DAILY NEWS

Daily News – 22nd August 2017

Singapore Economy

Cashless holds benefits if hurdles cleared
Is Singapore, a modern metropolis and one of the world’s top financial centres, really that backward when it comes to embracing cashless payments? That is how some visitors from China feel when they find out that they have to use cash for the vast majority of everyday transactions here, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said during the National Day Rally on Sunday. Touching on the benefits of e-payments when he spoke on the topic of becoming a Smart Nation, he noted that cash has become obsolete in many major Chinese cities as more people switch to electronic modes of payment.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/cashless-holds-benefits-if-hurdles-cleared

New Guangzhou centre to help Singapore and China firms co-innovate
The Singapore Manufacturing Innovation Centre (SMIC) – a “one-stop shop” to promote the co-creation of innovative tech solutions between Singapore and Chinese enterprises – has been launched in Guangzhou. The centre is said to be a first-of-its-kind platform that will facilitate partnerships between Industry 4.0 tech solution providers from Singapore and enterprises looking to adopt such solutions in China.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/new-guangzhou-centre-to-help-singapore-and-china-firms-co-innovate
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/centre-to-help-spore-tech-solution-firms-opens-in-guangzhou

Most S’poreans fret about retirement savings: Study
Almost two-thirds of Singaporeans fear they will not be able to stretch their retirement dollar, an investment poll has found. People here are well aware of the need to squirrel away assets for old age – but also face a six-year savings gap, as life expectancy outpaces the time they plan to spend in retirement. The poll of 1,000 Singapore respondents found that, in general, Singaporeans expect to stop working at 60 and spend 17 years in retirement. But this would only take them as far as the age of 77, against the average lifespan of 83 years.
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/most-sporeans-fret-about-retirement-savings-study

Singapore Real Estate

Normanton Park on sale with S$800m reserve price
The tender for the collective sale of Normanton Park, near Science Park and Kent Ridge Park, has been launched with a reserve price of S$800 million, which translates to S$898 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr). This is the eleventh tender for a collective sale to be launched this year. Normanton Park’s unit land price of S$898 psf ppr is inclusive of two payments that the developer of the 660,999 square foot site will have to make to the state.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/normanton-park-on-sale-with-s800m-reserve-price
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/normanton-park-enbloc-sale-launched-reserve-price-of-s800m-or-s898-psf-ppr
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/normanton-park-makes-second-bid-at-selling-en-bloc
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/normanton-park-up-for-en-bloc-sale-with-reserve-price-of-s-800-9144366

Companies’ Brief

CapitaLand debuts US$300m PE fund to boost Grade A commercial property expansion in Vietnam
CapitaLand Limited has set up its first private equity fund in Vietnam that closed at US$300 million to boost its expansion into Grade A commercial real estate in Vietnam. The commercial fund – CapitaLand Vietnam Commercial Fund I (CVCFI) – will have a life span of eight years with CapitaLand holding a 40 per cent stake while the remaining interests will be held by major institutional investors.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/capitaland-debuts-us300m-pe-fund-to-boost-grade-a-commercial-property-expansion-in
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/capitaland-debuts-us300m-fund-to-boost-commercial-property-expansion-in-vietnam

Tee International buyout fails to pull through at scheme meeting
By a narrow margin of votes, TEE International’s proposed scheme of arrangement involving a buyout offer by its group chief executive and managing director Phua Chian Kin at 21.5 Singapore cents a piece failed to pull through at a scheme meeting on Monday. The company announced on Monday that some 82.1 per cent of the number of shareholders present voted for the resolution that required a simple majority vote but in terms of number of shares, the scheme drew 74.84 per cent of support – marginally short of the 75 per cent in value of the shares that was required to push it through.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/tee-international-buyout-fails-to-pull-through-at-scheme-meeting
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/34-foil-buyout-bid-by-tee-international-ceo

CWG International acquires land in Jiangsu and Anhui
Real estate group CWG International on Monday announced that it has been successful in its bid for the land use rights of a land parcel at Changshu city, Jiangsu province, China for 454 million yuan (S$92.8 million). Separately, it also announced that following its acquisition of a 70-per-cent interest in Chinese land owner Xuancheng Xinkaiyuan Real Estate Development Co in July, it has now acquired the remaining 30 per cent for 38 million yuan.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/cwg-international-acquires-land-in-jiangsu-and-anhui

InterContinental Hotels to add brands, rooms to local market
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is embarking on an Asian expansion spree with a keen focus on Singapore, the regional head of the hospitality giant said yesterday, even while analysts warned that an increase in room supply will weigh on the sector here.
http://www.todayonline.com/business/intercontinental-hotels-add-brands-rooms-local-market

Views, Reviews & Forum

Moving closer to the Smart Nation
Singaporeans have developed a self-image based on technological advancement, particularly in the use of computers. This is a wired city par excellence, in which technology drives the collection and analysis of data to improve life, even as Internet connectivity creates access to seamless cyberspace to open up personal and social opportunities. Keeping pace with technology has become second nature in a city-state whose chief resources are human and not physical.
http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/st-editorial/moving-closer-to-the-smart-nation

Cash is king? Not in China
A common refrain when I meet fellow Singaporeans in Beijing, such as during recent National Day get-togethers, is how we will manage when we eventually return to Singapore and have to deal with paper money again. A civil-servant friend recounted how she instinctively reached for her phone to settle her taxi fare on a trip home.
http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/cash-is-king-not-in-china

Taking the rust off Pittsburgh
When President Donald Trump withdrew in June from the Paris Agreement on climate change, saying, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris”, it went over like a lead balloon in America’s steel city.
http://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/taking-the-rust-off-the-steel-city