Developer builds business on sound values

Straits Times: Sun, Nov 06

When you fly budget next time, you may be sitting next to Mr Lim Yew Soon, 36, who is currently developing an 888-unit Design, Build and Sell Scheme project in Clementi called Trivelis. Mr Lim, who has been the managing director of family-owned EL Development since 2006, will soon be taking his wife and parents to Hong Kong on Tiger Airways. They will not be staying in a five-star hotel either. 'To me, it's just a short flight. The money can be put to better use,' he says. In 2005, Mr Lim joined Evan Lim & Co, the construction business started by his father in the 1960s. He helped the family business branch into property development a year later when he realised that being a main contractor in the construction sector was harder than he had thought. 'I believed that we can and should move up the value chain,' he says. That was when EL Development was formed. His first project, Rhapsody on Mount Elizabeth, which was launched in late 2006, was sold out in six weeks, though a later one, Parc Centennial, had a rough start when it was launched in 2008, selling just six units that year. Mr Lim, a National University of Singapore graduate, comes from a big extended family and has relatives in the property development business. His wife Audrey Foong, 35, is a financial analysis manager. They have two sons, Yu-Zhe, three, and Yu-Kai, one. Q: Are you a spender or saver? I'm more of a saver. I believe in saving for a rainy day as well as building up sufficient savings for investment opportunities, as making money is tough without your first pot of gold. I save at least 50 per cent of my fixed monthly income. The dividends I get and the profits from my family business are ploughed back into my savings. Most of my expenses goes towards my children's childcare. Both of them are in full-day childcare and this costs me $2,500 a month. Q: How much do you charge to your credit cards every month? I charge about $2,000 a month to my credit cards. I have several cards but prefer to stick to one particular credit card to accumulate rewards. I withdraw about $200 from the ATM each time. Q: What financial planning have you done for yourself? I have some insurance for myself and my family and I have a rental property. I invest in mid-term safe-haven instruments that offer modest returns with principal protection. This is because I view my family's property development business as one that has considerable risks, though it can also offer attractive returns. I do not see the need to invest in many properties. It could be a double whammy for me if the economy is not doing well. If I am not running my family business, I would take bigger risks with my investments. About 30 per cent of my investments is hard cash in the bank, another 30 per cent is in bonds and the rest is in stocks and property. I prefer to manage my own investments and aim for returns of 10 to 15 per cent. The crisis in Europe has put my stock portfolio in the red. But I'm not unduly worried as I tend to take a more long-term view and my stocks are mainly in blue chips and large, reputable companies such as DBS Bank, Singapore Airlines and City Developments. Q: Moneywise, what were your growing-up years like? I am the youngest of six children in an upper-middle income family and life was comfortable during my growing-up years. My father Evan Lim retired in the late 1990s. My parents were, however, always careful to inculcate the virtues of frugality and spending within one's means. Great importance was also placed on our education. As with most other Asian families, my parents were strict with us. But amusingly, they dote on their grandchildren. I must say what helped to shape my perception of money management was the invaluable experience I gained while helping my father liquidate an IT firm, which he had invested in. The bursting of the dot.com bubble followed by the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States resulted in the firm, which had about 200 people, running into cash-flow problems and it had to be liquidated. My father paid his share of the losses but also covered some of the losses of his partners. This taught me that while one should be prudent with money, he should also exercise some form of generosity when required. I also learnt that in business, you must avoid over-expansion and always maintain sound business fundamentals. Save most of your income and spend only on necessities. Indulge in luxury items using only profits from your investments. You must make your money work for you and not work to pay for luxury items using money that you have not earned. Q: How did you get interested in investing? I started investing in initial public offerings during my university days. It was very common among my peers. It was a golden era for IPOs. Being allocated an IPO lot meant instant profits as most IPO shares rose above the issue price on the first day of trading. Like most of my peers, I had my share of 'killings' of between a few hundred to a couple of thousands. Q: What property do you own? An apartment in Illuminaire on Devonshire, which was developed by my company. It is currently rented out and fetching reasonably good yields of about 4 per cent. Q: What's the most extravagant thing you have bought? Two Franck Muller watches which cost slightly under $20,000 each. I bought them to mark the achievement of certain milestones in the property development business. I intend to pass them to my boys when they come of age. Q: What's your retirement plan? I have not thought of retiring as my job is my passion. I am consistently exploring opportunities to take it to new heights. The sense of achievement I have from overcoming the design constraints of a piece of land, transforming it into a marketable piece of property and finally seeing the project to completion is difficult to describe. Q: Home is now... My family and I live with my parents in a family- owned bungalow in the Bukit Timah area. I am developing a pair of semi-detached houses with my brother. They sit on a piece of land that my father had bought many years ago. My family will move to one of the houses soon. Q: I drive... A black 730Li BMW. [e-mail] Let money work for you 'In business, you must avoid over-expansion and always maintain sound business fundamentals. Save most of your income and spend only on necessities. Indulge in luxury items using only profits from your investments. You must make your money work for you and not work to pay for luxury items using money that you have not earned.' MR LIM, on what he had learnt about doing business WORST AND BEST BETS Q: What is your worst investment to date? My worst investments to date were the shares that I bought blindly during my varsity days. I had made some money from some of the initial public offerings and became greedy for more. I then ploughed the profits and my savings into other shares such as Natsteel Electronics. During the Asian financial crisis, the drastic correction in share prices wiped out about $20,000 of my savings, which was a lot to me in those days. Looking back, however, the lesson learnt was a valuable, albeit painful, one. Q: And your best? This would be my 635 sq ft apartment at Illuminaire On Devonshire. I bought it for about $1 million in 2009 and it is worth about $1.5 million now. Source: The Straits Times