DAILY NEWS

Daily News – 3rd November 2017

Singapore Economy

Seminar to discuss 2018 business prospects
AS Q4 cranks into its second month, businesses are looking to the new year with expectations – some more optimistic than others. Ginnie Chin, who runs Culum Capital, an online supply-chain finance platform, for example, remembers the 2008 financial crisis with wariness, aware that economic slowdowns come in cycles of 10 years making it just about time for another.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/seminar-to-discuss-2018-business-prospects

Factory activity powers to eight-year peak in October
Factories kept humming in October, with manufacturing activity rising for the 14th straight month to hit an eight-year high. The sector – which makes up a fifth of the economy and has been the star performer this year – is still going strong on the back of broad expansion across most segments, economists said.
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/factory-activity-powers-to-eight-year-peak-in-oct

Singapore Real Estate

Landed home sales headed for best showing in 5 years
The number of landed residential property transactions spiked in the first 10 months of this year, putting the full-year number on track to be the best showing in five years. Property consultants attribute the surge in landed housing deals to the ongoing broader recovery in the residential market.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/landed-home-sales-headed-for-best-showing-in-5-years

Sing Hldgs, Wee Hur to launch Parc Botannia next weekend
Sing Holdings and Wee Hur Holdings will launch Parc Botannia, their new residential project along Fernvale Street in Sengkang on Nov 11. Even as other developers are holding back on launching their projects in anticipation of further price growth next year, Lee Sze Hao, chief executive officer of Sing Holdings, said he believes in launching now when the sentiment is good, on the back of an improved economic showing.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/sing-hldgs-wee-hur-to-launch-parc-botannia-next-weekend
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/sing-holdings-wee-hur-to-launch-parc-botannia

Fourth Avenue residential site triggered for sale with minimum bid of S$448.8m
A residential site at Fourth Avenue under the Reserve List of the first-half 2017 Government Land Sales (GLS) programme has been launched for sale by public tender on Thursday, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) announced. The tender for the land parcel will close at 12nn on Dec 5, with a minimum bid price of S$448.8 million.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/fourth-avenue-residential-site-triggered-for-sale-with-minimum-bid-of-s4488m
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/fourth-avenue-gls-residential-site-launched-for-sale-by-public-tender

Cathay sells cinema chain for $230m
The founding family that has run the historic home-grown Cathay movie theatre chain for more than 80 years is selling its local cinema operations for $230 million.

Cathay Organisation’s Cathay Cineplexes unit will become part of the expanding operations of entertainment company mm2 Asia, the backer of local films such as director Jack Neo’s Ah Boys To Men.
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/cathay-sells-cinema-chain-for-230m

Companies’ Brief

Wee Cho Yaw to retire from UOB board; new chairman named
He will be appointed honorary adviser; Wong Kan Seng to take over from Hsieh Fu Hua as chairman in February. Wee Cho Yaw, Singapore’s most well-known name in banking, will retire from the board of United Overseas Bank, which he had steered for six decades.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/banking-finance/wee-cho-yaw-to-retire-from-uob-board-new-chairman-named
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/banking/wee-cho-yaw-to-retire-from-uob-board-0
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/veteran-banker-wee-cho-yaw-retire-uob-board

DBS, with eye on competition, doubles down on APIs
DBS has moved to create a large-scale banking API (application programming interface) developer platform, aimed at boosting its collaborations with third-party players such as corporates and fintechs. How far such collaborations will pan out for Singapore’s largest bank will depend on the “mutually symbiotic benefits” that it will get from such partnerships, as other players are edging into the spaces that were once the bread and the butter of banks, such as payments.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/banking-finance/dbs-with-eye-on-competition-doubles-down-on-apis

CDL’s China unit ties up with China Vanke
City Developments Ltd’s (CDL) wholly-owned CDL China has tied up with one of China’s leading real estate developers through a partial divestment of CDL China’s interests in two projects in the Yuzhong district of Chongqing for 986 million yuan (S$202 million). Under the strategic partnership with China Vanke Co, CDL China partially divested 70 per cent of Chongqing Huang Huayuan and 50 per cent of Eling Residences to China Vanke’s subsidiary.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/cdls-china-unit-ties-up-with-china-vanke
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/cdls-china-unit-ties-up-with-china-vanke-through-partial-divestment-of-two
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/cdl-unit-china-vanke-in-tie-up-for-two-projects
https://www.edgeprop.sg/property-news/cdl-partners-china-vanke-two-projects-chongqing

Chip Eng Seng terminates sales contracts for Tower Melbourne project due to protracted litigation
Chip Eng Seng Corp has decided to scrap some 556 sales contracts with buyers of its units in the Australian residential project Tower Melbourne as a result of a protracted litigation that has stalled the project’s demolition works for four years. The mainboard-listed property and construction group said that it was also exploring viable exit options that includes a sale of the property.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/chip-eng-seng-terminates-sales-contracts-for-tower-melbourne-project-due-to-protracted
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/chip-eng-seng-terminates-tower-melbourne-project-on-protracted-hold-up

Keppel-KBS US Reit has ambitious buying plans
Ambitious acquisition plans worth over US$670 million (S$911 million) are on the cards for Keppel-KBS US Reit as it readies for its listing here, it said yesterday.

The Reit’s joint sponsors, Keppel Capital and KBS Pacific Advisors, said the trust has the option of buying four other properties in the United States – two in Seattle, one in Austin and one in Atlanta – with a combined gross value of over US$320 million to US$350 million in the next one to two years.
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/keppel-kbs-us-reit-has-ambitious-buying-plans

Views, Reviews & Forum

NTUC Health launches second nursing home
The labour movement’s second nursing home was launched yesterday, but it will not just focus on delivering care within its walls. NTUC Health’s new facility in Chai Chee Street, which can accommodate up to 350 residents, will aim to get the seniors back home early to continue their rehabilitation in the community.
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/ntuc-health-launches-second-nursing-home