My Sweet Retirement

GREAT SP Series 5A is a short term Endowment plan that provide guaranteed returns of 1.2% p.a. at the end of 2 years. The single premium insurance plan is offered via a partnership between OCBC bank and Great Eastern for a limited period only.

You can pay the one time premium for GREAT SP Series 5A using cash or your Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) funds. Minimum starts at S$10,000.

The plan allows you to choose between choosing a one-time payout or yearly payouts.

What are Endowment Plans?

Endowment plans are life insurance saving plans offered by insurance companies.

The aim is to help policyholders save towards specific financial goals. Policy holders can contribute a regular amount for a designated period of time or pay a lump sum upfront at the start of the policy.

Upon maturity of the policy, you will be given a lump sum payout with the guaranteed return. It is best to study the plan carefully as certain endowment plans offers non-guaranteed returns.

Summary of GREAT SP Series 5A

Below is a summary of the Pros and Cons of GREAT SP Series 5A endowment plan.

Pros

Short 2-year commitment.
100% capital guaranteed after 2 years.
Interest rates is higher at 1.2% p.a.
Pay using cash or Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) funds.
Comes with insurance coverage for death and total and permanent disability.

Cons

Minimum starts at S$10,000. Personally, I felt that this is slightly high.

Disclaimer: This is Not a sponsored post and the opinions are solely based on My Sweet Retirement’s opinion.

SPH REIT has provided their key business and operational updates for 1QFY2022 on 7th January 2022. The key highlight of the updates is focused on SPH REIT’s portfolio occupancy and tenant sales.

In Singapore, occupancy improved to 99.8% from 98.9% in 4Q FY21. Tenants’ sales stayed resilient in 1Q FY22 despite a 6 weeks restriction in dining-in (limited 2 pax vs 5 pax in 1Q FY21) with sales reaching 97% of 1Q FY21 for Paragon and The Clementi Mall.

In Australia, Westfield Marion Shopping Centre continued to demonstrate its dominance in Adelaide, South Australia, with tenant sales increasing 6% year-on-year in the midst of COVID-19.

Figtree Grove Shopping Centre, located in Wollongong, New South Wales, was in lockdown for approx. 3.5 months until 10 Oct 21. Tenant sales have recovered close to pre-COVID-19 levels for Nov 2021 post lifting of lockdown.

Occupancy

Overall portfolio occupancy stood healthily at 98.8% with a Weighted Average Lease Expiry (WALE) at 5.5 years.

Compared to a year ago, occupancy has improved across the malls.

As of 30 November 2021, the occupancy for each asset is as follows:

Paragon (99.7%)
The Clementi Mall (99.9%)
The Rail Mall (100.0%)
Figtree Grove Shopping Centre (99.1%)
Westfield Marion Shopping Centre (98.2%)

Lease Expiry

Only 10% of the leases are expiring in terms of Net Lettable Area (“NLA”) in FY22.

Debt

As of 30 November 2021, the total debt was estimated to be S$1.3 billion. The Weighted Average Term to Maturity stood at 2.7 years with debts well staggered over the next five years.

76% of the borrowings are hedged at fixed rate while the remaining 24% are based on floating rate. Thus, there is nothing much to worry about fluctuating foreign exchange rates which can affect borrowings.

S$225 million of revolving credit facilities are also available. Thus, there is nothing worrying about refinancing of it loans.

Summary of SPH REIT 1QFY2022 Updates

Singapore’s Ministry of Health has stated that the Omicron variant is likely to be more transmissible but less severe than the Delta variant.

At the point of writing this post, the number of Omicron cases are on the rise. Let us hope that there are no more further tightening measures which can hinder the recovery of tenant sales and occupancy of retails malls.