Renewal with Senoko Energy (With $60 rebate & Referral Code)

Time flies. 2 years have almost past since I signed up with Senoko Energy after the collapse of Ohm Energy. No trouble so far with this retail company. I decided to stick by it, mainly to take advantage of their current promotion of $60 bill rebate for any 2 years plan (Promo Code: LUV60) and a referral bill rebate at $20. What I like about this company is that even for contract renewal, you can also apply their bill rebate promotion.

Though they have long discontinued their discount off tariff plans, the fixed rate plan they have now essentially provides a 5% discount off SP Tariff rate. Below is the plan they are currently offering for renewal:

Refer a friend to sign up for an electricity plan with Senoko Energy and both of you will earn a $20 bill rebate each to offset your electricity bill. The more successful referrals, the more you earn! Feel free to use my referral code for an additional $20 rebate!

Use your referral code! 

713E8QCU

Penang Day 1 to 6 - The Top Penang & Bro Wedding

22 Jun - First time taking *OEE* overseas on a plane together as a family. Main item on the trip is to attend my brother's wedding. Now that *OEE* is 3.5 years old, he is learning to assert his own independence. We are not sure how challenging it will be, but on a bright side, the flight time is just 85mins. We are praying hard everything will be manageable and smooth sailing for the flight...

By God's Grace, no big issue came up. We managed to get a taxi (private car) from the airport counter and we soon arrived at our hotel - Courtyard Marriott Penang. The hotel has a good view overlooking part of the Georgetown area, and the swimming pool has a great scenic view as well.

First meal in Penang - Char Kuey Teow (using duck egg) [Nice!]

After dinner, it was time to put *OEE* to bed, and for us to conserve energy for a day out tomorrow at The Top Penang, where 3 attractions awaits.

23 Jun - Caught a Grab to The Top Penang and spend some time searching for the main entrance to the attractions. If anyone is coming via Grab, the location to choose on the app is "Komtar Walk" which will drop you right at the entrance steps.

LED Screen for Jurassic Research Center

First stop for us is the Jurassic Research Center. There are some outdoor exhibits. As the weather then is still good, we decided to visit this first. I would say the folks running this has made a good use of the rooftop of the building. Instead of wasting the space, they have convert it to some live moving dinosaurs.

Our next stop is the Top Boutique Museum. I would say the exhibits are nothing spectacular. But since our 3 in 1 pass has this attraction, we might as well not waste it.

Our last stop is the Rainbow Skywalk, where we hope to catch the sunset at Level 68 with a panoramic view of the whole Georgetown. For the skywalk portion (where it is a small section see-through glass floor jutting out of the building), there is a constant long line of people queuing for entry. We gave up queuing for that and instead, found ourselves a good spot and wait for the setting sun.

Wax figures before taking the lift up to Level 65

24 Jun - Whole day basically was spent shifting hotel to my bro wedding venue - Lone Pine Hotel, which will soon be rebranded as Lone Pine, Penang, a Marriott Tribute Portfolio Resort. Nice place with access to beach with water sport activities (external operators).

25 Jun - Morning was spent visiting the beach and let *OEE* play with sand for the first time and explore seawater. Afternoon was pretty much attending my bro wedding event. One interesting point was that *OEE* was busy dancing the whole night to the live band songs! Didn't know he is such a great dancer!

26 Jun - A chill and relaxing day to use the swimming pool for *OEE* to play with water and explore the much raved Penang food. Ordered from Grab Food their Michelin Signature - Duck Blood Curry Mee 鸭血咖喱面. We have no regrets! Their curry mee is really unlike what we have in Singapore, and it is really good. Their steam chicken as well! Coupled with the old school Kopi where they tied using raffia strings, the whole experience is just heavenly!

27 Jun - Check out and make our way back to Singapore. Plane got delayed 1 hour due to late take-off and *OEE* diaper leaked during landing. Opps... much apologies to the SIA cleaning crew. >.<

2Q 2023 Investment Strategy Update

Nothing significant changed compared to last quarter. Ukraine war is still going on, interest rate is still sky high, though there are signs that central banks are looking at taking a pause on the rate increase to see if inflation can be tapered to a sustainable rate, without dragging the economy into recession. I must say that things are not looking good. There are already signs that companies are holding back investment and new orders as things start to slow down, though only time will tell if this situation is only temporary, or it is the start of a recession cycle.

DJI ended at 34407, an increase of 1133 points (+3.40%) compared to 1Q 2023. For Singapore, STI ended at 3205, a decrease of 53 points (-1.62%) compared to last quarter. Markets are moving sideways in the recent months as investors waits for a clearer direction. 

For this quarter, not much action from me, except waiting for the official announcement if the Glazers are going to sell off Man Utd. I personally think at the end, they will leave Man Utd, but not before getting the highest bid for their shares. Other than this, I am focus on accumulating US Reits, as their current yield is still too good to be missed.

Transaction 1: Bought 1 batch Grab shares in May. 

GXS has started getting active with now accepting loans. Grab continued with adjusting their customer incentives system to make the business more profitable. Recently, Grab announced slashing 11% of their workforce to be aligned with the current business environment. I think Grab will be on target to turn profitable and has a great potential for share value increase.

Transaction 2: Bought 1 batch Prime US Reit shares in June. 

At least to me, this does not look like a Reit in distress. Tenants are still paying rents, occupancy rate is reasonably good, gearing % is not too bad, but this does not show in the share value, probably due to the high interest rate environment. But with the current yield at 30% for a reit, this is too good to be miss.

Transaction 3: Bought 1 batch Mapletree Industrial Trust shares in June.

Usual stocking up on this good counter, while waiting for interest rate to drop and the Kolam Ayer 2 cluster to start contribution to unlock more share price value.

That is all for now. See you all in Q3 2023 update and thank you for reading thus far.