DAILY NEWS

Daily News – 4 Dec 2020 (Fri)

Singapore Real Estate

‘Calibrated’ GLS, falling condo inventory could revive en bloc market: analysts
The “conservative” and “calibrated” release of residential supply under the first-half 2021 government land sales (GLS) programme is likely to revive interest in the en bloc market, analysts said on Thursday. Supply will rise by 17.2 per cent for H1 2021.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/calibrated-gls-falling-condo-inventory-could-revive-en-bloc-market-analysts

Big tenants trading places as building owners make big changes
Amid the lull in the Singapore office leasing market, some occupiers continue to make relocation plans. CIMB Bank has leased more than 50,000 sq ft in the office podium of 30 Raffles Place, formerly known as Chevron House, The Business Times understands. The development was refurbished recently.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/big-tenants-trading-places-as-building-owners-make-big-changes

Supply of land kept moderate amid economic uncertainty
The Government has moderately increased the supply of land for private homes but has kept the commercial and hotel sites unchanged for the first half of next year, as unsold home stocks fell and some developers are starting to buy land via collective sales.
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/supply-of-land-kept-moderate-amid-economic-uncertainty

Most unit owners have found new homes
Most owners of the units on the land with a 60-year lease in Geylang Lorong 3 have found new homes, with the remaining few still considering their options. The land will be returned to the state, when the leases expire on Dec 31, for redevelopment.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/most-unit-owners-have-found-new-homes

Singapore Economy

Covid-19 prompts spurt in new, small businesses like no other crisis
The Covid-19 crisis has thrown Singapore into its worst recession since independence. But it has also ignited the biggest spark of small business formation in crisis times. The Business Times found that the Republic has seen a mushrooming number of businesses formed over the past five months – since emerging from the partial lockdown in June – and across the year.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/covid-19-prompts-spurt-in-new-small-businesses-like-no-other-crisis

Resident incomes fell in June, but employment levels bounce back
The income of Singaporeans and permanent residents in June fell for the first time in 16 years, but resident employment levels have since bounced back to pre-Covid levels, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has said. Its findings on the impact of the pandemic in its annual Labour Force Singapore Advance Release 2020 report, issued on Thursday…
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/resident-incomes-fell-in-june-but-employment-levels-bounce-back
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/jobs/median-income-of-residents-dips-for-first-time-in-16-years

Singapore PMI continues reversal back to the norm
Singapore’s manufacturing sentiment continued to remain buoyant for the fifth straight month in November, although the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dipped marginally from the previous month. The November reading fell by 0.1 point to 50.4, marking a slower expansion than October, according to the Singapore Institute of Purchasing and Materials Management (SIPMM) on Thursday.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/singapore-pmi-continues-reversal-back-to-the-norm
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/factory-activity-expands-for-fifth-month

EU and Singapore must continue to ‘stay the course’ on free trade: Iswaran
Bilateral trade between Singapore and the European Union (EU) has held steady despite the pandemic, and both sides must continue to “stay the course” on free trade even as populist pressures mount globally, said Minister-in-Charge of Trade Relations S Iswaran on Thursday evening.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/eu-and-singapore-must-continue-to-stay-the-course-on-free-trade-iswaran
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/two-deals-inked-to-facilitate-spore-eu-cooperation

Singapore is world’s second-most connected country in DHL ranking
Despite the coronavirus pandemic and the disruption in trade and capital flows and economic downturn it caused this year, Singapore has been ranked the world’s second-most connected country. It was ranked first for the size of its international flows in goods, capital, information and people relative to its domestic economy, in the 2020 edition of the DHL Global Connectedness Index (GCI).
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/transport/singapore-is-worlds-second-most-connected-country-in-dhl-ranking
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/singapore-ranked-second-most-connected-economy

Half of Singapore consumers prefer to shop local to help Covid-hit firms: poll
Around half of Singapore consumers prefer to shop at local businesses to help them recover from the business fallout of Covid-19, according to a study of Asean consumer sentiment done by UOB. In a press statement on Thursday, UOB head of Group Business Banking, Lawrence Loh, said that the results of the study, which polled 1,000 respondents in Singapore, offered “welcome relief” to businesses under pressure.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/banking-finance/half-of-singapore-consumers-prefer-to-shop-local-to-help-covid-hit-firms-poll
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/half-of-singapore-consumers-prefer-to-shop-local-to-help-covid-hit-firms-survey

