SG Morning Call | Malaysia’s Construction Giant IJM Rocked by Probe into Alleged RM2.5 Billion Money Laundering

Market Snapshot

Singapore stocks opened lower on Tuesday. STI down 0.5%; Keppel, DBS, SGX down 1%.

Stocks in Focus

$SGX(S68.SI)$: The SGX will expand its current suite of offerings to introduce futures on longer-dated Japanese government bonds (JGB), it announced on Monday. SGX will make 20-year mini JGB futures available for trading on Jan 26, just a few days after the Bank of Japan sets monetary policy. Shares of SGX closed S$0.09 or 0.5 per cent lower at S$17.61 on Monday, after the news.

$Mapletree PanAsia Com Tr(N2IU.SI)$: Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust (MPACT): The trust, alongside parent company Mapletree Investments, said in a joint statement on Tuesday that they have appointed SP Group to design, build and operate a new distributed district cooling (DDC) system at HarbourFront precinct. It will connect five buildings: Bank of America HarbourFront, the new HarbourFront Centre, the existing HarbourFront Towers 1 and 2, and VivoCity. The project will be one of Singapore’s largest brownfield district cooling deployments. Units of MPACT ended Monday at S$1.47 before the news.

$Boustead(F9D.SI)$, $Jumbo(42R.SI)$: Jumbo Group is proposing to acquire an interest in a Tai Seng Street property owned by Boustead Industrial Fund (BIF) through a special purpose vehicle. Explaining the rationale for the deal, Jumbo Group said on Monday that as it occupies more than half the leasable area in the property, the proposed acquisition allows it to mitigate exposure to future rental volatility and reduce risks of relocation disruptions as a co-investor. BIF is a private real estate trust established by Boustead’s real estate solutions division, Boustead Projects. Boustead shares ended Monday 0.5 per cent or S$0.01 down at S$1.82, before the news; Jumbo Group shares closed the day 1.7 per cent or S$0.005 up at S$0.30.

SG Local News

Bank of Singapore Appoints OCBC's Collins Chin as Global CFO

Bank of Singapore has appointed Collins Chin as its new global chief financial officer on Monday, the private banking arm of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) said in a statement.

Chin, formerly head of investor relations at OCBC, takes on the role with immediate effect and will join the bank's global management committee, reporting to CEO Jason Moo.

Malaysia’s Construction Giant IJM Rocked by Probe into Alleged RM2.5 Billion Money Laundering

Malaysia’s anti-graft agency has opened an investigation into IJM Corporation, identifying a senior executive and a company adviser as persons of interest in alleged money laundering involving about RM2.5 billion (S$793 million) – a development that sent the construction group’s shares sharply lower on Monday (Jan 19).

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, IJM said that officers from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Inland Revenue Board were present at the company’s office to obtain information as part of the authorities’ process.

Global CEO Confidence Sinks to Five-Year Low as AI Divides Corporate Leaders: PwC

Business leaders worldwide are losing confidence in their companies’ near-term growth prospects and are more worried about looming risks, a new study said.

According to PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey, released in conjunction with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan 20, only 30 per cent of chief executives are very or extremely confident about revenue growth over the next 12 months.

This is down from the 38 per cent seen in its survey for 2025 and the 56 per cent peak in its survey for 2022.

Beyond sector-specific demand and supply dynamics, CEOs have become more concerned about near-term threats, which range from macroeconomic volatility and cyber risk to technology disruption and geopolitical conflict.