The latest buzz in Singapore’s financial market is the launch of Astrea V PE Bond, a retail private equity bond by a Temasek unit. If you have not heard about it, you do not have much to lose. But if you are contemplating to subscribe to it, you should continue to read.
Just google “Astrea V Bond”, you can see that it has already been discussed by many financial bloggers. Many expressed their enthusiasm for the new launch. You can also take a look at the short video clip to have a grasp of it.
There was a similar issue last year, Astrea IV Bond, which was 7.4 times oversubscribed. Wow…
I guess the excitement this year is due to the reason that many people tried to apply for the bond last year but couldn’t get allocated, and our eyes tend to light up when we see things we cannot get.
Warren Buffett once said that as an investor, it is wise to be “Fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” While it’s true that it is common sense, it’s not common practice. We all think that we make rational decisions, but most of the time, people are just making herding behaviours.
In Daniel Kahneman’s famous book “Thinking Fast and Slow” (2011), he described that we have two thinking systems:
- An instinctive and emotional System 1 and
- A deliberative and logical System 2.
After living for more than a decade in a low-interest rate environment, investors are hungry for yield. In the context of Singapore, the government’s property cooling measures forced many investors to sit on the sideline with cash. Today, what are they doing with their money? Chasing yield.
The sport of “yield-chasing” often brings an adrenaline rush. With so much information overload on the internet, your System 2 often shuts down and your System 1 starts to pay attention to words like these: “Temasek”, “3.85% interest” and “Oversubscribed”. And those words are enough to get a yield-seeker excited.
The purpose of this article is to re-activate your System 2 thinking so that you can make some rational decisions concerning what’s in your best financial interest.
There are three classes of Astrea V bond. In this article, I will mainly talk about the A-1 class which is offered to the retail investors. I reckon the professional investors have done their homework.
#1. Is this bond guaranteed by Temasek Holdings?
The short answer is NO.
The issuer of Astrea V is a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings (Astrea V Pte Ltd) and not Temasek Holdings. That makes a lot of difference. Granted, Temasek has its own reputation to protect, but this is a product with no guarantee in the first place, which is clearly stated on the first page of the prospectus.




Source: Astrea V Bond Prospectus
To draw a comparison, you can take a look at the Temasek T2023 Bond, which was really guaranteed by Temasek.
I recall when people bought the Hyflux bond last time, many also mistakenly believed that Temasek had skin in the game.
If you think about it, a bond is similar to a single premium endowment plan in nature. But endowment plans are guaranteed by the insurance company and protected by the Policy Owner Protection Scheme. Examples of such products are
- Aviva’s MySecureSaver
- NTUC’s Capital Plus
- China Taiping’s i-Save
- China Life’s Special SaveGrowth
I will not be surprised that the underlying instruments for the endowment plans are such bond instruments.
#2. Isn’t it good to diversify into Private Equities (PE)?
The Astrea V PE Bonds are asset-backed securities backed by cash flows from a US$1.3 billion portfolio of investments in 38 PE Funds, as described in the Prospectus.
But cash flow is projected future income, not an asset which you already have. To help you understand the concept of a bond and projected future income, answer this question, “Would you like to own the projected rental income from a real estate investment or from the actual property itself?”
Yes, Astrea IV (launched last year) claimed to be “the world’s first private equity bond with a tranche aimed at retail investors”. But if you invest in bonds, aren’t you a conservative investor and you want to invest in conservative instruments? Is there a need for you to venture into private equity in the first place?
You need to understand that PE funds are not available to retail investors for a reason. Institutions or accredited investors are sophisticated investors. Therefore, PE funds are a good way for them to diversify their stocks and bonds portfolio and obtain non-correlated returns, but it is seldom their core holdings.
Private equity investments are unpredictable in nature and the amount and timing of their cash flows are uncertain. That is why big players are probably only willing to invest 5% to 10% into PE in their portfolio.
But if you are going to invest your retirement fund, you probably need to think twice.
#3. Isn’t 3.8% an attractive yield with an A+ rated bond?
Astrea V is expected to be rated A+ (sf) by S&P, calling it a “very strong” credit rating, and the 3.8% headline yield looks very satisfactory to some people.
