DAILY NEWS

Daily News – 23rd August 2017

Singapore Economy

Alipay targeting Singapore consumers
Alipay, China’s giant mobile payment provider, has its eyes trained on Singapore with plans to offer its payment platform soon to users here. For a start, the subsidiary of Alibaba’s financial arm is expanding its operations in Singapore by targeting tourists from China, Chinese citizens living here, as well as others with a China banking account.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/consumer/alipay-targeting-singapore-consumers

Singapore firms ink deals to ride tech and consumer wave in Guangdong
Singapore companies in sectors ranging from logistics and education to jewellery retail inked agreements on Tuesday to tap on consumer and technology-related opportunities in Guangdong, China. Twenty Singapore organisations signed deals for 16 projects in the consumer, logistics and technology sectors.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/singapore-firms-ink-deals-to-ride-tech-and-consumer-wave-in-guangdong
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/local-firms-ink-wide-ranging-deals-in-guangdong

Singapore Real Estate

Ex-HUDC estate Florence Regency could fetch over $650m
Former Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) estate Florence Regency is up for collective sale at a minimum price of $600 million, the latest offering as en bloc fever heats up in Singapore. Its sole marketing agent JLL announced yesterday the launch of a tender exercise for the 336-unit estate in Hougang Avenue 2.
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/hougang-plot-could-fetch-over-650m?login=true
http://www.todayonline.com/business/florence-regency-hougang-collective-sale

Companies’ Brief

Rosewood Hotels & Resorts to expand into South-east Asia
Hotel management company Rosewood Hotels & Resorts is making its foray into South-east Asia, with three hotels slated to open in the region later this year. In the fourth quarter, it will be launching properties in Phnom Penh, Phuket and Luang Prabang. Beyond 2017, it will add more hotels in Asia – namely in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, as well as properties in Siem Reap, Hoi An and Bangkok. It currently has a portfolio of 21 properties, of which two are in Asia, in Beijing and Sanya.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/rosewood-hotels-resorts-to-expand-into-south-east-asia

CapitaLand debuts US$300m private-equity fund in Vietnam
CapitaLand 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 that country. The 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/companies-markets/capitaland-debuts-us300m-private-equity-fund-in-vietnam
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/capitaland-starts-private-equity-fund-in-vietnam

CapitaLand inks pact with Alibaba, Lazada to connect shoppers offline and online
CapitaLand has tied up with two leading e-commerce players – Alibaba Group and Lazada Group – as it positions itself as an “omni-channel” retail landlord that connects retailers to shoppers offline and online. CapitaLand said on Wednesday that it inked an agreement to manage Alibaba Shanghai Centre – the e-commerce giant’s new headquarters in Shanghai will comprise four office towers and a retail podium – to “reinvent modern retail through the seamless integration of offline and online (O&O) channels”.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/capitaland-inks-pact-with-alibaba-lazada-to-connect-shoppers-offline-and-online
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/capitaland-to-manage-alibabas-new-shanghai-hq-launch-online-mall-on

Lum Chang unveils plan for One Tree Hill; FY17 profit falls
Property and construction group Lum Chang Holdings, which posted a 37 per cent drop in group net profit for the year ended June 30 to S$18.7 million, plans to redevelop the One Tree Hill Garden site into 12 freehold conventional semi-detached houses and two bungalows that will be launched for sale next year. “Hopefully construction can start in the second half of next year,” Lum Chang executive director Tony Fong said. The company’s property director Peter Ow said: “Given the site’s sloping terrain, we plan to develop two-storey houses with a basement for most of the units.”
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/lum-chang-unveils-plan-for-one-tree-hill-fy17-profit-falls
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/full-year-profit-down-37-at-lum-chang

Blackstone’s bid for Croesus ‘fair and reasonable’: CIMB
An independent financial adviser has found Blackstone’s S$1.17 per unit cash offer to privatise Croesus Retail Trust to be “fair and reasonable”, and recommends that holders vote in favour of the bid at a scheme meeting. In its report, CIMB said that although the Japan-based shopping mall trust’s market price was at a premium to the offer price, the premium was partly a reflection of expectations about the trust’s permitted distributions. The offer price represents a premium of 24.5 per cent to 37.7 per cent over the various volume-weighted average trading prices from listing until June 23, 2017, the last full day of trading before the bid was announced, CIMB said.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/blackstones-bid-for-croesus-fair-and-reasonable-cimb

Oxley raises UE stake to 11.57% with S$2.688 per share purchases
Oxley Holdings continued to raise its stake in United Engineers over the past week, acquiring 5.3 million shares at about S$2.688 apiece from the open market. The acquisition price represents a premium of about 3.4 per cent over a S$2.60 per share cash offer that has been made by a consortium led by Perennial Real Estate Holdings and Yanlord Land Group. Oxley, a property developer, bought S$3.5 million of shares on Aug 18 and a further S$10.8 million on Aug 21. It now holds an 11.57 per cent stake in United Engineers, a property development and engineering company.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/oxley-raises-ue-stake-to-1157-with-s2688-per-share-purchases

GLP acquires Hallmark International for US$121.64m
Global Logistic Properties Limited (GLP) said on Tuesday that it has acquired Hallmark International Investment Limited for US$121.64 million. The acquisition was undertaken through GLP’s indirect subsidiary CLF2 Singapore Pte Ltd. Hallmark owns 100 per cent of Kunshan Huacheng Weaving & Dyeing Co Ltd, which manufactures and sells fabric-related products.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/glp-acquires-hallmark-international-for-us12164m

Views, Reviews & Forum

Is regulatory framework for valuation industry adequate?
The review of valuation and reporting practices that real estate valuers adopt in their work for listed companies is laudable given its stated aim of ensuring quality valuations to safeguard investor interest. But the joint effort by the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and the Singapore Institute of Surveyors and Valuers (SISV) brings to the fore a bigger question: Is the existing regulatory framework for property valuers adequate given how valuations have far-reaching influence in transactions and decision-making?
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/is-regulatory-framework-for-valuation-industry-adequate

Singapore property’s next ‘Sail’ moment not on the horizon
Almost exactly 13 years ago, Kwek Leng Beng, the billionaire chairman of City Developments Ltd, then Singapore’s biggest builder by market value, did something outlandish. Together with partner AIG Global Real Estate, he launched Sail @ Marina Bay, an ambitious, 245-metre-tall waterfront skyscraper, in a market that was down 45 per cent from its 1996 peak. The city-state’s home prices, ravaged first by the Asian financial crisis and then by the Sars epidemic, would rise between 5 per cent and 10 per cent annually for seven years, he predicted.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/singapore-propertys-next-sail-moment-not-on-the-horizon