Market Snapshot

Singapore stocks opened lower on Monday. STI fell 0.1%; Nio up 4%; Seatrium up 2.3%; SingPost up 1.8%; Singtel fell 1%.

Stocks to Watch

Keppel: The global asset manager on Monday announced that its private investment vehicle Keppel Infrastructure Fund (KIF) and its co-investor have acquired a 100 per cent stake in the UK-headquartered Global Marine Group (GMG), from investment affiliates of J F Lehman and Company. GMG is a subsea cable solutions provider and this acquisition marks the first investment by KIF. Shares of Keppel closed 0.7 per cent or S$0.05 lower at S$6.77 on Friday.

Sabana Reit: The former director of Kleio One-Solution, which was once a tenant of Sabana Reit, was sentenced to three days’ jail on Friday for contempt of court. Lin Duanliang had failed to comply with examination orders, as well as other directions from the court, according to an affidavit filed by Donald Han, the chief executive officer of Sabana Reit’s manager.

Lin was the director of Kleio One-Solution until a liquidator was appointed for the company in September 2024. The ongoing tussle over unpaid rent dates back to November 2023. According to the affidavit seen by The Business Times, Lin had engaged in contempt of court on three occasions. Units of Sabana Reit ended 1.4 per cent or S$0.005 higher at S$0.365 on Friday.

HongkongLand USD: The property developer on Friday posted an underlying profit of US$410 million for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2024, down 44 per cent from US$734 million a year ago. The group said in a bourse filing that its underlying profits had been affected by non-cash provisions from the Chinese mainland build-to-sell business.

The loss per share for FY2024 came in at US$0.6276, compared with a loss per share of US$0.2629 a year ago. The board is proposing a final dividend of US$0.17 a share. If approved by its shareholders, this would take the total dividend for the year to US$0.23 a share, up from US$0.22 a year ago. The final dividend will be paid out on May 14. The counter ended at US$4.46, down US$0.12 or 2.6 per cent, on Friday.

SG Local News

Singapore’s Population Is Aging Fast. It Hopes AI Can Help Manage Its Elderly Care

From listening devices that detect falls to “patient sitter” systems in hospitals and robots helping with exercise in care homes, Singapore is looking to artificial intelligence to help manage the health of its elderly population.

By 2030, a quarter of Singaporeans will be 65 or older — in 2010, the figure was one in 10 — and it’s estimated that around 6,000 nurses and care staff will need to be hired annually to meet Singapore’s health workforce targets.

Technology is much needed to help fill the care gap in Singapore and elsewhere, according to Chuan De Foo, a research fellow at Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. Societies around the world are “dismally unprepared” for an aging population, Foo wrote in the science journal Frontiers last month, and with his co-authors described AI and other technologies as “pivotal forces with the potential to drive a paradigm shift in healthcare.”