But if you go back to our previous 2 points, there is no guarantor and your underlying assets are merely cash flow predictions from PE funds. You need to ask yourself, “Are your risks are well compensated?”
People somehow treat this kind of offer as Godsent, and they forget these offers are just business and not a charity act. You are essentially lending money to PE companies to run their business. Therefore, the PE fund will try to pay you as low an interest rate as possible. If there is a crowd of people queueing to buy their bonds, why should they offer you a higher interest rate?
I talked about this in my discussion about Singapore Savings Bonds in December 2018. I predicted that the interest rate would be lower in 2019 due to high demand. True enough, the 10-year average interest rate dropped from 2.45% to 2.16% now.
The retail offer of Astrea IV A1 issued last year was 4.35%. Today, the latest Astrea V A1 only offers you a 3.85% interest rate. That is unacceptable to me, given the much higher Sibor rate today.
Why do I say this? Because most Singaporeans have borrowed a lot for their properties, and the Sibor rate determines your funding cost.
On the other hand, you pay interest for your mortgage loan; on the other hand, you get the interest from your Income Generate Assets such as the Astrea V PE Bond. Shouldn’t you find the financial instruments that pay you higher returns when your funding costs are higher?
When you invest in bonds, you need to understand a basic of finance which is the time value of money. Future money is generally worth less than the money today.
If you consider the Astrea IV A1 bond an investment grade bond, you can draw a comparison to Nikko AM Investment Grade ETF. According to the latest fund factsheet, the ETF’s average bond duration is 4.77 years and the average yield to maturity is 3.11%.




Nikko AM IG Bond ETF Top 10 holdings – source: Nikko fund fact sheet as 30 April, 2019
The top 10 holdings are solid banks or quasi-government issuers like LTA. Yes. 3.85% looks good. But backed by cash flow from Private Equity funds? I need to think about it…
Will 3.8% still be attractive if your bank deposit also earns the same in the future?
#4. Will you hold the bond until maturity?
This is a bit technical so I don’t want to go into too many details. You can skip this if you like. As I mentioned earlier. If you are a professional investor, you don’t need me to explain these.
Further to point #3. When the baseline interest rate increases, bond prices fall. That is why most bond fund managers are trying to tilt their bond portfolio duration to the short term now.
Don’t forget Astrea V is a 10 years bond, even if there is a high chance that it may be redeemed in 5 years (Mandatory Call). Anything can happen in 10 years’ time. I am not saying that the bond will default, but what is the chance for the interest rate to hike another 2% to 3%? Can your investment return cover your funding cost?
I want to share with you two charts. The first chart is Astrea IV A1 Bond price (Retail class), the second chart is Astrea IV A2 class (mostly professional investors). Do you see any difference?
When a retail investor looks at the bond, he only looks at the headline yield, which was 4.35%. But when you pay $106.2 (the latest price) for a $100 bond, your real yield is only 3.465%.
You may notice someone even paid $108 for this bond. Really unfortunate for that investor.




Astrea IV A1 Retail Class Price Performance (Source: Bondsupermart)




Astrea IV A2 Class Price Performance (Source: Bondsupermart)
#5. Isn’t it a good sign that these bonds oversubscribed?
I think what got people really excited was that Astrea IV was 7.4 times oversubscribed. That may have even surprised the issuer, too. That is why the new tranche offers a lower yield (because the latest Astrea IV price in the chart above shows that people are already very happy with 3.465% yield)
But you may want to know the troubled Hyflux’s perpetual bond used to be oversubscribed four times too, by institutional investors!
I am not saying the Astrea bond will become another Hyflux bond. My point is that the level of popularity today has little relation to the future returns of a financial product. People choose what they are familiar with or what their friends are talking about. Bitcoins and technology stocks are perfect examples.
They made money for many people and burned a lot of investors too.
Parting thoughts: diversification is the ultimate solution
Every investment option has its merits and shortfalls. I always say that there is no permanent portfolio and no single financial instrument can solve your retirement puzzle, not even CPF life.
The real magic, as simple as it sounds, is diversification.
If a bond fund manager lost $1million due to a bond default, the impact on his portfolio may be negligible. But if it is your retirement fund, how much can you risk for one product?
And if you are an Accredited Investor, why should you settle with A1 class? Is an A2 or B class more suitable for you?
