Dividend Portfolio Review for 1Q 2025
Welcome to my detailed dividend portfolio review for first quarter of 2025. If you are new here, I started this portfolio back in February 2020 with a starting capital of RM5,000. I mainly posted my quarterly performance in Instagram.
Only recently, I decided to do this detailed review for my paid subscribers. My intention of doing this is to guide you on how I manage portfolio as a supplement to the book I have written about dividend investing – grab a copy here!
My goal for this portfolio is to generate dividend income that exceeds my expenses. My stock selection criteria are based on the book I have written, here are some of it:
Increasing dividend per share for the past 5 to 10 years
Business model that generates recurring income
Relatively strong earnings power
Decent economic moat or competitive edge
Disclaimer: Word of Caution!
Please DO NOT take this as a buy or sell signal. When it comes to investing, it is important to have your own judgement. Despite my detailed analysis, mistakes may occur, and blindly following could lead you to make similar errors and financial losses. Furthermore, I AM NOT a licensed financial advisor. I’m merely sharing my experiences and opinions only.
Additionally, please note that I hold positions in these discussed stocks, and my view may be biased as a result.
Summary
Portfolio has a 23.5% cumulative ROI since inception.
Q1 2025 saw a 61.7% increase in dividend income compared to the same quarter last year
Key lessons were learned regarding REIT investments, emphasizing the importance of margin of safety
Overall Performance Snapshot
As of 31 March 2025, my portfolio’s Net Liquidation Value stands at RM117,379.26. Year to date (YTD), I’m only up 1.6%. But cumulatively since inception, my ROI is at 23.5%.
Total dividend generated YTD = RM2,407.56
This represents an increase of 61.7% compared to the same quarter last year. This increased mainly from TIME, Maybank, Sunway REIT and Mapletree Industrial Trust.
At the time of writing, I’m at 90% invested with cash holding of 10%. Below is my current capital allocation in terms of the market I’m investing in and my detailed holdings:
Performance Review of Each Market
#1: Malaysia Holdings
Majority of my positions are down except for TIME, Heineken and IGB REIT. Thanks to their good earnings and higher dividends declared. The others are down due to some headwinds they are facing.
Interestingly, Sunway REIT is the odd ball. It has good earnings and record distribution per share announced, yet the stock price seems to pull back from its peak RM2.01 in February 2025 to RM1.82 (at the time of writing). Perhaps, it is those “sell on news” kind of believers.
The big loser of all my position is Uchitech. Its earnings have been down for 4 straight quarters. This is one major problem when the company solely rely on 1 major customer. Any scale back in demand or sales orders would lead to declining earnings.
Nevertheless, the company maintained its dividend per share as per last year (RM0.295 per share). My guess is, they did this to calm the market but kind of failed in my opinion.
The latest addition to my portfolio is RCE Capital. This company is involved in money lending business but its customers are mainly civil servants. Its recent stock price retracement due to poor earnings has present an opportunity for me to take a small stake as a recovery play.
I’ll share more detailed analysis of RCE Capital’s business nature in a future post.
#2: Singapore Holdings
My positions in this market are mainly REITs. The environment of "higher for longer" interest rates has put a damper on performance.
My biggest mistake is investing in Mapletree Industrial Trust (MIT). The number one lesson I learned is that I must ensure there is certain margin of safety set before investing:
I entered MIT too early and at fair value. I remember it was at the point where US Fed showed signs of interest rate cuts. What I did not foresee is the higher for longer interest rate environments.
Choosing MIT over Keppel DC REIT. The market demand for data centers in various countries varies significantly. Singapore has limited space & energy resources for more data centers to be build. Those that own data centers in this country naturally command a higher pricing power over its tenant. Sadly, MIT does not have this.
This just shows that no matter how meticulous my research is, there are still things I will missed out in my analysis. Hence, it is important to invest with a margin of safety.
Nevertheless, MIT’s underlying business remains robust. They have recently declared a higher distribution per unit for its 3Q25. The share price retracement was due to concern over its future occupancy in data centers segment.
For now, I’m not looking to add anymore positions in MIT unless it goes down further.
As for Frasers Centrepoint, it recently announced private placement to raise fund for acquiring another mall. This is probably a good thing rather than raising fund through debt in this high interest rate environment.
My only concern is the dilution effect from this placement. I’ll have to monitor closely its distribution per unit trend after acquisition. Thus, I’m not looking to add further position unless it goes down further.
#3: Hong Kong Holdings
Ping An Insurance is my newest addition. This company is one of China’s largest integrated financial services groups. It provides a broad spectrum of insurance products, including life, health, pension, and property & casualty insurance.
My strategy here involves selling put options until I am being assigned shares at my preferred price. This allows me to generate income while waiting for the stock price to come down to my target entry price.
So far, I was assigned 500 shares at HK$45 per share in January 2025. The total income generated from selling puts since I started in November 2024 is HK$3,847 (~RM2,193.56).
YTD income from selling puts = HK$1,768 (~RM1,008.11)
My plan is to continue to sell puts as I intend to add more positions.