Ben Paul Markets

22/09/2025

“We just saw the most automated, most advanced manufacturing line, and they had 12 of them in parallel, and many more around them,” said Jacob Bro, co-founder and partner at 2150. “And when you see that, you also just realise that catching up to that is futile: it’s not going to happen.”

Global clean-tech dominance has not necessarily meant profits for Chinese firms Read more at The Business Times.

22/09/2025

What Warren Buffett said in this clip about the difficulty directors face in evaluating stock-based transactions independently is interesting. There is absolutely no room for alternative views from anyone. Minority investors need to ask the tough questions themselves – as loudly as possible.

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger discuss their experience with boards. From the 2007 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting.Top ten investment books;The Intellig...

22/09/2025

There’s already a lot of spillover interest in Singapore’s second and third liners; but will they implement the value unlocking and transformation initiatives we’ve seen at the largest companies?
I suppose the new iEdge Singapore Next 50 Indices might help, by keeping some of these companies under the spotlight. Perhaps the fund managers that receive EQDP money from MAS will push for change too. Fingers crossed.
Here’s the latest column, which ran in today:

Efforts by MAS to help companies boost shareholder value should be supplemented with moves to incentivise IDs to play a more active role at their companies Read more at The Business Times.

15/09/2025

The Fed is widely expected to cut rates this week, in the midst of the bull market, which could sharpen the valuation gap between the leaders and the laggards. Given all the measures the MAS equities market review group is rolling out, and the accompanying rhetoric, the underperformers in the Singapore market could find themselves under a lot of pressure to raise their game and renew their relevance to investors.
Here is the latest column, which ran in today:

Betting that laggards will quickly catch up with the leaders could be a mistake in the current thematic, growth-oriented market environment Read more at The Business Times.

11/09/2025

CNMC Goldmine has delivered amazing performance this year, on the back of soaring gold prices. It may well keep going, as the company is doing all the right things for investors. But it is a very small player that happened to be very undervalued. I’m not sure it offers the most sensible exposure to the booming gold mining sector going forward.
Here’s my latest contribution to the column in today:

There are sharply divergent views on the direction of gold prices; meanwhile, gold mining stocks are now performing better than the precious yellow metal Read more at The Business Times.

08/09/2025

After what Temasek said recently about the restructuring of Keppel and Sembcorp, and the merger of their offshore and marine businesses, I can’t help thinking that CapitaLand and Mapletree will eventually be combined too. Investors in their S-REITs should consider what that might mean for them, especially in the midst of the current bullishness.
Here’s the latest column, which ran in today:

[SINGAPORE] There seems to be little doubt now that the US Federal Open Market Committee will announce a rate cut at its coming meeting from Sep 16 to 17. Read more at The Business Times.

02/09/2025

Candid comments ...

Professor Kishore Mahbubani, former Singaporean Ambassador to the United Nations, President of the UN Security Council, and Founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew...

01/09/2025

Temasek said some very interesting things about its legacy Singapore-based portfolio companies when it unveiled its organisational revamp last week – in particular, that conglomerates are out of fashion, and that they should become as “pure play” as possible.
After the management of the three key segments of its portfolio are placed under separate entities, I hope it will allow each of these divisions to report their one-year TSRs in addition to their longer term performance.
This could help everyone better understand the evolution unfolding at one of Singapore’s most important institutions.
Here’s the latest column, which ran in today:

Back in the early 2000s, it puzzled me that Temasek Holdings chose to describe itself as an Asia investment company headquartered in Singapore; and its key portfolio holdings as Temasek-linked companies instead of government-linked companies. Read more at The Business Times.

25/08/2025

It’s been a while since I’ve seen such strong market reactions to earnings reports from Singapore companies. While it’s the sell-offs that draw the most attention, there has been no shortage of positive reactions.
With no evident investor apathy in this market, I guess companies and their advisers will only have themselves to blame when their stocks don’t perform.
Here’s the latest column, which ran in today:

[SINGAPORE] The recent reporting season has been something of a reality check for bullish investors in the Singapore market, with a number of high-flying Straits Times Index (STI) components suffering big sell-offs after releasing their financial numbers. Read more at The Business Times.

22/08/2025

JPMorgan Chase & Co. will pay 1.4 billion ringgit ($330 million) to Malaysia to resolve all existing and potential claims relating to the sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, a move that will end its exposure to one of the biggest financial frauds in history.

18/08/2025

When Singapore’s fourth mobile network operator appeared on the scene, I couldn’t see how it was going to carve a viable share of the saturated market for itself. Last week, the ASX-listed parent of Simba Telecom said it is acquiring M1 – and its stock soared.
More to the point, consumers like me (I’ve never been an early-adopter of anything) are thinking of trying out this new player.
The reshuffling of market positions could get ugly for investors, of course. But maybe it’s time the telcos faced some disruption, if it delivers benefits to their customers.
Here’s the latest column, which ran in today:

[SINGAPORE] When I began working in Singapore back in 2000, choosing a mobile phone service provider was not hard. Many people told me Singtel had the most reliable coverage across the island, and I just went with it. Read more at The Business Times.

18/08/2025

“While it still produces significant volumes of crude, Indonesia has long lacked the refining capacity to meet more than 280 million people’s demand for petrol, diesel and other products.
But Prabowo in particular had made reducing that vulnerability a priority, seeking to attract investment into onshore processing but more immediately cutting back on heavy reliance on Singapore, where Chalid and his profitable business were based, working out of a modest office.
“We are importing fuel from a country that does not even produce it. That is funny,” Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia told a conference in May.”

[LONDON/JAKARTA] A reclusive oil merchant dominated Indonesia’s fuel trade for decades. Now he is embroiled in a US$18 billion probe into the country’s state-owned oil producer that has become a litmus test for President Prabowo Subianto’s anticorruption drive. Read more at The Business Times.