SGX Weekly Review | Great Eastern Soared 40.55%; OCBC Posts Record Q1 Profit; SingPost H2 Profit up 93.4% at S$66.9 Million
Market Snapshot
The Singapore stock market fell 0.07%. In terms of individual stocks, Great Eastern soared 40.55%, Top Glove jumped 7.84%, SingPost gained 6.9%, SIA rallied 3.53%.
SG Local News
Singapore Must Recognize Stock-Market Challenges, Wong Says
Singapore must be realistic about the global trends affecting its equities market and what can be done about them, according to Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
It’s still challenging for Singapore to attract listings, Wong said in response to a parliamentary question on Wednesday. However, he said that stock exchanges in places like the UK and Hong Kong have the same issue.
“Strong-growth companies backed by private equity and venture capital have the option to remain private for longer in the high-for-longer interest rate environment,” said Wong, who is also Minister for Finance.
Companies that go public tend to “gravitate” to the US due to its deep and liquid capital market and investor base, Wong said. The government will continue to encourage Singapore-incubated companies to list in the city-state, he added.
OCBC Posts Record Q1 Profit, Makes $1 Bln Bid to Take Great Eastern Private
Singapore's second-largest bank Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp posted on Friday a better-than-expected 5% rise in first-quarter profit and made a S$1.4 billion ($1.04 billion) offer to take its insurer arm Great Eastern private.
OCBC, Great Eastern's biggest shareholder, offered a 37% premium over Great Eastern's last traded shares price to buy the 11.56% stake in the insurer that it does not currently own, valuing the insurer at S$12.12 billon.
Great Eastern Shares Jump 38% as OCBC Mounts S$1.4 Billion Privatisation Bid at S$25.60 Per Share
OCBC : O39 has made a voluntary unconditional general offer of S$1.4 billion for the remaining 11.56 per cent stake in Great Eastern : G07 that it does not own, with the aim to delist its insurance arm.
The offer price of S$25.60 per share represents a 36.9 per cent premium over Great Eastern’s last traded price of S$18.70 before the offer announcement. It is, however, at a 30 per cent discount to Great Eastern’s embedded value per share of S$36.59 as at Dec 31, 2023.
Great Eastern closed at S$25.72, up 37.5 per cent or S$7.02 on Friday.
SingPost H2 Profit up 93.4% at S$66.9 Million; Proposes S$0.0056 Per Share Final Dividend
SINGAPORE Post’s (SingPost : S08) net profit for the second half ended March rose 93.4 per cent to S$66.9 million from S$34.6 million a year earlier.
This resulted in an earnings per share (EPS) of S$0.0273 for the second half, up from S$0.013 in H2 FY2023.
Including distribution to perpetual securities holders, EPS for the period stood at S$0.0297, up from S$0.0154 a year prior.
Thai Billionaire’s Frasers Property Earnings Drop by 82%
Frasers Property Ltd., the developer controlled by Thailand’s richest man Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, posted a sharp drop in profit for the first half of its fiscal year, as it continued to bear the brunt of a global real estate downturn and high borrowing costs.
The Singapore-based property conglomerate recorded a net profit attributable to common shareholders of S$35.8 million ($26.4 million) for the six months ended March 31, it said in an exchange filing late Friday. That’s an 82% plunge from a year earlier, and compares with a S$74 million loss in the prior six-month period. Revenue slumped 20% year-on-year to S$1.55 billion.
Genting Singapore Nearly Doubles Q1 Net Profit to S$247.4 Million on CNY Tourism Spending
RESORTS World Sentosa (RWS) operator Genting Singapore : G13 on Friday (May 10) reported a net profit of S$247.4 million for the first quarter ended March, an increase of 91.5 per cent from S$129.2 million in the previous corresponding period.
The group posted a revenue increase of 61.9 per cent to S$784.4 million from S$484.5 million a year ago.
Its gaming segment revenue rose 69.5 per cent to S$576 million, while non-gaming segment revenue climbed 44.2 per cent to S$208.3 million.
Keppel Sells Stake in Dyna-Mac for S$100 Million
KEPPEL’s subsidiary has sold its entire stake in oil and gas company Dyna-Mac : NO4 to Hanwha Group for S$100 million, as the company continues its shift towards becoming an asset manager.
Keppel’s : BN4 entire stake in Dyna-Mac – held by subsidiary KepInvest Holdings – accounted for 23.9 per cent of the contractor’s issued share capital, and comes up to a market value of about S$90 million based on the sale shares on May 9.
Hanwha Ocean, the shipbuilding arm of Hanwha Group, will be buying over 21.5 per cent of Dyna-Mac’s shares, while the group’s other subsidiary, Hanwha Aerospace, will be holding onto 2.4 per cent.
AEM Tumbles After Q1 Earnings Miss
Shares of mainboard-listed AEM Holdings fell 12.9 per cent or S$0.30 lower at S$2.02 on Thursday (May 9) after the group posted an 85 per cent drop in net profit for its first quarter ended March.
On Wednesday, AEM, which provides advanced chip testing solutions, posted an 85 per cent fall in net profit to S$2.4 million for the first quarter, from S$15.6 million in the same period a year ago.
This came as revenue declined 38.3 per cent to S$94.2 million from S$152.7 million over the same period last year. The company noted that the semiconductor industry is still undergoing a prolonged cyclical downturn.
AEM’s contract manufacturing revenue was adversely impacted by the slower-than-expected recovery of its key customer and a buildup of inventory in the life science and industrial sectors. However, the group expects its two recent contract wins to grow revenue in FY2025 to “triple-digit millions” – five times FY2023 levels.
UOB Profit Beats Estimates as Wealth Fees Cushion Slower Lending
United Overseas Bank Ltd. first-quarter profit came in above estimates as gains in wealth and card fees cushioned a slight drop in lending income.
Net income, excluding one-off costs, fell 0.7% to S$1.57 billion ($1.2 billion) from a year earlier in the three months ended March 31, Southeast Asia’s third-largest lender said Wednesday. That compares with the S$1.49 billion average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The bank maintained its outlook for lending and fee growth.
UOB, controlled by the billionaire Wee family, is among lenders that stand to benefit as expectations turn to a higher-for-longer global rates environment. That may help balance out the impact of a slowing property market in Singapore, where the bank is based. Rivals have also pointed to better fees from transactions by wealthy clients as stock markets pick up.
SIA and Scoot First Airlines to Get Neste's SingaporE-made Sustainable Fuel at Changi Airport
The Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group has signed an agreement with refinery Neste to purchase 1,000 tonnes of neat Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel for airlines SIA and Scoot.
This will make the two airlines the first operating out of Changi Airport to receive sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) produced by Neste in Singapore, said SIA, Scoot and Neste in a joint media release on Monday (May 6).
Microsoft Bets Big on South-East Asia, Pledges Billions in AI and Cloud Investments
Microsoft chairman and chief executive Satya Nadella last week completed a three-country tour across South-east Asia from April 30 to May 2, with each stop delivering big-ticket investments and upskilling initiatives.
Nadella’s first stop was Indonesia, where Microsoft announced that it will invest US$1.7 billion over the next four years in new cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, as well as in AI skilling opportunities for 840,000 people.
Two days later, Nadella was in Bangkok where Microsoft announced that it will open its first data centre region in Thailand to expand the availability of the company’s hyperscale cloud services.
The following day, on May 2, Microsoft revealed plans to invest US$2.2 billion in Malaysia over the next four years.
The investment – the single largest in Microsoft’s 32-year history in the nation – includes building cloud and AI infrastructure, creating AI skilling opportunities for an additional 200,000 people and establishing a national AI Centre of Excellence.
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