Install invisible safety grille at windows, balconies, yards, etc. for high rise buildings

I have just engaged with KL Invisible Grille (KLIG) to install invisible safety grille at the windows of a service apartment unit.

Invisible safety grille is just like a wire mesh or netting fence, except that it is customized to the installation area and constructed on site, precisely and firmly attached to its base. The construction of this invisible safety grille is similar to the way of doing racquet stringing.

To make it looks nicer, you can choose to only construct with vertical cables but without horizontal cables, or to construct with horizontal cables without vertical. In this way, it will look something like a harp. You can also increase its safety level by constructing both ways to make it like a racquet stringing.

(Photo from KLIG's Facebook page)

The invisible safety grille really looks invisible when viewed from some distance (a few meters) away and will not cause distraction to the beautiful scenery outside the building.

The main purpose of installing invisible safety grille is as a measure of safety to prevent people (especially toddlers and children), domestic pets, objects, etc. from falling out of the building.

Although the cable used is pretty strong and durable, with a breaking force of up to 900kg, it can be cut by metal cable cutter by exerting strong force. The good point of this is that the grille will not block fireman equipped with special cutting from rescue mission in case of emergency. The bad point is that it is more vulnerable to burglar and thieve who have the metal cutter and trying to enter the premise from the window.

The process began with a free onsite measurement to the areas of installation. The quotation is based on actual installation coverage area in square feet units.

Then, a deposit is paid and their workers will come for installation. It takes about 10 hours to complete the invisible safety grille installation for all the windows in my service apartment unit.

Since the installation involved drilling, there will be some minor touch up to the wall needed after the installation. The workers performed the touch up filling and repainting with white base paint to the affected places. They also cleaned up the floor, before leaving.

The warranty period will depend on the selection of cable material to be used. There are 3 types of cable for selection:

• 316 stainless steel cable - 15 years material warranty. Thicker.
• Nanotechnology Teflon coated cable - 15 years material warranty. Thinner.
• Nylon coated cable - 3 years material warranty. Thinner but not as durable as the other 2 types above.

You might be surprised that the installation price of invisible safety grille is actually much more cheaper than traditional metal bars grille. For example, the installation cost of the single panel window below is less than RM200.

As such, invisible safety grille is highly recommended to be installed for windows, balconies, yards, etc. of high rise buildings that is very difficult to climb in from outside, to prevent people, pet, object, etc. from dropping out of the building. The cables are as fine as 2.0 millimeter only, which will be seen as invisible and will not block the scene when viewed from some distance away.

If you play it like a harp, the cables can actually produce some nice sound. But unless the cables have different length, the sound produced by each of the cables is pretty monotonous.

Investing in non-listed growth company via equity crowdfunding

Equity crowdfunding (ECF) is something new but yet not so new in Malaysia investment market.

It provides a Securities Commission regulated platform that allows start-up companies and SME to get new capital fund through small equity investments from the public crowd by using approved online platform.

On the other hand, it provides a governed platform that allows general public to gain access to invest in share equity of non-listed companies that are on the growing track, and has the potential to become a unicorn that brings in multi-fold returns.

Previously, investment in such early stage equities of those non-listed companies is a privilege to sophisticated investors (a.k.a. rich people with millions of personal investment fund), private equity funds, angel funds, etc. Equity crowdfunding enables ordinary retail investors to participate in investment to those companies with a more affordable, smaller amount of money, as low as a few hundred ringgit.

The main advantages, which are also the disadvantages at the same time, of ECF are that:

• The selling price of the new shares issued during a crowdfunding campaign is fixed. Even though it might be very hot-selling, the price will not go up, and even though it might be having very few investors, the price will also not go down. The price is also not affected by general investment market sentiment, or socio-political affairs. This is of advantage to the investors, as the price is solely based on fundamentals. Major events such as Wuhan virus outbreak will not shaken the offering price.
• The shares purchased (regardless ordinary shares or preference shares) are not volatile and quite hard to resell to the other investors, until the company is public listed or there is big fund that makes offering to buy the shares from existing shareholders.

Today, there are altogether 10 Securities Commission approved equity crowdfunding platforms. Those platforms are tasked as a middleman to help start-ups or SME wanting to finance their business growth through equity crowdfunding by issuing new shares to reach their investors crowd, at the same time to help the investors to perform preliminary filtering and due-diligent to the companies to ensure their pitching and information provided are genuine and meet certain level of integrity.

Among the 10 approved ECF platforms in Malaysia, Crowplus is the first mover, but it seems that they had not gained much advantage of being the first mover. PitchIN is a market leader whereby many companies who seek for ECF and also many investors who want to look for non-listed growth companies investment are putting their trust on PitchIN. MyStartr has been an aggressive challenger that has gained traction in the Chinese speaking community beside the English speaking community.

MyStartr just launched their ECF platform in December 2019. So far, there are 2 successfully funded companies while others are on their way to reach their minimal funding target.

The first successfully funded company is Biztory which raised more than a million ringgit capital through ECF on MyStartr, and they did it within a very short period of 8 days only. Currently, funding activity of this company in MyStartr has stopped.

The second successfully funded company is Rtist, which already raised more than their minimum target of RM200,000. Currently their funding activity in MyStartr is still ongoing towards their ultimate target of 1 million ringgit. Therefore, you can still participating in their growth by becoming one of their minority shareholders through ECF, and you can make your investment there by using your credit card. The Rtist ECF closing date for this round is set on 15 February 2020.

Interest rate reduced, bond price to rise further

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has just reduced the overnight policy rate (OPR) by 25 basis points from 3.00% to 2.75% on 22 January 2020. This is back to the rate 9 years ago at 2011.

Below is the chart of historical OPR rate over the years.

In general, a reduction in interest rate will have a positive impact to bond price (and therefore, the bond funds as well), and vice-versa. OPR and bond price are having an inverse relationship to each other.

This is because most of the bonds are paying fixed interest rate. When the general financial interest rates fall, the bond's fixed interest rate will become more attractive to investors; when the general financial interest rates rise, the bond's fixed interest rate will, in turn, become less attractive.

The Opus Income Plus Fund (IPF) has been performing pretty well recently (refer to the chart below). The reduction in OPR is expected to further boost up its performance.

Click here to learn about how to invest in Opus IPF with 0% sales charge.