DAILY NEWS

Daily News – 22nd, 23rd and 24th September 2018

Singapore Economy

Asian firms shuffle production around region as tariffs on China bite
A growing number of Asian manufacturers of products ranging from memory chips to machines tools are moving to shift production from China to other factories in the region in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports. Companies, including SK Hynix of South Korea and Mitsubishi Electric, Toshiba Machine Co and Komatsu of Japan, began plotting production moves from July, when the first tariffs hit, and the shifts are now under way, company representatives and others with knowledge of the plans told Reuters.
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/asian-firms-shuffle-production-around-region-as-tariffs-on-china-bite

Singapore Real Estate

Qingjian Realty sells 300 units at JadeScape
Qingjian Realty (South Pacific) Group said it has granted options for the purchase of 300 units at the JadeScape condo as at 2pm on Sunday. Sales began on Saturday morning. The average transacted price net of discounts is S$1,700 per square foot, it added. Interest was balanced across all unit types. The price for a three-bedroom apartment of 1,012 sq ft averages S$1.65-1.7 million. Under the first phase of sales, Qingjian released 480 of the development’s 1,206 residential units.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/qingjian-realty-sells-300-units-at-jadescape
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/jadescape-sees-strong-sales-on-launch-weekend

Companies’ Brief

CapitaLand group upholds governance standards
The Securities Investors Association (Singapore) will hold the 9th Singapore Corporate Governance Week 2018, themed “Is Corporate Governance In Step With Business – Help Or Hindrance?”, from Sept 24 to 28. Organised by Sias, CG Week is endorsed and supported by The Association of Banks Singapore, The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority and the Singapore Accountancy Commission as supporting organisations, as well as the Singapore Exchange as the supporting exchange.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/capitaland-group-upholds-governance-standards

CapitaLand’s Lim Ming Yan ready for next phase of life
If Lim Ming Yan could have his way, this could well be what future CapitaLand-built malls look like. It is the first Monday since he ended his near six-year term as chief executive and president of CapitaLand, and we are standing in the bowels of the new Funan rising in Singapore’s North Bridge Road. The former mall was torn down after three decades to be replaced with the futuristic structure scheduled to open next year.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/capitalands-lim-ming-yan-ready-for-next-phase-of-life

Almost 300 CBRE agents to move over to ERA Realty
Nearly 300 CBRE Realty Associates agents focused on residential transactions will move over to ERA Realty Network under a “strategic collaboration”, the two entities have said in a joint statement. “Salespersons from CBRE Realty Associates will transfer to ERA and operate as part of ERA. CBRE will maintain a small core residential team,” it said.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/almost-300-cbre-agents-to-move-over-to-era-realty

Keppel-KBS US Reit to buy business campus in Seattle for US$169.4m
Keppel-KBS US Reit is set to deepen its presence in Seattle with its maiden acquisition of a business campus for some US$169.4 million. The Reit’s (real estate investment trust) manager on Monday said the trust has entered into an agreement with KBS SOR Westpark Portfolio, LLC to acquire the Westpark Portfolio, which comprises 21 freehold buildings in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/keppel-kbs-us-reit-to-buy-business-campus-in-seattle-for-us1694m
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/keppel-kbs-us-reit-to-buy-business-campus-in-seattle-for-us1694m

Keppel looking into possible transaction involving Keppel T&T interest; also considering M1 stake with SPH
Keppel Corp is considering a potential transaction of its stake in logistics and data centre arm Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation (Keppel T&T) and has asked Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) to take part in a possible transaction involving their stakes in listed telco M1, according to filings with the Singapore Exchange on Monday morning. No specific deal terms were announced.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/keppel-looking-into-possible-transaction-involving-keppel-tt-interest-also
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/keppel-reviewing-stake-in-telco-m1-ltd-10751254

OCBC seeks wider ranging, viable environmental solutions
Those who think they have viable solutions for enhancing Singapore’s environmental landscape but don’t have the funds to implement these ideas can once again tap a scheme by OCBC Bank. The #OCBCCares Fund for the Environment, which is back for a second year, is now calling for proposals. A total of S$100,000 has been committed to provide “full financial support for ground-up initiatives that enhance environmental sustainability in Singapore”, the bank said in a statement.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/ocbc-seeks-wider-ranging-viable-environmental-solutions

Samsung plans to slow chip growth to keep supplies tight, maintain prices
Samsung Electronics Co is planning to curtail growth in memory chip output next year to keep supplies tight amid an expected slowing in demand, according to people briefed on the matter. The move would help maintain or drive up semiconductor prices, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing the plan. Samsung now expects bit growth of less than 20 per cent for dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and a rise of 30 per cent for Nand flash, the people said.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/samsung-plans-to-slow-chip-growth-to-keep-supplies-tight-maintain-prices

