Sunday 27 January 2008

Apologies - but new income generating share to watch!

Firstly, I would like to apologise to fellow Income Monkeys for my lack of postings over the last few weeks. Pressure of work being the editor of the fast growing buy-to-let website Property Hawk and trying to keep up with the Stock market in the fast moving & volatile conditions have kept me too busy to allow for me to keep Income Monkeys up to date with the latest developments & there have been plenty:

Anybody who took our ongoing advice about buying into commercial property shares might have just got in before the rush. The papers including the Financial Times have been full of stories over the last few weekends about how sentiment towards commercial property shares is just about to turn. The latest developments have been the talk of property vulture funds which are likely to herald a whole raft of takeover activity and speculation after February when they first start to appear.

The Income Monkey has already made several income generating share tips see previous postings on which income generating property shares to buy.

The bank have also had a rocky ride with the fall out in the sub prime market but again some kind of stability may have returned.

Those Income Monkeys that took my advice and bought Northern Rock PIBS rather than the shares should be showing a healthy capital profit and potentially with a semi private public rescue now proposed by the Government could be in line for a very healthy income over the next few years.

Retail stocks have been hammered, but whilst there is a likelihood that dividends on these shares could be cut in the short term those Income Monkeys that are prepared to take an 18 month view on these shares could start to see an improving situation and a recovering dividend yield and ultimately a good long-term investment opportunity.

So that’s the past but what about new opportunities. One income generating investment opportunity that has caught my attention and one that I have already have a holding in is Northern European Properties (NEPR).

Northern European Properties Limited is a Jersey incorporated company which invests in real estate opportunities in the Nordic and Baltic Regions and Baltic Russia. The company has been listed on AIM, a market of the London Stock Exchange, since 15 November 2006. As per December 18, 2007 the company is listed on Euronext Amsterdam in addition to the current AIM listing.

The company has a strong income bias in that it is committed to paying 90% of its FFO - Funds From Operations (A figure used by real estate investment trusts (REITs) to define the cash flow from their operations. It is calculated by adding depreciation and amortization expenses to earnings, and sometimes quoted on a per share basis)

NEPR now valued at 385 million euros is mainly invested in Sweden and Finland although it sees substantial opportunities in Russia and has just started to acquire properties in the area which should yield far more than their portfolio in the Nordic countries.

The share price has been hammered by the sentiment toward property companies shares and now stands at 0.81 euros just above the year low of 0.64 euros but well of the high of 1.31 euros. The interesting thing is that the company has recently agreed several large disposals in the Swedish and Finnish part of its portfolio which will give it substantial funds to either take up opportunities from overstretched investors or to return substantial funds to investors or both. All this is potentially good news for income seeking investors.

The other interesting thing is that one of the non executive director investors Ian Livingstone a non executive director clearly things that the shares are undervalued. He has purchased 3 million shares on a CFD (so he is borrowing money to purchase them) during the last week. To my mind if a director and one with the track record and experience is confident enough to put £2 million of his own cash on the line, then I'm happy to put a few grand into NEPR. Other Income Monkeys might also want to follow suit.

I hope that the next week sees more vindication of the new paradigm of investing. Remember fast buck capital growth is dead. Its all about the income. Get that right and the capital growth will look after itself.

Finally a request. Any Income Monkeys with income generating ideas of their own, please feel free to share them with the rest of us. Any genuine income generating tips featured will be rewarded with a organic Income Monkey banana signed personally by my own fair hand. So what are you waiting for.....