It is important to have a retirement or financial freedom plan before you jump into any investment, and think about how this will affect your overall income portfolio.
What is your option on the Astrea V PE Bond? Comment below and l would love to hear from you.
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Hi Ivan,
Assuming the US and China trade war is going to be protracted and Singapore’s economy is affected ïndirectly” in the process – is there a likelihood that interest will fall or at least be dampened ?
Assuming this materialises – does it mean that the Bond interest may fall ? And in the process the price of Bond will rise ? Again if this is true, at what forecasted price could we sell the Bond for a tidy profit ?
Hi, JC
You are right that if the interest rate falls, generally the bond price will rise. And it is already happening now. But you need to ask yourself two questions:
1. If your bond price increases from $100 to $101, will you sell the bond and forgo all the future coupon payment?
2. How long would the interest rate fall? 5 years later, will the interest rate be higher or lower than today?
Factually incorrect:
1/ Interest rate environement is lower today compared to one year ago. Check the 5y and 10y SGD swap rate: much lower now. This is a longer tenor bond, so not correct to use SIBOR.
2/ It is less important about Temasek being linked to it or not. Not important. The bond is backed by private equity funds. And tiered in waterfall structure, in a overcollateralized format (ie. more asset than the actual liability). In any case, will only have risk to principal if the PE funds lose more than 80% value by maturity. Ask yourself: how high is the possiblity?
Hi David, thanks for your comments. I understand where you are coming from. To answer your question:
1. I am using SIBOR to talk about the cost of funding in a person’s financial portfolio. This is from a financial planning point of view. I am not using it to compare it with Astrea Bond’s return.
2. I was not talking about the default risk. I am just talking the risk and reward ratio. It is more about reinvestment risk and interest risk in bond investing.
Hi there! I created a calculator for the Astrea V PE Bond and thought it might be useful for ohers as well so I uploaded it on github. It is available at:
https://github.com/chuadon/Astrea-V-ROI-Calculator
There’s a telegram bot version of the calculator here as well, for my folks on telegram!
https://t.me/astreav_calculator_bot
Hi Don Chua,
Brilliant work! Thank you for your contribution.
Hi Ivan,
Looking at the formula, from Y2 & onwards, “VALUE” is based on Y1 plus interest. My understanding is that interest on bond payable on principal/par value and not P+I. For this $5k investment, investor will get $192.50 per year for the initial five years. Cheers
Hi Ivan,
Thanks for the good article.
Two questions I’ve when I saw the headlines :
1. Why the interest rate is so much lower at compare to Astrea IV?
2. Can I get a better return as compare to this Bond which which has no capital growth.
At the end, won’t proceed further. Cheers
Hi Anson,
1. As mentioned in the article, interest rate of bond is based on demand and supply based on many factors such as peer’s offer, interest rate environment, market sentiment, etc. But it is also a guess work for the issuer as nobody can be sure about the optimal interest rate. But in general, higher demand, lower interest rate.
2. It is subjective. You need to look at your personal financial profile and risk and return expectations.
SSB/SGS yields fell in line with the rally in USTs on risk-off sentiment from trade tensions and expectations for the Fed to cut rather than hike rates. They did not fall because of higher demand for SSBs.
SSB yields will never be influenced by SSB demand as they are determined by SGS yields. In fact, it is the other way round – SSB demand is determined by SSB yields.
Hi, EL, everybody has an option about investment. That is fine.
But isn’t SGS affected by demand and supply?
Let’s say your theory of risk on and risk off is right. Then in the past 6 months, you should get lowest yield in December 2018 and highest yield in April. Is that the case?
You say this bad that bad. how should we invest for retirement then? Not constructive.
Hi, Sab, I am not saying it is bad. Every investment has its pros and cons, I just highlight some points. The decision is yours.
Too long 2029
Non guaranteed
Hi Ivan,
May I know how the yield is computed for Astrea IV:
1. When initial price at 1.00, the yield is 4.35%;
2. But when its price at 1.062, its yield compressed to become 3.465%? I thought is 4.35/1.062=4.096%
Hi, Edy, the yield calculation is more complicated than it seems. This is the effect of Time Value of Money. You can check out this link for more info. https://m.wikihow.com/Calculate-Yield-to-Maturity