Our economy is robust in a downturn?
Hopefully yes, slowdown in manufacturing (24%) and Financial (12%)
offset by Wholesale (16%), Transport (9%), Info Comms (4%)

Penny stocks in SGX

787 listed entities on the SGX (excluding warrants)
658 or 84 per cent trade for less that $1

SGX does not have a rule similar to Nasdaq's
shares trade below US$1 for 30 consecutive business days faces delisting

72% of shares trade less than 50c
47% of shares trade less than 20c (minimum allowable IPO price)

50 China stocks that form the FTSE ST China index
Only four sell for above $1
92 per cent of SGX-listed China stocks are pennies.
SGX-listed China sector of sub-standard investment grade.

Sports, rental HDB, Emigration

40,000 HDB rented flats
$5mn spent on table tennis and some sports
$200mn total sports budget over 10 yrs
1,000 Singaporean emigrate every year

GDP per capital of Asian cities

PRs and New Citizens

57,000 new PRs in 2007

14,600 new citizens in 2007
13,200 in 2006
12,900 in 2005
8,000 plus in 2001-2004

1 mn foreigners in Sg, of which S-pass and work permit 200,000 plus

Less than 5% of foreigners will become citizens

LNG

World uses 165mn t of LNG
Cost ranges from $15-$20 per mn BTU
$21 per mn BTU equivalent of crude oil at $124

Biggest users Japan 67mn t (20mn used by Tepco)

SME workforce

Singapore has 130,000 SMEs
employing 60% of Singapore's 2.15mn workforce
ie 1.29mn people work in SMEs

Parking

London $93
Amsterdam $90
London West End $85
Moscow $84
Vienna $84
Sydney $74
Tokyo $63
NY Mid Town $54
HK $38
Singapore $27
N. Delhi $3.4
Jakarta $2.6

Hawker centre 2

$1.2mn temporary site set up
170 out of 380 hawkers opt to continue business at temporary site
Each hawker pays S$5000 to 9800 for 16 mths of usage
Assuming average hawker pays $7500 ie month rental is $625

170 x 7500 = $1,275,000

Zero govt subsidy for temporary site?

Hawker centre 1

S$10.4mn upgrade
In order to cover this, hawkers may have to fork out $800,000 per yr
380 hawker stalls
Each hawker forks out $2200 per yr, or $180 per mth
Will Govt ask for just $180 or more?

RE land and construction cost

Land cost $200-250psf
Constructuion cost $300-350psf

ie ppty built in 2007-2008 cannot be cheaper than $600psf
Construction cost rose from $250-300psf to $300-350psf fr Q1 to Q2

No. of companies in Singapore

There are 8,500 co.s in Singapore including SMEs.
Most of the 50 fastest growing co.s (SMEs) are expanding overseas with the help of IE Singapore.

Berkshire past M&A

Calories

Per day needs
2500 kcal
2000 mg of Na
400 mg Cholestrol

0.5kg = 3500 kcal

low calorie food
fish porridge 250 kcal
fish ball dry 360kcal
yong tau fu (soup) 200 kcal
beef noodle dry 400 kcal
Fish slice dry
Lei cha fan

no soft drinks
tea w sugar 60kcal
normal sweet drinks 100kcal
have green tea or barley for drinks

Berkshire Hathaway

Revenue breakdown
Insurance 30%
Mclane (distributor) 24%
MidAmerican (power) 10%
Investment and derivatives 5%
Shaw Industries 5%
Manufacturing 12%
Retail 3%
Servicees 6%

Cash (2007) USD 44.3 bn
Equity investment (2007) USD 75 bn
Shareholders’ equity (2007) USD 121 bn
Revenue (2007) USD 118 bn
NP (2007) USD 13 bn
Taxes (2007) USD 6.5 bn
Float from insurance USD 59bn

Book value growth only 10% in the past 8 yrs
26% in 1990s
29% in 1980s

19 staff at HQ

Short selling

USD 1trn of equities on loan globally (possibly for short selling)
Global equities loss USD 11trn since last year's peak
Short selling reached 5% of stocks at NYSE
130/30 strategy to grow from USD 140bn in 2007 to USD 2trn by 2010

Fannie, Freddie and US Mortgage

US Mortgage market is USD 12trn
Fannie and Freddie holds 40% of mkt ie USD 5trn

Of USD 12trn, 1.5trn is mortgage related securities

Art auction

Sotheby and Christie earns USD 7bn in auctions
Roughly 50% share each