SG Morning Call｜UOB Names Its New Group CFO; CLI to Acquire Wingate for A$200 Million

Market Snapshot

Singapore stocks opened higher on Monday. STI rose 0.1%, SIA rose 0.3%, UOB fell 0.5%; YZJ Shipbldg rose 2%.

Stocks to Watch

UOB : Its head of group corporate banking Leong Yung Chee will replace chief financial officer (CFO) Lee Wai Fai as CFO on Apr 22, 2025. The bank said on Friday that Lee is retiring from his CFO role after 20 years. Edmund Leong, who has specialised in the capital markets for 16 years, will take over from Leong as head of group corporate banking. Shares of UOB ended Friday  0.3 per cent or S$0.10 higher at S$37.35 before the news.

CapitaLand Investment (CLI) : The real estate asset manager will acquire the property and corporate credit investment management business of Wingate Group in Australia for A$200 million (S$173 million), plus a three-year performance based earnout. This is expected to boost CLI’s funds under management to S$115 billion, said the group on Monday. Shares of CLI ended Friday flat at S$2.65.

Trading halt: Koh Brothers Eco Engineering requested for a trading halt pending the release of an announcement. The counter ended Friday 20.6 per cent or S$0.007 higher at S$0.041 before the news.

SG Local News

No rush for MAS to ease monetary policy early in 2025, as uncertainty over Trump lingers

After more than two years of holding steady, Singapore’s central bank is expected to start easing monetary policy in 2025. The question is when exactly.

Core inflation is officially expected to cool to under 2 per cent – the level that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) sees as consistent with price stability – by end-2024. In October, it fell to 2.1 per cent, the lowest since 2021.

But most economists expect policy to ease from April at the earliest, as the MAS waits to see what incoming US President Donald Trump does.

Two-thirds of Singaporean firms cut AI investments over trust concerns

Over two-thirds of Singaporean businesses are scaling back their investments in AI due to trust issues, according to Qlik.

In a report, Qlik said this trend is more pronounced in Singapore compared to the global average, where 61% of AI decision-makers cite reduced investment as a consequence of trust concerns, rising to 74% locally.