Market Snapshot

Singapore stocks opened lower on Thursday. STI fell 0.2%; AEM up 5.3%; CityDev up 3.9%; SingPost up 1.8%; YZJ Shipbldg fell 2.6%.

Stocks to Watch

CityDev: The property giant’s executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng will be discontinuing his lawsuit against his son Sherman Kwek and six other members of the CDL board, he said in a statement on Wednesday. The elder Kwek will continue in his role as executive chairman, and Sherman Kwek will continue as group chief executive officer. All the current directors, including Jennifer Duong Young and Wong Su-Yen, will remain on the board. All the board members have agreed to put aside their differences for the greater good of CDL and its stakeholders, said Kwek Leng Beng. The statement brings to a close – for now – the father-son tussle that started on Feb 26.

Mapletree Log Tr: The trust has agreed to divest its logistics property at 31 Penjuru Lane for S$7.8 million, its manager said on Wednesday. The sale price is 6.8 per cent higher than the property’s latest valuation of S$7.3 million as at Nov 28. The proposed divestment is in line with the manager’s efforts to rejuvenate its portfolio through selective divestments of assets that are no longer aligned with its strategy, said the manager. JTC Corporation has granted in-principle approval for the transaction, and the proposed divestment is expected to be completed by the second quarter of FY2025/2026.

Boustead: The group’s subsidiaries have entered into a master share subscription agreement with Hong Kong-based real estate company Unified Industrial, and will form a new logistics platform called UIB. Boustead has agreed to transfer its fund and property-management businesses to Unified Industrial. As part of the agreement, Boustead’s subsidiary BP-Unity will take a 24.1 per cent stake in Unified Industrial. Around 35.5 million new ordinary shares will be issued; these will have a total subscription value of US$78.6 million. On a pro forma basis, the proposed acquisition is expected to lift Boustead’s net tangible assets attributable to owners of the company to S$524.2 million from S$502.5 million, assuming the transaction had taken place on Mar 31, 2024, at the end of the company’s last financial year. Earnings per share would have risen to S$0.168 from S$0.134.

Del Monte Pac: The canned-food company reported a net loss of US$35.9 million for the third quarter ended Jan 31, widening from US$29 million in the corresponding period in the previous year. The net loss was primarily due to higher operational costs and increased interest expenses at its US subsidiary Del Monte Foods Corp, which negated the strong performance of its Philippine subsidiary Del Monte Philippines, said the group in a bourse filing on Wednesday. For Q3, Del Monte reported a loss per share (LPS) of US$0.0185, compared with an LPS of US$0.0149. No dividends were declared for the quarter, unchanged from before.

SG Local News

Vietnam, Singapore Agree to Boost Ties, Cooperation on Subsea Cables

Singapore and Vietnam on Wednesday have agreed to enhance cooperation in subsea cables, finance, and energy, marking an upgrade in their relations to Vietnam's highest level, during a visit by its Communist Party Chief To Lam to the city-state.

Singapore is the third Southeast Asian nation, after Malaysia and Indonesia, with which Vietnam has established a "comprehensive strategic relationship".