Companies’ Brief

Keppel raises US$400m in first closing for Vietnam-focused real estate fund
Keppel Corp’s asset management arm Keppel Capital and property arm Keppel Land have launched a Vietnam-focused real estate fund, which raised US$400 million in its first closing. This includes co-investment commitment from an unnamed global institutional investor, Keppel Capital and Keppel Land said on Friday in a press statement.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/keppel-raises-us400m-in-first-closing-for-vietnam-focused-real-estate-fund

Ascendas Reit preferential offering oversubscribed; raises S$396.5m
Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust’s (Ascendas Reit) preferential offering was oversubscribed, raising gross proceeds of around S$396.5 million, its manager said Thursday night in an exchange filing. The offering was part of an equity fundraising exercise, announced last month, alongside a private placement that raised about S$800 million.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/ascendas-reit-preferential-offering-oversubscribed-raises-s3965m

Credit Bureau Asia IPO chalks up 15% premium on debut
Credit Bureau Asia (CBA) on Thursday made a solid debut on the Singapore Exchange’s (SGX) mainboard, closing at a 15 per cent premium to its initial public offering (IPO) price of S$0.93. It ended the day at S$1.07, up S$0.14 after some 9.4 million shares changed hands. The stock had opened at S$1.15.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/credit-bureau-asia-ipo-chalks-up-15-premium-on-debut
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/company-briefs-credit-bureau-asia

Hong Lai Huat proposes to raise up to S$26.9 million via rights issue
Hong Lai Huat Group is proposing to undertake a renounceable non-underwritten rights issue to raise up to S$26.9 million to partly finance its second mixed-use development project in Phnom Penh. It proposes to issue up to 295.91 million new ordinary shares on the basis of four rights shares for every three existing ordinary shares held by shareholders at an issue price of S$0.091 per rights share.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/hong-lai-huat-proposes-to-raise-up-to-s269-million-via-rights-issue

SEEDS Capital seeks co-investors to back deep-tech startups
Armed with up to S$150 million from the Startup SG Equity scheme, SEEDS Capital is on the lookout for more co-investors to back early-stage, deep-tech startups in the Republic. During Budget 2020 in February, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said that the government will set aside an additional S$300 million under the Startup SG Equity co-investment scheme to catalyse investment into deep-tech startups.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/seeds-capital-seeks-co-investors-to-back-deep-tech-startups

Views, Reviews, Forum & Others

Is the secret to sustainable finance at our fingertips?
Imagine the view across Singapore, free of haze from distant forest fires, and think of the boost to people’s health, the region’s biodiversity and even the global climate. Today, an innovation at the crossroads of technology and finance is making that a little more likely, and it is us – millions of ordinary people – who can make it happen through something as simple as a smartphone.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion/is-the-secret-to-sustainable-finance-at-our-fingertips

Singapore to tackle greenwashing, carbon trading, to boost sustainable finance: MAS
Singapore plans to take a slice of the carbon trading market, while targeting the greenwashing that threatens the surprisingly unabated demand for sustainable finance. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is looking at ways to fix the fragmented, inefficient market of carbon-credit trading, said its managing director Ravi Menon.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/banking-finance/singapore-to-tackle-greenwashing-carbon-trading-to-boost-sustainable-finance-mas

Update on COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) Situation

One new case from workers’ dormitory, eight more imported ones
The lone locally transmitted coronavirus case reported yesterday was from a workers’ dormitory, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a statement last night. The man was asymptomatic and the infection was detected through proactive surveillance, said MOH, adding that his polymerase chain reaction test result indicated a low viral load.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/one-new-case-from-workers-dormitory-eight-more-imported-ones
*For more information, please visit the Ministry of Health (MOH) website at www.moh.gov.sg and refer to go.gov.sg/mohupdates for updates on the COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) situation