DAILY NEWS

Daily News – 27th September 2017

Top Story

August output powers ahead; 19% jump expected to boost Q3 GDP
Singapore’s factory output extended its winning streak of double-digit expansion for the third consecutive month, boosting the upside for third-quarter economic growth. Industrial production jumped 19.1 per cent year on year in August, powered by the still-strong key electronics cluster and bolstered by double-digit growth in the volatile biomedical manufacturing cluster. The manufacturing sector, which contributes about 20 per cent to the economy, remains a strong growth driver this year.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/august-output-powers-ahead-19-jump-expected-to-boost-q3-gdp
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/singapore-factory-output-beats-forecasts-to-soar-191?login=true
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-s-manufacturing-output-jumps-19-1-in-august-9252944
http://www.todayonline.com/business/industrial-output-191-august

Singapore Economy

Alternative assets account for bulk of inflows to Singapore funds: MAS
Singapore’s fund management industry posted a respectable 7 per cent growth in assets to S$2.7 trillion in 2016, thanks in large part to improved valuations. However, net fund inflows were the lowest since 2012 at S$116 billion, the latest survey of the fund management industry by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has found. Private market managers who manage alternative assets such as real estate, private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) funds, accounted for the bulk of net inflows.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/banking-finance/alternative-assets-account-for-bulk-of-inflows-to-singapore-funds-mas
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/banking/singapores-aum-up-7-to-27trillion-mas

Singapore is world’s fifth most-visited city
Singapore overtook New York to become the fifth most-visited city in the world last year, and was ranked fourth worldwide for visitor spending in the 2017 Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index. With 19.41 million visitors last year, Bangkok topped the list of 132 cities for the third year running; London and Paris took second and third place respectively, while Dubai pipped Singapore to emerge fourth.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/consumer/singapore-is-worlds-fifth-most-visited-city
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/spore-ranked-second-most-visited-city-in-asia-pacific
http://www.todayonline.com/business/singapore-among-worlds-top-5-destinations-survey

Singapore slips a notch to 3rd most competitive economy
Singapore has slipped from its place as the world’s second-most competitive economy – a spot it has occupied since 2010. The country has dipped to third in the World Economic Forum (WEF) rankings while the United States has moved up a step to take second place. Switzerland remains in first place, its fifth year in a row. The WEF report assesses 12 factors that drive long-term growth and prosperity, including infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, labour market efficiency, health and primary education, to rank 137 countries.
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/singapore-slips-a-notch-to-3rd-most-competitive-economy

Singapore Real Estate

SC Global unit buys Jervois Gardens for S$72m
A subsidiary of luxury residential developer SC Global has picked up Jervois Gardens through a collective sale at S$72 million. The price works out to nearly S$1,511 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) for the 34,038-sq-ft freehold site. No development charge is payable. Under the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Master Plan 2014, the site is zoned for residential use with 1.4 plot ratio. Inclusive of an additional 10 per cent gross floor area (GFA) for balconies, the unit land price works out to a lower S$1,373 psf ppr. The sale is subject to the approval of the Strata Titles Board.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/sc-global-unit-buys-jervois-gardens-for-s72m
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/jervois-gardens-sold-for-s72-million-to-sc-global
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/jervois-gardens-fetches-s-72m-in-en-bloc-sale-9252794

Market for big properties on the hop
The third quarter of this year will go down as the most active one for big-ticket property transactions since the third quarter of 2013. Such transactions, defined as those worth at least S$10 million, hit S$9.38 billion as at Sept 25, up 4.1 per cent from Q2’s S$9.01 billion. Q3 2013’s record stands at S$13.84 billion. The preliminary year-to-date tally compiled by Savills Research & Consultancy is S$23.73 billion – higher than last year’s whole-year figure of S$22.66 billion.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/market-for-big-properties-on-the-hop

Worst seems to be over for CBD Grade A office rental market
Firmer signs of a turnaround in prime office rents and prices have emerged from the latest data from property consultancies, as Grade A office rents and prices in Singapore’s Central Business District (CBD) not only improved for the second straight quarter but also rose at a faster clip. This has led JLL Singapore head of research and consultancy Tay Huey Ying to opine that the worst appears to be over for this market.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/worst-seems-to-be-over-for-cbd-grade-a-office-rental-market

Land market springing to life: Maybank Kim Eng
Singapore’s land market has sprung to life and the property sector is about to get even busier in the months ahead, according to a report released on Monday. Just how robust the sector is will get an early test tomorrow when tenders close for a prime commercial site in Beach Road, noted the Maybank Kim Eng report. It said a good result for the site will boost optimism across the sector and likely lift property shares, from real estate investment trusts (Reits) to developers.
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/land-market-springing-to-life-maybank-kim-eng

