The No Signboard restaurant in Singapore is considered by many locals and food critics to be one of the top culinary treats in Asia. Boy, do I ever agree. The ginger crab with spring onions and garlic was out of this world!
The restaurant’s name is rooted in its humble beginnings. When Ong Kim Hoi started her food stall in the late 1970s, she couldn’t even afford a signboard. So as word spread about the delicious food, customers simply referred to it as the “no signboard” restaurant.
If you’re ever in Singapore, don’t pass up this simple-but-mouth-watering restaurant. Just ask for item #6 and you’ll get one of the best meals of your life for less than $20.
Of course, I didn’t fly to Singapore to find you bargain meals. I went there to search out bargain investments. And what I discovered was a virtual all-you-can-eat buffet of opportunities!
In a moment, I’ll tell you about four of the companies I checked out. First …
Why Singapore Is Home to Some of
The Best Companies in the World
Singapore is a place like no other. Its downtown is clustered with some of the tallest, shiniest skyscrapers in the world. It’s one of the most vibrant cities in the world. And it’s loaded with up-and-coming businesses!
The country occupies just a little sliver of the Indonesian peninsula – only 440 square miles of land inhabited by a paltry 4.3 million residents. But that hasn’t stopped Singapore from growing into the gateway of Asian commerce.
The key to its success: A strategic location along major sea lanes.
Since gaining independence from Indonesia in 1965, Singapore has had a disproportionate importance in Southeast Asia. Today, the Port of Singapore handles a quarter of the world’s shipping containers and a staggering 50% of the world’s supply of crude oil.
The country’s economy is humming along at an envious pace:
Singapore’s government recently projected economic growth of more than 7.5% for all of 2006. That might be a little less than China’s tremendous growth rate, but it’s four or five times faster than what the U.S. is doing!
Meanwhile, the country’s inflation and unemployment rates are quite low, at 0.7% and 2.8%, respectively.
And Singapore has the largest current-account surplus (28.5%) of any Asian country!
With those trends in place, it’s not surprising that the country plays host to a number of world-class companies. During my visit, I looked at a lot of them.
Here Are Just Four Impressive
Firms That I Investigated
#1. Keppel Corporation originally operated a Singapore shipyard. It’s now diversified into building everything from condominiums to power plants. Other operations include offshore energy, engineering, property management, transportation, and telecommunications.
Keppel is growing like a weed, and its stock has doubled in the last two years.
#2. Creative Technology manufactures a wide variety of digital entertainment devices, such as portable audio and video players, notebook webcams, sound cards, speakers, and headphones.
Creative is best known for its Sound Blaster sound cards, and the company dominates this part of the PC food chain. It’s also been getting Apple Computer to knuckle under for infringing on iPod-related patents.
#3. Hyflux is one of the world’s leading water filtration and desalinization companies in the world and is landing contract after contract in China. In fact, the company garners 70% of its business from that country.
For the first half of this year, Hyflux reported a 65% surge in revenues to US $45.1 million on a year-over-year basis! My Asia Stock Alert subscribers already own the stock and it’s been doing quite well for them.
#4. Neptune Orient Lines is one of the world’s largest container shippers. As you know, all those Made-in-Asia clothes, shoes, toys, and electronics don’t get here by magic. Neptune Orient is responsible for transporting much of what you see on Wal-Mart’s shelves.
The company also owns American President Lines. If you’ve spent any time around a port, you’ve undoubtedly seen the name.
I still need to do a little more number crunching once I return to the States, so I’m not saying you should run out and buy all these companies.
However, I do have plenty of other Asian stocks that I recommend jumping on immediately. In fact, I just updated my reports on six of them.
Or, if you want a diversified way to get a direct stake in Singapore’s growth, you can use a country-specific ETF like the iShares MSCI Singapore Index Fund (NYSE: EWS).
The EWS is designed to mirror the performance of the MSCI Singapore Free Index. And what a pretty sight to behold: So far this year, the fund has gained about 28%. That performance tells me just how strong Singapore’s economy really is.
One last thing to keep in mind: A falling dollar makes international investing even more lucrative. And right now, Asian currencies have the wind at their backs. Heck, just today, the region’s leading currencies, including the Chinese yuan, hit their highest levels in nearly a decade!
I don’t want to oversimplify things, but one of my basic investing principles is, “Don’t invest in dollars when the dollar is falling.” So, to me, adding some foreign spice to your portfolio makes a ton of sense right now.
Best wishes,
Tony
About MONEY AND MARKETS
MONEY AND MARKETS (MaM) is published by Weiss Research, Inc. and written by Martin D. Weiss along with Sean Brodrick, Larry Edelson, Michael Larson, Nilus Mattive, and Tony Sagami. To avoid conflicts of interest, Weiss Research and its staff do not hold positions in companies recommended in MaM. Nor do we accept any compensation for such recommendations. The comments, graphs, forecasts, and indices published in MaM are based upon data whose accuracy is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Performance returns cited are derived from our best estimates but must be considered hypothetical inasmuch as we do not track the actual prices investors pay or receive. Regular contributors and staff include John Burke, Amber Dakar, Wendy Montes de Oca, Kristen Adams, Jennifer Moran, Red Morgan, and Julie Trudeau.
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