SG Morning Highlights | KKR, Macquarie Eyeing Waste Management Firm SembWaste
Singapore shares opened higher on Wednesday. The $Straits Times Index(STI.SI)$
Advancers / Decliners is 79 to 79, with 96.51 million securities worth S$83.53 million changing hands.
Breaking News
Launching in H2 2024: Digital platform for banks to share data on fishy transactions
A digital platform for financial institutions to upload and share information on suspicious activities and entities is expected to launch in the second half of 2024.
Sharing of information between banks on the platform, known as Cosmic, will be voluntary in the initial phase of the launch, expected to last two years. Cosmic is short for Collaborative Sharing of ML/TF Information & Cases.
After that, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) plans to make the sharing of information in higher-risk situations mandatory, said the central bank in a statement on Tuesday (May 9).
Bankruptcy applications up to 959 in Q1 and may rise further; property foreclosures yet to pick up
Individual filed 959 bankruptcy applications in the first quarter of 2023, a slight uptick from the quarterly average of 912 applications in 2022.
This could rise further, "as a small segment of more vulnerable borrowers face higher risks of financial distress amid higher interest rates and slower economic growth", said Minister of State for Trade and Industry Alvin Tan in Parliament on Tuesday (May 9).
On mortgage listings, he noted that property-related foreclosures are yet to pick up.
Stocks to Watch$SASSEUR REIT(CRPU.SI)$ : Sasseur Real Estate Investment Trust, which owns outlet malls in China, posted a distribution per unit (DPU) of S$0.01849 for the first quarter ended Mar 31 – a 1.5 per cent increase from the previous year.
This comes after a retention of 3.8 per cent or S$900,000 of distributable income for working capital purposes, according to a bourse filing on Wednesday (May 10).
The manager of the Reit attributed the DPU – the highest that the Reit has recorded for Q1 since its listing – to strong sales performance. Outlet sales for the quarter rose 17.9 per cent on the year to 1.3 billion yuan (S$249.2 million), boosted by pent-up consumer spending.
$OVERSEA-CHINESE BANKING CORP(O39.SI)$
This was compared with S$1.4 billion for the year-ago period, according to financial statements released on Wednesday (May 10).
The earnings beat the S$1.6 billion consensus forecast in a Bloomberg survey of five analysts. OCBC was the last among its local peers to report its quarterly results this season.
$SEMBCORP INDUSTRIES LTD(U96.SI)$
Sembcorp, which is 49.3 per cent owned by Singapore's state investor Temasek, has hired HSBC to run the sale of SembWaste, according to the sources. HSBC declined to comment.
The first round of non-binding bids are due by early June, said one of the sources, declining to be named as the matter is private.
Disclaimer: Investing carries risk. This is not financial advice. The above content should not be regarded as an offer, recommendation, or solicitation on acquiring or disposing of any financial products, any associated discussions, comments, or posts by author or other users should not be considered as such either. It is solely for general information purpose only, which does not consider your own investment objectives, financial situations or needs. TTM assumes no responsibility or warranty for the accuracy and completeness of the information, investors should do their own research and may seek professional advice before investing.
Great