Singapore home prices have bottomed, Hong Kong ‘crazy,’ BNP says
Singapore home prices have reached a bottom and will rebound, while Hong Kong’s “crazy” housing market will continue to defy gravity, according to BNP Paribas. “Very significant” income growth will drive the first leg of a recovery in home prices in Singapore, where property ownership as a proportion of household assets is near a record low, BNP’s Asia-Pacific head of research for financial institutions and property Wee Liat Lee said in an interview while visiting the city-state. That will boost prices by 10 per cent to 15 per cent over the next 12 to 15 months, in turn luring foreign buyers, especially from China, Lee said.
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/singapore-home-prices-have-bottomed-hong-kong-crazy-bnp-says
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-26/singapore-home-prices-have-bottomed-hong-kong-crazy-bnp-says

Companies’ Brief

MIT expands strategy to include data centres outside Singapore
Singapore-focused real estate investment trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust (MIT), will be expanding its remit to include data centres beyond Singapore’s shores. Its manager, Mapletree Industrial Trust Management, announced on Tuesday that MIT’s principal investment strategy will be expanded to include real estate and real estate-related assets used primarily as data centres worldwide beyond Singapore.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/mit-expands-strategy-to-include-data-centres-outside-singapore

Keong Hong Holdings opens first hotel in the Maldives
Building construction, property and hotel investor and developer Keong Hong Holdings welcomed its first hotel in the Maldives. The Mercure Maldives Kooddoo Hotel, owned by Pristine Island Investment, a joint venture (JV) company set up by Keong Hong Construction, the group’s wholly owned subsidiary, and JV partners Sansui Holding, BRC Asia and L3 Development, opened on Monday.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/keong-hong-holdings-opens-first-hotel-in-the-maldives-0
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/keong-hong-and-partners-open-first-maldives-hotel

Proposals for sale of The Excelsior, Hong Kong, does not meet expectations: Mandarin Oriental
Mandarin Oriental International Limited said that none of the proposals received recently for the sale of The Excelsior, Hong Kong, had met fully its expectations or transaction requirements. “As the proposals have not provided the basis for the sale of the property at the current time, the company is continuing to review all options, including those that may result in redevelopment of the property into a commercial building,” said the luxury hotel chain in a Singapore Exchange filing on Wednesday.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/proposals-for-sale-of-the-excelsior-hong-kong-does-not-meet-expectations-mandarin
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-27/mandarin-scraps-sale-of-hong-kong-s-excelsior-as-bids-fall-short

GIC affiliates team up with India developer to buy US$94m Mumbai land parcel
The affiliates of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC is set to pick up, through a joint venture with a leading real estate developer in India, a land parcel for about US$94 million. GIC and K Raheja Corp (KRC) Group have entered into a 50:50 JV shareholding to acquire the three-acre land parcel from Siemens in Worli, a prime locality in Mumbai, India. The JV has earmarked the plot of land off Dr Annie Besant Road, Ltd, for a landmark office development.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/gic-affiliates-team-up-with-india-developer-to-buy-us94m-mumbai-land-parcel

Pacific Star Development’s unit signs MOU with Indonesian developer on waterfront project
Pacific Star Development Ltd has partnered an Indonesian developer to develop a waterfront project in Jakarta. Pacific Star’s wholly-owned subsidiary, PSD Singapore Pte Ltd, has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with PT Kukuh Mandiri Lestari (KML) to jointly develop mixed-use high rise developments on 10 hectares of prime seafront land in Pantai Indah Kapuk 2 (PIK 2) in Jakarta, Indonesia.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/pacific-star-developments-unit-signs-mou-with-indonesian-developer-on-waterfront

Views, Reviews & Forum

Green buildings help in climate change fight
It is the year 2500 in Singapore. We travel with driverless cars, Mars is a much loved tourist spot, and robots live and walk among us as peers. One catch – we’re all underwater, because sea levels have risen more than six metres, based on projections by some scientists.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion/green-buildings-help-in-climate-change-fight

Asean, South Asia on path to connected growth by 2037
Two decades ago, Asia was in the grip of a broad economic crisis. Through the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, regional stock markets lost more than 60 per cent of their value. Already fragile government reserves ran dry. By May 1998, Indonesia’s sovereign rating had fallen to CCC+.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion/asean-south-asia-on-path-to-connected-growth-by-2037