I have received a call from my auntie recently, trying to
get my help to look at a company she has invested more than 10 years ago. She
didn’t really follow what happened after she bought this stock. She realised
that the company’s share price is way below her cost (after 10 years) and all
the dividend received can’t even cover the capital loss (before inflationary
adjustment)! She thought by investing in stable business with good dividend
yield, she could just leave it and go on hibernation for 10 years. Now she got
a shock when “woke up” after 10 years.
Let’s have a look at what had happened to some of those once
known as solid dividend stocks in “stable” industries, it is no longer as easy
as “buy and hold” only. Competition, technological & legislation change, taxes
including GST that came into effect in 2016, etc all have impact on the stable
business we once thought would be recession proof (we were not even in
recession over the last few years).
- British American Tobacco
We can’t predict the future of a company as there are just
too many areas, from technological change, legislation, competition etc that
can impact a company’s business. But what we can do is follow the company/business
we invested from time to time and get updated on changes that may affect the
company through various sources of news, research, etc. If we are getting more
updates from time to time, we can action a little early.
Having said all that, is it time to find value in these companies
now?
