Aug 2023 Portfolio Update

It has been two months since I last updated anything on my blog.

My mother's appointment is happening in a handful of days, and the dreaded post-MRI review will be in mid Sep.

Much had happened to the portfolio in those two months, and the lessons it brought.

1) My portfolio gained a fair bit of money, only to lost it and more.

The last update saw my portfolio at 5.x% up ytd.

As the results for OKP inched near, the portfolio gained another 7%, to 12% or so.

OKP results weren't great, but the markets were greatly disappointed by the lack of special dividend (and yet the management rewarded themselves with 2m or so in increase remuneration), and also cost control bites.

OKP was sold down heavily and my entire portfolio gains were wiped off and more. 

The entire portfolio went from +12% to 1.6% presently.

All in a matter of two weeks or so.

From this, I understood volatility, and suffering.

2) I sold off my entire position in CCRE and a good amount of CCMGT.

The two big giants declare bankruptcy (Evergrande) and defaults (Country Garden), and the property sector went down large. It didnt help that the interest rate did not see any adjustments. It does signify unwillingness and perhaps inability by the CCP to change things.

The losses from these two companies combined to the greatest realized loss ever.

I finally understood and tasted what "Bet on the horse, not the jockey" meant.

From this, I understood humility. Never go into debt without cashflows.

3) I also sold off my entire holdings in Lendlease Global REIT.

Pre-rights, I was making a decent profit as I bought them from COVID lows.

I got enamored of the expansion plans (they buying up JEM) and applied for excess rights. The stock went up 15% or so post-rights, and I thought it was a good move.

We all know what happened next. Interest rates went up, and the problems with my Central China positions, specifically its debt, made me very weary and wary of leverage. 

Its interest-coverage ratio were too low for my liking, and with occupancy and reversion rates being good, it is likely to suffer when any of this perfect conditions take a turn.

Perhaps the worries of Central China position spilled over.

Onto the little things:

I have sold off my Activision arbitrage positions as the results from the UK side looks a little uncertain. Whatever 5% worth of gains is going to be stretched over a possibly lengthy period of time, exacerbated by possibly renewed legal battles.

Much earlier on, my T-bills in SRS matured and I dumped all of them into Lion S-REIT funds. 

Centurion released results, and they have finally given out decent dividends (after more than 1 year of prompting). It isn't big enough to persuade some to abandon ship, so the stock went down 8% or so after results. It was expected. Nothing much in my portfolio is doing well. I even sold off a bit of it pre-results, because I kind of knew this year wasn't going to be my year. Perhaps I should be grateful? Centurion is the only one position which I have 20% gain.

I hoped for better days.