Monday, September 22, 2008

OCBC Preference Shares

MR TAN
I believe you have saved many people, especially those who read your blog. You always educate us not to buy complicated structure products (Mini bonds, Pinnacle notes etc)

I am fortunate that I take your advice to invest only in low cost fund(NTUC INCOME Growth Fund), STI ETF Fund & many endowment policies from NTUC Income.(I bought it 15to 20 years ago)

I have about 100K from my matured policy from NTUC Income, I do not know what to invest, so I have bought 50k of OCBC Preference shares recently(It give 5.1% dividend). Now the market is so bad, I am worried about my Preference shares will become Mini Bonds.

Please advice me whether preference shares is safe to invest & also tell us more about preference shares.

REPLY
In my view, the OCBC Preference Shares are quite safe. I will be buying some of these shares for my investments. They will not be like MiniBonds - as they are entirely different types of investments.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Mr Tan, I am interested in the OCBC Preferece Share but I am confused by the code showed in web site. THere is a OCBC Cap5.1% NCPS 100 showing a closing price of 96.2. Is this the correct one but selling at a discount from the subscribed price of 100?

    Thanks.

    Ah Poh

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  2. What is the stock code for the OCBC preference share 5.1% ? There is one "OCBC Cap 5.1%NCPS 100 closing at 96.2. Is this the one ? If this is so, does this mean that it is selling at a discont from the subscribed price of 100 ? Thanks.


    Ah Poh

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  3. Preferred shares are good for long term investment since you get consistent interest as long as the company is in operation. But it is not a "principal secured" investment as the price fluctuates pretty much like stocks. It is now selling at a discount. It's is more risky than bonds because there is no maturity date where you will get 100% of your principal(when there's no default). If you want to get back your principal, you need to sell at market prices.

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