meek-investor

The world of academics baffles me. I consider myself reasonably aware of business issues and yet I can't make any sense of most of the research publications that come out on business. Actually I can't make any sense of even the title - let alone the contents. I challenge you to figure out " Tabu Search for the Single Row Facility Layout Problem in FMS using a 3-opt Neighborhood" or " On the Blowout Preventer Testing Problem: An Approach to Checking for Leakage in BOP Networks". Yes, I know, I am a bit dense, but still ........ So it was with delight that I discovered the Ig Nobel Prize - given annually to what is euphemistically called "Improbable Research". 2011winners were PHYSIOLOGY PRIZE : Anna Wilkinson (of the UK), Natalie Sebanz (of THE NETHERLANDS, HUNGARY, and AUSTRIA), Isabella Mandl (of AUSTRIA) and Ludwig Huber (of AUSTRIA) for their study "No Evidence of Contagious Yawning in the Red-Footed Tortoise." CHEMISTRY PRIZE : Mako...

2011 was a tough year for my investment portfolio. The stock market was hit by the Tsunami in the first quarter and the Euro Zone problem in the second half of the year. At the start of the year, my fixed income was yielding more than 20K per month and I decided to venture more into equities to diversify my portfolio. With my main focus on building up my passive income, I decided to buy into REITS listed in Singapore. Some of the REITS and equities that I accumulated are as follow: REITS 1. Areits 2. Ascott Residence Trust 3. Mapletree Ind Trust 4. Cache Logistic Trust 5. Mapletree Log Trust 6. CDL Hospitality Trust 7. Suntec Reits 8. K-Green 9. Mapletree Commercial Trust Dividend Stock 1. Singpost 2. Sats Airport When the Tsunami struck in March, my equities portfolio suffered a lost of about 300K and I was wondering if my equities investment strategy was a mistake. Luckily, I stood my ground and the stock market fully recovered by end April. Gaining more confident in my stocks choice...

There's something about the corporate world that makes smart and decent people do incredibly stupid things. Maybe its the anonymity of being part of a company. Maybe its the pressure generated to perform. Maybe its the brutal focus on the ends and not the means. Don't know what . Why else would some British honcho in Sony decide to raise the price of Whitney Houston's albums on her tragic death. There was surely going to be a memorial upsurge in sales of her records. But what sort of a decision is that to raise the prices then ? Predictably there was a huge outcry; Sony had to back down and I'm sure the guy who did it has egg on his face. Similar is the decision by some Starbucks Manager near the World Trade Centre to raise the prices of water on that fateful day in 2001. Or the decision by the Chairmen of the auto giants to fly by private jet to Washington to plead with Congress for a bailout. Or the insistence by Jack Welch to award himself retirement benefits that i...

Nobody in the company knew that my last day was on the 1st of November 2011. When the news was released to all the staffs, many were shocked that the company founders left so abruptly. I did not prepared any farewell speech but I did prepared a farewell email that was supposed to be sent shortly after the announcement. However, for some reason, this email was never sent. As time passes, I find less reason to send out this email. Below was my email to all my ex-employees that was never sent: Hi Everyone from XX Hydraulic I would like to express my pleasure to have the opportunity to work with all of you. Some of you like SP Ng, Eric, Louis, Tay, Ah Huat and Ah Hin were with us since the first day XX Hydraulic was incorporated in 09.09.1999. As you all know, 1st Nov 2011 is our last day with GXXXX and I would like to bid everyone a farewell and hope all the best in your future endeavor.   I am sure that some of you are very curious why we leave GXXXX and what is our future plan....

Miracles do happen. They do, rarely in real life, but a little more often in sport. One such miracle has happened in the city of New York. Or should I say, to the city of New York. All of New York has been infected with "Linsanity". One of the, if not THE most famous entertainment and sporting arenas in the world is MSG - Madison Square Gardens in the heart of Manhattan. The home of the New York Knicks - one of the most famous basketball teams in the world. Professional basketball - the NBA - is an extremely competitive  sport in the US. It is filled with superstars - like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwight Howard who earn zillions every year and have supersize egos. Thousands and thousands aspire to join the NBA each year - barely 50 or 60 make it. The New York Knicks are a famous but perennially disappointing team. They have achieved precious little in recent years. A year ago they paid huge sums of money to acquire two superstars - Amare Stoudamire and Carmelo Anthony. Not...

The Business has no Alex Koll this week, but we've made up for it with two very special guests: Andy Haynes and Katie Compa! Andy Haynes was raised in the shadow of Mt. Rainier on a diet of fresh salmon, wild berries, and lots of coffee. Now based in Los Angeles, Andy's diet mostly consists of stacks of money - because he's a wildly successful stand up comedian that makes so much money he doesn't know what to do with it! You may recognize Andy from his stellar stand up performances on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, the prestigious Montreal Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, and from walking around Hollywood Blvd with dollar bills coming out of his mouth. Katie Compa was raised in DC, started comedy in SF, and now lives in NYC. That's a lot of places and a lot of initials! Katie was a finalist in the 2007 Battle of the Bay Comedy Competition and a semifinalist in the 2009 California's Funniest Female Competition. We're happy to have her back in t...

Two completely unconnected , and perhaps insignificant, events in Bangalore provide the fodder for this Sunday's post. Both were unadvertised, and both were free in the sense there were no tickets. But the contrast could not be bigger Today I went to a short Carnatic recital by Ranjani and Gayatri who are renowned singers in this genre. Carnatic music is enjoying a revival after it had gone comatose some 15 years ago. The recital was in Chowdiah Hall , Bangalore's only decent theatre hall. To my amazement, the hall was full; some 1000 people came to hear the duo sing. Granted the audience  mostly had white hair (or no hair) , but still ......  . Ranjani and Gayatri sing very well , they tandem together beautifully. Even if you don't have a taste for this genre, try listening to this piece from them. Lovely music. But even then, the packed hall stunned me. A week ago, the National Badminton Championships were held at Bangalore. India is near world class in badminton. China,...

A terrible decision for the company and its founder. A great decision for everybody else. Welcome to the crazy world of private equity. Facebook needs an IPO like a hole in the head. It doesn't need the money. The only possible use it has for it is to pay off some tax liabilities being triggered by doing an IPO. Most of the money is going to be invested in US government bonds - impeccable logic of raising expensive equity and investing in bonds that yield nothing. The business itself is a cash spewing machine - it doesn't need more cash. On the contrary it doesn't know what to do with th cash already being generated. Actually the risk when too much cash is sloshing around is that the Board will go and make a stupid headline grabbing acquisition. Mark Zuckerberg doesn't want to do an IPO either. He doesn't need the "valuation" to prove to everybody that he is rich. He's going to lose every autonomy he had in running the business - now he has to pander t...