Owner of Soilbuild Reit’s manager takes S$30m of its S$65m perps offering
The controlling shareholder of Soilbuild Business Space Reit’s manager is taking nearly half of the real estate investment trust’s S$65 million subordinated perpetual securities offering, according to a filing with the Singapore Exchange early Friday morning. Lim Chap Huat, who also holds a 9.096 per cent stake in the Reit, has agreed to subscribe for S$30 million of the deal, which was priced on Thursday night.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/owner-of-soilbuild-reits-manager-takes-s30m-of-its-s65m-perps-offering-0

Wheelock Properties buy-out price remains at S$2.10; offer to close on Oct 2
The offer price for the privatisation of Wheelock Properties (Singapore) will remain at S$2.10, its Hong Kong-listed parent has said, in an announcement through DBS Bank. As Wheelock and Company’s Star Attraction unit does not intend to revise the offer price, it will not be allowed to later amend the terms of the offer, including the offer price, in any way, it said on Monday morning, citing the Singapore code on takeovers and mergers.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/wheelock-properties-buy-out-price-remains-at-s210-offer-to-close-on-oct-2
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/wheelock-properties-buyout-price-to-stay-at-210-offer-to-close-on-oct-2

VIEWS, REVIEWS, FORUM & Others

Safe as houses? The property investment story so far
It is in the collective consciousness of Singaporeans that owning property is a big part of being – and getting – rich. For many families in Singapore, investing in property has proven to be a good way to preserve, if not enhance, their wealth and to build up a retirement nest egg. Veteran property consultant Tan Tiong Cheng, president of Knight Frank Asia Pacific, recalls that in the early 1970s, one could buy a freehold terrace house in the Siglap area for about S$25,000 to S$30,000.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/brunch/safe-as-houses-the-property-investment-story-so-far

Staying in good shape
On July 11, 1989, a seemingly innocuous question from Dr S. Vasoo in Parliament yielded a response that took many in the House by surprise. The Tiong Bahru GRC MP had asked what improvement works might be undertaken in his constituency, which had some of the oldest HDB flats at the time. But instead of a parochial scheme to address just one ward, then Minister for National Development S. Dhanabalan announced an upgrading programme he described as heralding a “quantum change in the quality and character of public housing”.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/staying-in-good-shape

End of a golden age? Golden Mile Complex owners voted to sell en bloc despite their attachment to building
Like a monolithic cruise ship permanently “docked” by the Kallang Basin, Golden Mile Complex has a special place in the hearts of some of its long-time residents. Mr Ponno Kalastree, 71, said he feels like a small boy navigating his way across an ocean liner whenever he walks along the lengthy corridors of the complex. “Some units, like mine, have balconies overlooking the water. We also have special access stairways that give us that sense of exclusivity, like you’re entering a special cabin,” he said.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/end-of-a-golden-age

Growing US-China conflict may not be bad for Asia
“We don’t want to choose between America and China” – that has been the mantra in East Asia for the last decade as the contest between Washington and Beijing intensified. It’s less a declaration of strategy than a prayer for the continuation of the relatively harmonious relationship between America and China that helped stabilise the region for more than four decades. But China’s neighbours in Asia never had the agency to shape, let alone control the structure of its relationship with America.
https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/growing-us-china-conflict-may-not-be-bad-for-asia

Study shows there are 46,000 golf-club members in Singapore while country clubs annual revenue is $238m
The Singapore Golf Association (SGA) announced yesterday the findings from the first Singapore Golf Industry Report that it hopes will help guide efforts to boost the struggling sport’s profile here. The study was conducted by Golf Business Advisory Services, a specialist independent golf industry advisory firm based in Melbourne, Australia, and supported by British Open organisers The R&A.
https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/golf/study-shows-there-are-46k-golf-club-members

Bukit Timah drainage project almost done
Drainage improvement work on the Bukit Timah First Diversion Canal to help keep floods at bay is almost 90 per cent complete. The project is due to be finished by the year end, providing protection for the upper Bukit Timah Catchment, which includes areas such as Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Beauty World Plaza and Bukit Timah Shopping Centre.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/bukit-timah-drainage-project-almost-done

All households, firms to get choice of power retailer
From November, the energy market will be steadily liberalised across the island, culminating in 1.4 million more Singapore households and businesses being able to choose their electricity supply from 12 more retailers. The Open Electricity Market, which will cover the entire country by May next year, could see consumers save around 20 per cent or even more on their electricity bills.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/all-households-firms-to-get-choice-of-power-retailer