SG Morning Call｜Shipping Disruption from Middle East Crisis Reaches Ports in Asia, Including Singapore

Market Snapshot

Singapore stocks opened lower on Friday. STI down 0.4%; Keppel down 3%.

Stocks in Focus

$Keppel(BN4.SI)$: The group and Simba Telecom have mutually agreed to extend the long-stop date for the proposed M1 deal to May 21. On Thursday, the company said that the regulatory review of the proposed transaction remains under way, and that M1 and Simba are “in the process of making further submissions to the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore”. Shares of Keppel ended 1.5 per cent or S$0.18 lower at S$12.27, before the news.

$Shangri-La HKD(S07.SI)$: The mainboard-listed company posted on Thursday a net profit of US$112.3 million for the full year ended Dec 31, 2025, down 30.4 per cent from US$161.4 million in the year-ago period. This was mainly due to a one-off impairment loss of US$30.4 million from a hotel in the United Kingdom, and a 76.1 per cent decline in effective share of net-value gains on investment properties. Shares of Shangri-La Asia closed flat at HK$5 on Thursday, before the announcement.

$GuocoLand(F17.SI)$: GuocoLand Malaysia (GLM), the wholly owned subsidiary of GuocoLand, said on Thursday it will convene an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to table its proposed privatisation of the unit to disinterested shareholders. No date was specified for the EGM. Its RM1.10 offer price represents a 17.7 per cent premium to GLM’s last-traded share price of RM0.935 on Jan 30. Shares of GuocoLand ended 3.3 per cent or S$0.08 lower at S$2.37 on Thursday, before the news.

$Aoxin Q & M(1D4.SI)$: The group announced on Friday that it has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to acquire a 100 per cent stake in a dental group located in the central region of China. The proposed acquisition is valued at 150 million yuan (S$27.9 million). Shares of Aoxin Q&M ended at S$0.191 on Thursday, S$0.006 or 3 per cent lower.

SG Local News

Singapore Fund Winds Down as $1.4 Billion Student Dorm Bet Sours

Singapore’s Mapletree Investments Pte will liquidate a property fund that once had assets above $1.4 billion, after its bets on college accommodation in the UK and US suffered years of underperformance.

The Mapletree Global Student Accommodation Private Trust, almost three years after halting regular payments to investors, finally came to an end on March 16, according to documents seen by Bloomberg News. Its net internal rate of return by the end of last year was just 1.1%, well short of its initial target of 12%, the documents show.

The fund — which now has assets of around $700 million — had asked its investors to give it more time before returning their capital. But at a vote earlier this month its investors rejected the plans. That has pushed the fund into wind-down, meaning it may ultimately need to sell assets at steep losses to give investors their money back.

Shipping Disruption from Middle East Crisis Reaches Ports in Asia, Including Singapore

Merchant vessels, including oil tankers and cargo ships, have started to queue up at ports across Asia, including Singapore, as the effective closure of the Persian Gulf throws the global shipping network into disarray.

Data provided to The Straits Times shows longer queues and delays at major Asian ports, with experts warning that more vessels carrying Gulf-bound cargoes could seek anchorage in Singapore and Malaysia’s Tanjung Pelepas and Klang ports in the coming weeks if the crisis drags on.