Monthly Archives: October 2015

A Yield of 6%: Henderson Far East Income

The Henderson Far East Income Ltd is the London Listed £333m Investment Trust.

[https://www.henderson.com/ukpi/fund/201/henderson-far-east-income-limited]

It’s top 10 holdings are:-

3.0% Korea Electric Power
2.9% HKT Trust & HKT
2.7% SK Telecom
2.7% Macquarie Korea Infrastructure Fund
2.4% Macquarie Group
2.4% Capitaland Mall Trust
2.3% Mizuho Financial Group
2.3% Coal India
2.3% Bharti Infratel
2.3% Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust
[http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?username=&ac=&csi=12194&record_search=1&search_phrase=henderson]

6.3% Yield

The Oil Reserves of Venezuela

Venezuela has 17.5% of the world crude oil reserves. That equates to 298.3 Thousand Million Barrels of Oil.

That means, with this level of natural resource wealth, Venezuela should be a very rich and prosperous country, like Oman or Norway.

What is the value of 298.3 Thousand Million Barrels of Oil ?

That is: 298.3 x 1000 x 1,000,000 = 298,300,000,000

What is the “crude value” of this ?

Crude Oil trades today at $47.54 a barrel.

Thus:-

298,300,000,000 x $47.54 = $14,181,182,000,000

That is £9,192,560,000 = £9.192 Trillion

That is about 6 times the UK’s Annual GDP. Yet Venezuela does not seem to the prosperity that the oil wealth should bring.

The Debt of the United States

A way of looking at the debt of the United States of America is to get a break down of its outstanding loans. What organisations are borrowing money to fund operations and its value.

$15,614 Billion is borrowings from The USA’s Federal Government (US Treasury T Bonds) = US National Debt

$14,896 Billion is borrowings from The USA’s Financial Corporations

$5,232  Billion is borrowings from The USA’s Non-Financial Corporations (Regular Corporation)

Thus total debt is about £35,700 Billion = $37.7 TRILLION.

US GDP is about $17,348 Billion. Thus TOTAL Debt to GDP is about 200%.

The Internet Protocol.

In 1999 this paper was published:-

http://asadkarim.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/70417.pdf

Everything over IP, written by myself and Peter Hovell. It was predicting the growth in IP Networks which now dominate our lives from Television on demand, smartphones to how we communicate on smartphones and tablets.

http://link.springer.com/journal/10550/17/2/page/1
This paper was re-published in 2006, in the 25th Year Edition of the British Telecommunications Technology Journal.

http://link.springer.com/journal/10550/25/3/page/1

What we never predicted was how technology could affect the economy. Imagine what could happen if Google do pioneer driverless cars ?
What will happen to the landscape, when it comes to the employment prospects for drivers ?

We just have the potential of mass automation that will destroy jobs, unless we take steps now to create new jobs and new opportunities.

CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities Fund Ltd.

CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities Fund, is managed by CATCo Investment Management Ltd.

http://www.catcoreoppsfund.com/

The investment objective of the Fund is to give its shareholders the opportunity to participate in the returns from investments linked to catastrophe reinsurance risks. The portfolio is diversified across a number of non-correlated global risk categories which limits the amount of capital at risk with respect to a single catastrophic event

A market capitalisation of £215m.

The performance is incredible.

http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Tearsheets/Summary?s=BMG1961Q2095:USD

UK Total Debt.

Looking at the Bank of International Settlements website, one can see the scale of the debt that nations are carrying

http://www.bis.org/statistics/secstats.htm

Looking that the UK, the numbers are worrying.

http://www.bis.org/statistics/c1.pdf

$2,539 bn = £1,656 bn = UK Government Debt:
$2,739 bn = £1786 bn = UK Financial Corporations
$594 bn = £387 bn = Non-Financial Corporations

TOTAL = $5,877bn = £3,834bn

Large numbers…..that is growing each day with punishing interest.

Ediston Property Investment Company EPIC

The Ediston Property Investment Company is a £140m investment trust listed on the London Stock Exchange.

http://www.ediston.com/about-us/

The investment company owns hard physical assets, of buildings and land.
These are assets are:-

Merchant Square, Merchant City, Glasgow
Jarman Square, Hemel Hempstead
No. 1 Pinesgate, Bath
Gallagher Shopping Park, Port Glasgow, Strathclyde
Phoenix, Station Hill, Reading
Pallion Retail Park, Sunderland

and many more in its overall portfolio.

A dividend yield of 0.9%

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=35869764&action=

AXA Framlington Biotech Fund

The AXA Framlington Biotech Fund is an incredible fund that invests in the health and bio tech sector.

[http://retail.axa-im.co.uk/funds/axa-framlington/axa-framlington-biotech-fund-r-gbp-413/performance]

Year on year performance is amazing.

The Top Ten Holdings are:-

Gilead Sciences
Celgene
Amgen
Biogen Idec
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Illumina
Alexion Pharmaceuticals
BioMarin Pharmaceutical
Salix Pharmaceuticals
Incyte USA

Today the fund is worth £360m

UK HM Government September 2015 borrowings…

Another month, guess what, take a lucky guess, it is the same old story, HM Government, spends more money than it receives via taxes and duties. Another deficit month, thus to bridge the gap, needs to borrow on the bond market.

In September 2015, the HM Government had to borrow money to meet the difference between tax revenues and public sector expenditure. The term for this is The PSNCR: The Public Sector Net Cash Requirement.

There were “only” 3 auctions of Gilts (UK Government Bonds) by the UK Debt Management Office (http://www.dmo.gov.uk/) to raise cash for HM Treasury :-
16-Sep-2015 2% Treasury Gilt 2025           £3,250.0000 Million
08-Sep-2015 3½% Treasury Gilt 2045        £2,000.0000 Million
02-Sep-2015 1½% Treasury Gilt 2021        £3,750.0000 Million
When you add the cash raised:-

∑(£3,250.0000 Million + £2,000.0000 Million + £3,750.0000 Million) =  £9,000.00 Million

£9,000.00 Million = £9.0 Billion

On another way of looking at it, is in the 30 days in September, HM Government borrowed:-

£300 million each day for the 30 days. We are fortunate, while the global banking and financial markets still has the confidence in HM Government to buy the Gilts (Lend money to the UK), the budget deficit keeps rising. What is also alarming, is the dates these bond mature 2021, 2021 & 2045. All long term borrowings, we are mortgaging our futures, but at least “We Are In It Together…

The Largest Producer of Electricity: China

The Chinese economy is the 2nd largest economy in the world.
They are the largest producer of electricity in the world.

China generates 5649 Terawatt/Hours a year.
This accounts for 24% of total global electricity production.

The UK generates 335 Terawatt/Hours which is 1.4% of total global electricity production.

To put this into context, the UK’s annual production of electricity equates to a tiny 6% of China annual production. This now shows the size of the Chinese economy.