SEBASTIAN CHONG to hold 'Successful Investing' seminar

Find out how Sebastian Chong rides the bull on stocks.

SEBASTIAN CHONG is one of the best known high-net worth investors in Singapore.

He combines over 30 years of stock investing experience with equally long years in accounting practice and then in academia.

He is a Fellow Certified Public Accountant (Singapore and Australia) and a former associate professor with the National University of Singapore Business School.

Long experience combined with an accounting and academic background enabled him to win the NextInsight Stock Challenge last year with a stunning 101% gain in his portfolio, outrunning the 15% gain by the Straits Times Index.

The blow-by-blow account is documented in a series of articles, the most recent being STK CHALLENGE: Sebastian Chong wins with 101% portfolio gain after 6 months.

Now, as markets turn volatile, it’s even more important to equip yourself with investing skills. You can learn a lot by attending Sebastian Chong’s upcoming special seminar ‘Successful Investing’.

NextInsight has a Q&A session with him:

GuocoLeisure was highlighted by Sebastian at a seminar when it was 42.5 cents only. Recently, it hit 66 cents.

 

Q: What were some of the big winners for you in recent times?

Sebastian: One of them was GuocoLeisure. This week, the stock traded around 66 cents, which is 54% higher than in Aug 09 when I highlighted this stock at 42.5 cents at my seminar in Toa Payoh Hub.

It was a very good return in six months.

Another performer was Sinotel Technologies. Back in May 2009, it was trading at 23.5 cents, and I wrote in an article on NextInsight that it seemed ridiculously low.

The stock in the next few months jumped to as high as 70 cents. This week it was a shade below 50 cents, which is still more than a 100% return in eight months.

Sebastian sharing stock insights to full-house audiences.

 

Q: What were some of the telling aspects of these companies’ financial statements that you placed great weight on?

Sebastian: In August 2009, I told a seminar that GuocoLeisure was ridiculously priced - the Net Tangible Assets was 63.6 US cents but the recent stock price was 42.5 Singapore cents.

Fundamentally, the hotel chain’s outlook should improve with better occupancy rates and room rates as the British economy picked up.

As for Sinotel, back in May 2009, the PE based on 2008 earnings was just 3 times and the share price was still below the NTA backing per share. The net profit margin for Sinotel was a very high 30% for 2008 too.

Although I liked this stock, I didn’t put too much money on it. The telco giants take as long as 12 months to pay Sinotel and other players. That explains why the PE and Price/NTA of Sinotel were very low. 

Q What are some of the pitfalls that investors commonly fall for?

Sebastian: Investing without understanding the financials and other fundamentals of a stock. Stocks are dangerous to put your money into if  …. 

a) the balance sheet is weak – for example, there is too much debt plus slowing cash flow due to worsening customer accounts and slow moving inventories.  

b) there is impending revenue decline coupled with rising cost of sales.  

c) valuations are unrealistic in terms of high PE and Price/NTA ratios relative to the earnings growth rate 

There are many more pitfalls and pointers. At Sebastian’s seminar, you can learn, among other things: 

a) How to properly assess the financials and other key attributes of a business.

b) What matters most in financial statements.

c) How to analyse financial results announcements illustrated by recent results releases. 

For registration details, click on www.shareowl.com