SG Morning Call | Singapore Stocks Open Higher on Monday; Hongkong Land Jumps 2.5%

Market Snapshot

Singapore stocks opened higher on Monday. Hongkong Land rose 2.5%; Seatrium rose 1.1%; Sembcorp and ThaiBev rose 1%; DBS rose 0.8%; Singtel rose 0.7%; UOB rose 0.4%; Olam fell 1.6%.

Stocks to Watch

$Genting Sing(G13.SI)$: Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) chief casino operator Andrew MacDonald stepped down on Friday, Genting Singapore, the owner of RWS, said on Saturday. This comes after MacDonald, a former Marina Bay Sands (MBS) employee, said in August that he was banned from MBS premises for allegedly poaching high-rollers. Shares of Genting Singapore ended trading on Friday up 1.2 per cent or S$0.01 at S$0.845, before the update.

$CityDev(C09.SI)$: CDL subsidiary Chenghong Shanghai acquired a 51 per cent stake in a Shanghai mixed-use site for 4.6 billion yuan (S$853.7 million) under a joint venture with China partner Lianfa Group, which holds the rest. This will raise the company’s pro-forma net gearing by 3.3 per cent to 72.5 per cent, the property player said on Friday. As Shanghai’s residential sales have been strong, the company said it is confident in the demand for the project’s residential units. CDL shares rose 0.4 per cent or S$0.02 to S$5.22 on Friday, before the deal was announced.

$KEPPEL REIT(K71U.SI)$: Its manager on Friday announced that Chua Hsien Yang, the current managing director and head of mergers and acquisitions, will be appointed as its chief executive from Jan 1, 2025. Its current chief executive, Koh Wee Lih, will step down on Dec 31, 2024, and take on the role of managing director of business development. Keppel Reit units fell 0.6 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.895 on Friday, before the news.

$Oxley(5UX.SI)$: No decision was made to prosecute Oxley Holdings chief executive Ching Chiat Kwong as investigations against him for alleged involvement in an Italian corruption probe concluded, the property developer said. Ching has since filed a report for slander and extortion against Claudio Vanin, who accused him of obtaining a favourable price for the purchase of two buildings owned by the municipality of Venice – Palazzo Dona and Palazzo Papadopoli. In response to BT queries, Oxley said on Oct 30 that the purchase of one of the buildings, Palazzo Papadopoli, was conducted above board.  The counter closed flat at S$0.079 on Friday, before the announcement. 

SG Local News

Saudi Arabia Nears Deal to Take Over $4 Billion Olam Unit

Olam Group Ltd. received a non-binding offer from a state-owned Saudi investment firm for its agribusiness unit, according to a statement Friday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report.

“The company is reviewing and in discussions regarding a potential sale of its stake in the Olam Agri business,” Olam said. “No definitive terms or formal legal documentation have been agreed upon.”

Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg had reported that Saudi Agricultural & Livestock Investment Co., controlled by the country’s sovereign wealth fund, was in advanced talks on a transaction that would value Olam Agri Holdings at about $4 billion.

JTC Launches Singapore’S First District-Level Smart Grid in Punggol

JTC has tapped Univers and PacificLight to pioneer Singapore’s first district-level smart grid in Punggol Digital District (PDD), integrating solar panels with a battery-energy storage system to enhance energy resilience and reduce costs.

The smart grid for the business park will harness solar energy, store it in batteries, and distribute it within the district, or, in time to come, feed the power back to the national grid, said Nelson Liew, JTC’s group director of new estates, at a media briefing.

This on-site renewable energy generation is expected to lower electricity costs for JTC and PDD tenants, marking a significant step towards sustainable urban development.

Genting Singapore’s RWS Casino Chief Andrew MacDonald Steps Down

Chief casino officer and director at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), Mr Andrew MacDonald, has stepped down.

He had done so to “pursue personal interests”, said mainboard-listed Genting Singapore, the owner of RWS, in a bourse filing on Nov 2. It listed the date of cessation as Nov 1, and provided no further elaboration.

The 64-year-old had been “responsible for overseeing the overall casino business at RWS”, said the group.

Disgraced Three Arrows Founder’s Wife Sells Singapore Mansion for $51 Million

The wife of Zhu Su, the co-founder of collapsed cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), has managed to sell a mansion she owns in Singapore for $51 million, despite a court-imposed freeze against some of the couple’s other assets.

The sale by Ms Tao Yaqiong, also known as Evelyn, was inked in July and completed in October, according to property records seen by Bloomberg News. The so-called good class bungalow (GCB) sits on 1,446 sq m of land in Dalvey Road, near the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Ms Tao bought the house for $28.5 million in 2020 and has since redeveloped it.

Zhu, along with co-founder Kyle Davies, once built 3AC into one of the world’s largest crypto-native hedge funds. But it imploded in 2022 after a series of bad bets, amid a broader crypto rout and a spate of collapses in the sector.