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Commencement Remarks At the Georgetown Law Commencement Ceremony is scheduled for May 19, 3:30 PM ET/ May 20, 3:30 AM SGT / May 20 at 5:30 AM AEST.
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Except for the “on hold”   $Twitter (Delisted)(TWTR.US)$, other fours hot names have notched up gains.
$Tesla(TSLA.US)$  $Apple(AAPL.US)$  $Twitter (Delisted)(TWTR.US)$  $NVIDIA(NVDA.US)$  $AMC Entertainment(AMC.US)$

$DFIRG USD(D01.SG)$ is it time to dump this stock? it has been going south.

It was a proud moment for Singapore's business scene as Grab became the largest company to list via a SPAC merger.
1. While the focus might be on the share price tumbling 21%, it is worthwhile to celebrate this moment.
2. Southeast Asia is a very fragmented market and it is harder to scale across countries with different language, culture, religion, politics, economic progress and consumer preferences. So, give Grab some credit.
3. I am heartened to see more Singapore-based companies making to the world stage. Again, not an easy feat for our little red dot. We need to continue to be an attractive platform to attract the best talents and companies to set up their HQ here in order to stay relevant and prosperous for decades to come.
4. We are starting to see some fruits bearing. Sea is another great success story for Singapore. It has been added to the MSCI Singapore and has surpassed DBS as the largest listed Singapore-based company. In terms of market cap, Sea is at US$145B, DBS at US$59B and Grab at US$41b.
5. I believe Grab would eventually be added to the MSCI Singapore index and I hope to see more. That means that MSCI Singapore ETF might be a more diversified investment than STI ETF. It is more reflective of the new economy too.
6. Between the two, I prefer   $Sea(SE.US)$  than   $Grab Holdings(GRAB.US)$  as an investment. They are different businesses to begin with. Sea has gaming, ecommerce and fintech. Grab has ride-hailing, deliveries and fintech. Fintech is their commonality where both have received Singapore's digital banking licenses this year.
7. Grab has joined hands with SingTel to pursue the neobank services while Sea is going alone. I am not a fan of joint venture as you will increase the bureaucracy and often times cultural and vision mismatch will create a lot of friction in developing the product and service. Grab and SingTel don't have the same DNA.
8. Ride hailing is a difficult business. Look at Didi which has more than 90% market share in China and yet to turn a profit. Uber has been struggling too and the recent profitable quarter was due to one-off gains from investments, not from its core business. Similarly Grab has dominant market share in S.E.A. and has yet to make the business profitable, just EBITDA positive. We can accept a young and fast growing company to be in losses as it is spending to capture market share quickly. But if you already have the market share in ride hailing and still not profitable, when would you be?
9. Ecommerce is a different story. Alibaba has been profitable after capturing the Chinese market. Amazon too, with the US market. Sea has yet to be profitable for its ecommerce arm because it is expanding fast. But the chances are high for Sea to be profitable in this segment.
10. Moreover, Sea has already achieved operating profits on its gaming segment. It doesn't report the net profits by segment but I believe it is positive as well. Whereas I believe none of Grab's segments are profitable yet.
11. I am not anti-Grab. I am just discussing the investment merits relative to another high potential Singapore-based tech company. I believe Grab will continue to grow well and rise to greater heights. I also wish to see more young Singapore-based companies get added to MSCI Singapore Index. Huat ah!

1.   $SPH(T39.SG)$ has officially transferred its media business to the non-profit entity, SPH Media Trust, on 1 Dec 2021.
2. That marks the end of the commercialisation phase of newspapers and printed media in Singapore.
3. The older investors could recall how SPH used to be a popular blue chip stock that gave out good dividends. It was also a near-monopoly business in Singapore. Now it is a shadow of its former self.
4. SPH was incorporated in 4 Aug 1984 with the aim to merge a group of indie newspaper agencies and became dominant in the media space in Singapore. The only true rival was the former versions of Mediacorp (SBC).
6. They were competing in the early 2000s whereby SPH got the license to air TV channels while Mediacorp launched a free newspaper, Today.
7. The competition didn't last long as the Singapore market was too small to fight for. So they revert back to their core - TV Channels sold to Mediacorp and SPH took a stake in Today. They are still competing in radio though.
8. The rise of the internet was a threat to these traditional media globally, not just limited to SPH.
9. We also saw the rise of internet entrepreneurs who took a pie of the advertising business from the newspapers.
10. Companies like sgCarMart, PropertyGuru and JobsCentral, ripped apart the classified ads from the Straits Times. For those who do not know, classified ads was where people go to look for cars, houses and jobs in pre-internet era.
11. Probably the drop in the main paper ad revenue was the nail in the coffin. They were taken away by big tech such as Google and Facebook. Digital advertising has more advantages - bigger reach, higher engagement, ability to target and availability of analytics. Advertisers flocked online increasingly.
12. It become worse today as there are more ways and platforms to advertise online. Even SPH has to post their news online to get readership.
13. Disruption happens gradually and suddenly. SPH started to see revenue decline in 2012. But it was not until 9 years later that it declared commercially unviable.
14. As investors who pick individual securities, we have to constantly evaluate our investments. Buy-and-forget can only work for funds because either the index algorithm or the fund manager will make the adjustments for us. What was a solid investment when we buy them may not be so in the future. And this is not just about traditional business. Even a disruptive company today can be disrupted in the future.
15. The average lifespan of a company in S&P 500 was 32 years in 1965. It dropped to 21 years in 2020. It will probably get shorter. Don't be fooled by the average. We can possibly have a company staying in S&P 500 for just 1 year. That means that long term investing horizon has shortened too.
16. The game is getting harder. The effort required has increased. The volatility of heartache became more pronounced. Stock investing is a financial Squid game.