# Aberdeen Asia-Pacific Income Investment Company Ltd. (FAP.TO)



## killuminati (Mar 14, 2011)

Hey guys,

Any opinions on this? I've done bunch of searching around but haven't been able to find much talk about it.

8.47% yield and it looks like a decently stable price over the year.

The high yield obviously means its very risky. But what do you guys think? Anything instantly stand out here to make you say stay away?

Thanks!


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

According to Waterhouse it's an unprofitable company. They don't have any fundamentals or reports for it aside from the dividend that it pays. 

It has been around for a long time which is good, I guess, but it's unsettling not to be able to find any information about their financials or any news reports on the company. 

I'm no pro investor whatsoever but I would stay away from this one.


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## swoop_ds (Mar 2, 2010)

Just wondering who out there owns this fund and why?

This is going to sound strange, but I own it because when I was setting up drip accounts at other more 'normal' companies, the one guy I was buying share certificates from had this company. It was $6.50, so I bought a share. Now it just sits in my non-registered account getting me 5 cents a month... 

I guess I'm just wondering if it's worth buying more? It seems difficult to find much info about it..


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## Pluto (Sep 12, 2013)

It appears that it is a closed end fund that invests in bonds. I think the website is here: 

http://www.aberdeen-asset.ca/

There you will find more information, including a phone number. You shouldn't be shy about phoning them for any info that is not on their site. (Remember what Peter Lynch advised? When you phone investor relations lie to get their attention. Tell them you have 100,000 units in street name, then ask your questions.)


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## swoop_ds (Mar 2, 2010)

^ seems like a pretty cunning idea!


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

Pluto said:


> It appears that it is a closed end fund that invests in bonds. I think the website is here:
> 
> http://www.aberdeen-asset.ca/
> 
> There you will find more information, including a phone number. You shouldn't be shy about phoning them for any info that is not on their site. (Remember what Peter Lynch advised? When you phone investor relations lie to get their attention. Tell them you have 100,000 units in street name, then ask your questions.)


 ... if you have 100,000 units, why would you be just calling to ask questions now (hopefully, not newbees' questions)? :biggrin:


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## bettyboop (Dec 13, 2011)

Beaver101 said:


> ... if you have 100,000 units, why would you be just calling to ask questions now (hopefully, not newbees' questions)? :biggrin:


There's lots of reasons you could give:

- they were given to you as a gift or as an inheritance

- you are calling for a friend who owns them but doesn't speak English

- your girlfriend or wife bought them blindly and you aren't thrilled with that and want to know more

- you are calling because you are now looking after your mother/father/parents portfolio and don't understand whatever

- you are very busy and am just now getting around to doing some DD

pick any of the above and go for it, LOL!


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

You're good bettyboop, lol! :encouragement:


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## doctrine (Sep 30, 2011)

-The yield is actually 9.5% not 8.5%
-I would look for the average yield to maturity of the company's bond portfolios and wouldn't invest until I saw it. I didn't see it in their "fact" sheet. They do hold some 10% bonds but also some 5-6% bonds, so I'm not sure if they're requiring essentially capital gains to make the payments
-You definitely do not get 10% bonds for low risk; either you paid a premium because the risk has gone down (and thus a lower actual yield versus the bond coupon) or there is a lot of credit risk


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## Janus (Oct 23, 2013)

Interesting. I don't know this product, but Aberdeen is a very reputable fund manager out here in Asia - usually considered best of the best, at least in equities. Let me do some research on the fund and get back to you.


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## swoop_ds (Mar 2, 2010)

That'd be great Janus. It seems to be a semi popular investment among "drippers"


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## Janus (Oct 23, 2013)

For starters:

Daily Fact Sheet: http://www.funddata.com/abpdf/70807.pdf
Monthly Fact Sheet (as of Aug 31): http://www.aberdeen-asset.com/doc.nsf/Lit/FactsheetCanadaClosedFAP

So the fund is about 70% gov't bonds, 25% corporate, the rest cash. Of the corporate bonds it's mainly banks, real estate, and oil&gas. Top countries are Australia, Indonesia, Philippines and India.

In general this looks just like a high yield bond fund with high exposure to emerging markets, which is why it's been getting killed lately. Basically fears of US interest rates rising has caused investors to pull their money out of emerging market debt, which is why the fund has been down every month since may. August was brutal, with the 11.8% fall.

Yields will stay high but capital gains/losses will be the question. Emerging market high yield bonds are often driven by foreign capital flows, which were negative recently. 

I hate bonds, especially in this environment. Still that's a killer yield....


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## SpendLessEarnMore (Aug 7, 2013)

I've been following this stock for a while. It's slowly been going up last couple weeks. You can see a 14 year history of this stock dating back to 1999 on yahoo. Dividends seems to have been decreased throughout those 14 years from 8 cents to now 5 cents so no growth in dividend. But stock price has been pretty consistent if not higher than what it is now.


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## Janus (Oct 23, 2013)

SpendLessEarnMore said:


> I've been following this stock for a while. It's slowly been going up last couple weeks. You can see a 14 year history of this stock dating back to 1999 on yahoo. Dividends seems to have been decreased throughout those 14 years from 8 cents to now 5 cents so no growth in dividend. But stock price has been pretty consistent if not higher than what it is now.


Please keep in mind this is NOT a stock but rather a closed-end fund that holds high yield bonds. It's not a dividend!


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## SpendLessEarnMore (Aug 7, 2013)

sorry I just automatically lump all yielding stock and call them dividend but yes you're right it's not a dividend. Still FAP is one of my favourite picks for exposure to Asian markets.


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## Pluto (Sep 12, 2013)

Beaver101 said:


> ... if you have 100,000 units, why would you be just calling to ask questions now (hopefully, not newbees' questions)? :biggrin:


All kinds of questions. What is your risky holdings? Why are they the riskiest? what are you safest holdings? What is the overall risk? The price jumped, I didn't see any news, so why did it jump? The price dropped, I didn't see any news, why did it drop? And so on. Ask newbie questions. What's the big deal about newbie questions? They want to make money, and to money they need interest in their product. That's why they all answer the phone. After you get your answers, you need to assess what they say. (They are not the FBI, so they are not going to interrogate you on the source of your 100,000 units.)

Anyway it looks like that sharp cookie Janus has given a good overview of the risk. There is nothing wrong with going into it a little deeper however, like taking a close look at each of their main holdings.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

My point was "weren't you suppose to research the product first?" prior to your 100,000 units acquisition (and not how you came about acquiring them) - much like what Janus has done and posted? But then it's your call to call them and ask them all the newbies' questions you want and see if they'll answer each and everyone of them. :encouragement:


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## SpendLessEarnMore (Aug 7, 2013)

http://www.4-traders.com/ABERDEEN-ASIA-PACIFIC-INC-15342/news/Aberdeen-Asia-Pacific-Income-Fund-Inc--Announces-Performance-Data-And-Portfolio-Composition-17416950/


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## swoop_ds (Mar 2, 2010)

I just bought a small amount (~40 shares) through my DRIP account with computershare. 10% yield so we'll see what happens.


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## robfordlives (Sep 18, 2014)

I have had the serious misfortune of owning this the last five years. Thankfully it constitutes about 0.25% of my overall holdings.

This trades at nearly a 20% discount to NAV and I would hate selling this at such "depressed" levels however it has traded below NAV for so long I've pretty much given hope of any upward movement (in addition to being at start of rising rates).

Anyone else own this stinker. This thing had an amazing 30 year track record....as recently as a few months ago they were touting their annualised compound return since inception.


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