Prime Grade A Office Rental and Vacancy Rate

Formidable Apple

8% of all computer users are Mac users

10 mn Imac sold in 2008
54mn Ipod sold in 2008
12 mn Iphone sold in 2008

Sg deposits

S$150bn in banks in SG
Reserves being unlock to cover potentially all withdrawals

Sexually active teens

Singapore 14-19 years old - 8%
US 15-19 years old - 46%!

Survey of 4000 students in Sg done in 2006, US 2002

China poverty

20% of Chinese living in poverty ie less than $1 per day
A huge drop from 80% in 1981 though

Retail rental in Singapore

Location 2005 2008
Orchard (high end eg Paragon) $35-56psf $50-80psf
Orchard (mid eg Taka) $28-35psf $30-50psf
Orchard (low eg Far East) $3.6-31.5psf $4-35psf
Suntec and Marina $16-20psf $20-25psf
Suburban $2.6-6.8psf $3-8psf

Monthly breakeven revenue
Orchard $80k
Suntec $30k
Surban $8k

Singapore Reserves

Figures in USD
1965 1bn
1981 15bn
1984 23bn
2008 330-450bn

CASE stats

THE Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) has handled about 263,486 cases since it was established in 1971. It has also mediated 869 cases since its mediation centre was opened in 1999.

Case has received an average of 20,000 complaints every year in the last five years and managed to recover about $4 million annually over the last two years in disputes for consumers.

Number of cases involving Sim Lim Square retailers
2004: 69
2005: 103
2006: 119
2007: 188
2008: 244 (1.2% of all CASE complaints)
2009 (up till February): 48
Complaints include unsatisfactory service and overcharging.

Motor car industry
2006: 1,435
2007: 1,562
2008: 1,709 (8.5% of all CASE complaints)
2009 (up till February): 272
Complaints cover problems such as defective goods and misleading claims.

Spa industry
2007: 98
2008: 113
2009 (up till February): 12
Complaints involve pressure selling and failure to deliver services promised.

Beauty industry
2007: 1,105
2008: 1,275 (6.3% of all CASE complaints)
2009 (up till February): 151
Complaints include misrepresentation and failure to honour contracts.

Dividends

USD 736bn of dividends paid in 2007
25% decline or more in 2008

Financial firms contributed to 1/3 of USD 736bn

Dividend accounts for 30-40% of overall returns of stocks (about 8-10%)

Rights issue

S$ 8bn rights issue in past few mths
Capitaland S$ 1.84bn

Mkt cap of STI S$ 224bn
ie 3.6% of mkt cap from rights issue!

Rights issue = bad capital management
Forcing shareholders to cough out more money

Sg co.s: bad track record for prudent capital management
Top of the list: Capitaland

Online email users

Hotmail 283mn users
Yahoo! 274mn users
Gmail 113mn users (1mn business users)

stem cord blood

22 lives saved
12 in Singapore

4,000 donations so far
Target 10,000 by 2013 (deadline extended from 2010)

lives saved / donations = 0.55%

Revenue for bank $800,000 per yr

Casinos in Asia

Country / Operating & Proposed / Cruise Ships

Thailand / 6 / 2
Myanmar / 1
Laos / 1
Cambodia / 6 / 1
India / 2 / 1
Nepal / 1
Sri Lanka / 1
China / 4 / 2
Australia / 19
Philippines / 10
Vietnam / 7 / 1
Indonesia / 1
Singapore / 2 / 2
Malaysia / 1 / 2
Korea / 5 / 2
Total / 67 / 13

Peak-to-trough changes in severe financial crisis

House prices -36% duration 5.0 yrs
Equity prices -56% duration 3.4 yrs
Unemployment 7.0% duration 4.8 yrs
GDP per person -9.3% duration 1.9 yrs

Percentage of yrs spent in banking crisis
Since 1800 Advanced economies 7.2 Emerging economies 8.3
Sinc 1945 Advanced economies 7.0 Emerging economies 10.8

Corporate earnings growth

Studies over 50 yrs have shown the following

Only 10% of US co.s increased earnings by 20% for 5 consecutive yrs
Only 3% of US co.s increased earnings by 20% for 10 consecutive yrs
0% manage to do that for 15 consecutive yrs

Only 8 out of 150 Fortune 500 co.s increased earnings by an annual average of at least 15% for 20 yrs

On average, over all 10-yr period, earnings grew by 10%pa.
But for the biggest 20%, earnings grew by 9%pa.

Bonuses

Bonuses paid over the last 3 yrs in USD

Bear Stearns 11.3bn
Lehman 21.6bn
Merrill 45bn
Citi 34.4bn

Investors return in USD
Bear Stearns 1.4bn of JPM stock (now 50%)
Lehman 0
Merrill 9.6bn of BOA stock (now left 20%)
Citi 18.1bn (mkt cap)

Road accidents in Singapore

Injuries 10742
Death 222
Death per 100,000 4.59

Death breakdown
Motorcycle and pillions 108
Car driver and passenger 23
Pedestrians 62 (of which 45% above age 60)
Cyclist 22
Other 7

Gaming bigger than DVD

Consumer spending on
Gaming USD 32bn
DVD USD 29bn