Deutsche Bank will be listing the first ETF in the world to track the MSCI Indonesia Index, the db x-trackers MSCI Indonesia ETF, in Singapore from 8th March 2010.

The ETF will be denominated in USD with an all-in fees of just 0.65% per year.

Bloomberg Ticker: XMIN SP
ISIN: LU0476289623

Indonesia has been one of the top performing markets in 2009, with MSCI Indonesia returning 117% from Jan 2009 to 26 Feb 2010. Over that same period, MSCI BRIC returned 77.6%, MSCI China 51.5%, MSCI USA 26.5%, MSCI World 27.3% and MSCI Europe returned 20.7% respectively.

With this new ETF, investors in Singapore will have a low cost way of investing into the Indonesia market.

Earlier in January and this month, Frasers Commercial Trust (FCOT) announced a non-renounceable sale of 116,789,400 Series A convertible perpetual preferred units (CPPU).

Existing shareholders who have FCOT registered in their CDP as at 9 February 2010 at 5.00 p.m. will be given the right to subscribe for FCOT’s Series A CPPUs on the basis of one Series A CPPU for every 20 existing Units of FCOT at the price of S$1 per Series A CPPU.

As the offer is non-renounceable, shareholders would have the option to either take up their Series A CPPU entitlement or to give it up.

Someone asked me why the price of the CPPU is more than the current share price of FCOT. This is actually not your normal Rights issue. The CPPU function more like a preferred share that entitles holders to receive a distribution of an amount equivalent to 5.50% per annum of the Offer Price.

On top of that, the CPPU can also be converted into normal FCOT units on the first Business Day of each calendar quarter at the discretion of the unit holder after 25th August 2012. The units will be converted at the conversion price of conversion price of S$0.2369 per Unit.

eg. 1000 units of CPPU bought at $1 can be converted into 4221 Units of FCOT.

Acceptances of provisional allocations of Series A CPPUs and (if applicable) applications for Excess Series A CPPU by eligible Unitholders may be made through CDP or by way of electronic applications, during the offer period commencing from 12 February 2010 to the closing date, 2 March 2010. In the allotment of Excess Series A CPPUs, preference will be given to the rounding of odd lots.

Note that the FCOT CPPU is not available under both CPF OA and SRS. Investors holding FCOT in their OA will need to contact their agent bank about taking up their entitlement using cash. Investors holding using SRS will not be entitled to participate in the Series A CPPU offering.

It should also be noted that the Series A CPPUs may not be listed and quoted on the SGX-ST for certain reasons, including but not limited to an insufficient spread of holdings of the Series A CPPUs to provide for an orderly market in the trading of the Series A CPPUs if there are fewer than 100 Series A CPPU holders.

For more information, you can refer to the Offer Information Sheet (OIS) of this FCOT CPPU offering.

FCOT OIS (9 February 2010)

The following ETFs from Deutsche Bank will be listed and quoted on SGX. Three of these ETFs will give investors here more options for gaining an exposure to the fixed income market.

• DBXT USDIGInfl US$5
• DBXT iBoxxSvEu US$5
• DBXT iBoxxUSTr US$5
• DBXT MSUSA US$10

DBXT USDIGInfl US$5 – USD IG INFLATION LINKED TREASURIES Total Return Index ETF

This Index developed by Deutsche Bank reflects the liquid portion of the Inflation-Linked US Treasury domestic debt market.

DBXT iBoxxSvEu US$5 – IBOXX € SOVEREIGNS €-ZONE Total Return INDEX ETF

The IBOXX € SOVEREIGNS EUROZONE® represents the overall Eurozone currency sovereign debt issued by Eurozone governments. Within the Index, each bond is weighted according to its amount outstanding. The Index is calculated on a total return basis which means that the payments from coupons are reinvested in the Index.

DBXT iBoxxUSTr US$5 – iBOXX® $ TREASURIES Total Return INDEX ETF

The IBOXX $ TREASURIES® (the “Index”) represents the overall USD sovereign debt issued by the US government.

DBXT MSUSA US$10 – MSCI USA Total Return Net INDEX ETF

The Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure developed market equity performance in the USA on a total return basis with the reinvestment of net dividends.

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) recently published two educational guides, An Investor’s Guide To Preparing For Annual General Meetings and An Investor’s Guide To Reading Annual Reports, to enhance retail investor knowledge and improve shareholder engagement at annual general meetings (AGM).

The two Guides are now available in both English and Chinese versions and can be downloaded here.

It’s not mentioned in the guides, but the most important part of the AGM actually happens after the end of the formal proceedings.

And in case you are guessing, no, it’s not the food.

No doubt the majority of the people will be rushing to grab (no exaggeration) the food after the AGM, but this is also the best time for you to talk individually to the management and directors. Ask them your questions, and listen to the replies to the questions posed by other investors.

You might not be able to tell everything with just half-an-hour of personal interaction, but you will definitely be able to get a much better feel of the company compared to before. Sometimes, if a company is not right, you will not even need half-an-hour to find out.

Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays Bank PLC listed the iPath® Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index Total ReturnSM Exchange Traded Note (ETN) on the SGX a couple of days ago.

The iPath® Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index Total Return ETN is the first-ever ETN listed in Asia outside Japan. It provides both retail and institutional investors with exposure to a broad range of commodities by tracking the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index Total Return.

As at 30th September 2009, the index has a weightage of approximately:

• Energy – 33%
• Industrial Metals – 25%
• Agriculture – 25%
• Precious Metals – 11%
• Livestock – 5%

While both ETN and ETF usually have the same objectives to track an index, the main difference between them is that ETNs are senior, unsecured, unsubordinated debt securities of the issuer. In this case, an investor of the ETN will have to take on the credit default risk of Barclays Bank PLC.

The factsheet of the ETN can be found here:

iPath® Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index Total Return ETN