUSINESS TIMES INTERVIEW
10. IMPACT OF CHINA REITs ON S-REITs – 14 Jun 2021, LianHe Zaobao
11. WISDOM EYE ON BUSINESS – 25 May 2021, Wisma Geylang Serai, South East Community Development Council of Singapore
12. BOTTOM FISH FOR TECH & CHINA TECH – 25 Apr 2021, BUSINESS TECH ASIA
REITS FOR A GOOD CAUSE
GCP Global students donate to help Covid-19 victims
1. WHAT IS QUALITY IN REITS?
2. HAVE MARKETS REACHED MAXIMUM PESSIMISM?
3. THE ABILITY TO DELIVER DPU GROWTH IS THE KEY IN S-REITS SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE IN 2021
4. SEVEN & HALF YEARS ITCH IN S-REITS – THE ITCH CONTINUES WITH SEVERE RAMIFICATIONS
5. SEPARATING THE SHEEP FROM THE GOAT IN S-REITS
https://gcpglobalsg.wixsite.com/gcpglobal/post/separating-the-sheep-from-the-goat-in-s-reits
6. WHERE & HOW to make your next Million in the Year of the Ox
7. 7th Year Itch for S-REITs and its severe ramifications for the REIT investor
AUTHOR OF MAKING YOUR MILLIONS IN REITS
CHAIRMAN OF JUDGING PANEL FOR THE ASIAN REITS PINNACLE AWARDS 2016 & 2017
HOST OF THE FUTURE OF REITS FORUM, 2016
JUDGE FOR SINGAPORE CORPORATE AWARDS – BEST REITS INVESTOR RELATIONS 2017
HOST FOR SINGAPORE CORPORATE AWARDS – BEST REITS INVESTOR RELATIONS 2019