To The Moon

ESR Group announced its FY2022 ended Dec 31, 2022 results on March 22. This is its first set of full-year results following its acquisition of ARA Asset Management which was completed on January 20, 2022. Since then, ESR’s share price is down 46%. In recent weeks, ESR’s share price may have been affected by its undertaking to underwrite $ESR LOGOS REIT(CGIUF)$ ESR-LOGOS REIT’s (E-LOG) $150 million equity fundraising (EFR), some market watchers reckon. In answers to unitholders, E-LOG’s manager has said that the funds raised of around $300 million from a placement and EFR would be used for redevelopment, asset enhancement initiatives (AEI) and acquisitions if any. Among the New Economy assets in E-LOG’s portfolio with leases of more than 40 y

Less than two weeks after the second-biggest bank failure in US history, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell made clear that inflation remains policymakers’ top concern. The Fed chief advised that more Fed tightening may be in store after Wednesday’s interest-rate hike, and that the central bank will raise rates higher than expected if needed. In a press briefing, he also said officials don’t expect to be cutting rates this year — even as the bond market showed traders doubling down on that outcome. Officials are making a calculated risk that, while the recent banking turmoil will likely slow the economy, it won’t mushroom into a broader financial meltdown. While their predecessors got a similar calculation wrong in 2007, regulators are counting on higher capital and liquidity standards,

$AcroMeta(43F.SI)$ Acrometa , previously Acromec Limited, has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with a Thai waste management company on March 21. The company provides non-hazardous waste disposal services and owns and operates one of Thailand’s largest landfills. The unnamed company requires a laboratory in Thailand to test and certify solid waste and sludge to ensure the proper treatment of any hazardous materials. Under the MOU, Acrometa’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Acromec Engineers will design and construct the laboratory while Acrometa’s co-working laboratory space operator Life Sciences Incubator Pte Ltd will operate the lab. In addition, the MOU will offer opportunities to Acrometa and, or its subsidiaries as a join

Lim & Tan Securities analyst Chan En Jie has kept his “buy” call on $DELFI LIMITED(P34.SI)$ Delfi Limited with a higher target price of $1.48 from $1.20 previously. The new target price is pegged to 14.8x of Delfi’s FY2023 P/E or at a 15% discount to its five-year average P/E. In his report dated March 17, Chan’s optimism towards the chocolate confectionery maker is backed by their steady recovery from the pandemic as both top and bottom lines surpassed pre-pandemic FY2019. During the FY2022 ended Dec 31, 2022, Delfi Limited remained the “undisputed market leader of chocolate confectionery products in Indonesia” after its profit rose by 49.9% y-o-y to US$43.9 million ($59.1 million). Delfi’s revenue for the year grew by 19.2% y-o-y

When $SECOND CHANCE PROPERTIES LTD(528.SI)$ Second Chance Properties announces its 1HFY2023 results for the six months to Feb 28, it is likely to report a significantly higher net profit. "Based on the information currently available and the management’s preliminary review of the unaudited consolidated financial statements of the Group for the half year ended Feb 28, 2023, it is expected that the Group’s net profit attributable to shareholders of the Company for 1H2023 will increase significantly when compared to the net profit after tax of $4,601,550 for the financial period ended February 28 2022," the company says in an SGX announcement. The expected increase due to the gain on disposal of few investment properties. "Additionally, there

$BAIDU INC(BAIDF)$ Baidu Inc. surged more than 14% Friday after brokerages including Citigroup tested the company’s just-unveiled ChatGPT-like service and granted it their preliminary approval. Baidu’s leap reversed a 6.4% loss on Thursday after founder Robin Li debuted China’s answer to ChatGPT via recorded video, disappointing investors hoping for a real-time demo of the country’s highest-profile entry in a race to dominate the technology. Artificial intelligence is now a critical area of US-China competition, and Baidu is seen as the frontrunner in this field from China’s tech sector. Its product, which the company calls Ernie Bot, is closely watched as a gauge of how China’s offerings stack up against those from Alphabet Inc. and ChatGPT

Leaders from Singapore and Indonesia have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to develop renewable energy generation projects in Indonesia, both for domestic needs and for export to Singapore. Known as the Green Corridor Project, it will attract an estimated $50 billion of foreign direct investments to Indonesia, reducing the country’s national determined contributions (NDCs), and transferring renewable energy knowledge and skills into Indonesia. According to the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS), the Green Corridor plan is to develop a green manufacturing industry, creating "tens of thousands" of green jobs for Indonesians. Members of SEAS and multiple partners signed the MOU at the Fullerton Hotel in Singapore on March 16. The signing was witnessed by Bapak Luhut

$SINGAPORE AIRLINES LTD(C6L.SI)$ Singapore Airlines group-wide passenger load factor for February reached 86.6 points, up 47.5 points over the year earlier, as its recovery from the pandemic continues. As a group, $SINGAPORE AIRLINES LTD(C6L.SI)$ SIA carried 2.4 million passengers for the month, a dip of 10.7% from January, but was more than four times the number of passengers carried in February 2022. “This was mainly attributable to February being a shorter month, and the cessation of supplementary flights after the year-end peak travel season,” says SIA. The group says that its passenger traffic and load factors remained robust across all route regions in Fe

Singapore’s landlords have made the most of the post-pandemic reopening. With no lockdowns or curbs on in-restaurant dining, Paragon REIT, the real estate investment trust that owns shopping centres in the city-state and Australia, has more than doubled its annual dividend from 2020. Overall, the members of the island’s main index of institutional landlords paid out nearly $1 billion more to unit-holders in 2022 than two years earlier. But now, their cash-generation engines are looking tired. High global interest rates are pushing property owners’ funding costs higher, while an uncertain growth outlook makes tenants wary of expensive leases. Malls and hotels may still benefit from a return of Chinese tourists, but there could be weakness elsewhere. In recent years, a big share of office sp

The aviation sector may have underperformed the market over the past month owing to mixed earnings, but the outlook for the sector remains upbeat, say DBS Group Research analysts Jason Sum, Tabitha Foo and Paul Yong. The DBS analysts think top picks like $SINGAPORE TECH ENGINEERING LTD(S63.SI)$ Singapore Technologies Engineering (ST Engineering) and $SINGAPORE AIRLINES LTD(C6L.SI)$ Singapore Airlines (SIA) C6L 0.00% are “flying under investors’ radars”, with improving fundamentals yet to be reflected in their share prices and valuations. “Our optimistic outlook on the aviation sector was reinforced by the latest earnings season, which saw a noticeable change in the tone of management co