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 26.1% cumulative ROI since inception.
Q2 2025 saw a 63.9% 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 30 June 2025, my portfolio’s Net Liquidation Value stands at RM119,815.97. Year to date (YTD), I’m only up 3.7%. But cumulatively since inception, my ROI is at 26.1%.
Total dividend generated YTD = RM3,490.76
This represents an increase of 63.9% compared to the same quarter last year. This increased mainly due to higher dividend received from TIME, Maybank, Sunway REIT and Ping An Insurance.
At the time of writing, I’m at 90% invested with cash holding of 10%. Below are my detailed holdings as of 30 June 2025:
Performance Review of Each Market
#1: Malaysia Holdings
Majority of my stocks are in green territory except for RCE Capital and CIMB. Both of these stocks are new additions to my portfolio this year. There’s a saying that the stock will always fall right after you enter a position. I guess this is true for me… haha!
Regardless, I’m entering for the long-haul. As long as I think my entry price is good with reasonable margin of safety, I’ll continue to hold and maybe add more when I have surplus cash. Just like Benjamin Graham said in his book “The Intelligent Investor”, the intrinsic value of a stock will eventually converge with its market price in the long-run.
I liked that both CIMB and RCE Capital’s business model is recurring and their dividend payout is stable. Their recent share price drop was probably due to:
RCE Capital
There is a rising civil servant bankruptcies trend which could lead to higher non-performing loans. This will translate to lower earnings for RCE Capital.
CIMB Group
There is a growing concern on its business outlook given the company’s extensive presence in ASEAN countries especially Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. Analysts from various banks have downgraded this stock citing the possibility of its net interest margin being compressed due to regional weaknesses – whatever this means.
My understanding is that they expect further interest rate cut from these ASEAN countries this year (maybe second half of 2025?). When this happens, CIMB’s net interest margin will be compressed further. There’s also the foreign currency risk – weakening IDR and Thai Baht could mean lower profit for the group when translated back to MYR.
Despite the rate cut in Indonesia, Singapore & Thailand, I think CIMB Group is still doing good as shown in its recent quarterly result. The management were able to maintain their net interest margin at 2.16% in 1Q25 – unchanged from 4Q24.
Nonetheless, you can’t expect to get a good price with good business outlook when it comes to stock investing. It is only when the outlook is bad, you will get to invest into a stock at a great price. This is a good reminder to me.
Apart from new addition, IGB REIT gave me a big surprise this year. I did not expect it would acquire Mid Valley Southkey Mall in Johor Bahru (JB). This is a REIT that has been passive for very long time, holding only 2 properties in its portfolio.
According to MIDF research, the mall generated a Net Property Income (“NPI”) of RM191.6 million in 2024. This represents a 7.2% property yield based on its acquisition price. This is lower than the REIT’s existing property yield of 8.4%.
While it is lower, this does not mean it is not yield-accretive. I think it is still pretty good because the yield will definitely increase due to the launch of Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone in January 2025. This will lead to higher footfalls (visitors) which the translates to higher spending. Plus, the Mall is the largest in JB. Sad that I only have 1,000 units…