Singapore shares slid this week, mirroring regional declines, with the STI down 0.87% in the last five trading days.

Raffles Medical up 12.12%; ST Engineering, Haw Par, UOL up 6%; Sembcorp Industries up 5.9%; YZJ Shipbldg was down 26%; Olam Group, Seatrium Ltd down more than 11%.

Market News

Raffles Medical Jumps 12% on 100 Million Share Buyback Plan

Raffles Medical Group stock jumped 12.12 per cent this week. The private healthcare provider posted a 4.3 per cent rise in net profit to S$31.6 million for its second half ended Dec 31, 2024, from S$30.3 million in the previous corresponding period. 

The group also intends to buy back up to 100 million shares, representing 5.3 per cent of its total ordinary issued shares, over the next two years, it said in a bourse filing on Monday (Feb 24).

In an earnings briefing after the results, executive chairman Dr Loo Choon Yong said the share buyback plan comes as the company’s cash flow is still strong.

ST Engineering FY2024 Earnings up 19.7% YoY

Singapore Technologies Engineering shares jumped 6% this week as the company reported earnings of $702.3 million for its FY2024, up 19.7% y-o-y. Revenue in the same period was up 11.6% y-o-y to $11.3 billion, with contribution across its three main business segments.

In line with the higher earnings, the company plans to pay a higher final dividend of 5 cents per share for 4QFY2024, up from the usual 4 cents per quarter. This brings its full-year payout to 17 cents, up from 16 cents.

In 2024, the company won $12.6 billion in new orders, including $4.3 billion secured in the most recent 4QFY2024. This brings its total order book to $28.5 billion with $8.8 billion of it to be delivered this current FY2025.

Sembcorp Doubles Dividend on Higher Earnings, Shuffles Business Leadership

Sembcorp Industries up 5.9% this week. Sembcorp on Thursday reported a 14 per cent rise in total net profit to S$471 million for the second half ended Dec 31, 2024, from S$412 million in the year-ago period.

This accounts for exceptional items including disposal of assets and a gain on a “bargain purchase” on an acquisition in India, among others. There was also a S$9 million net loss from discontinued operations related to the disposal of Chongqing Songzao Sembcorp Electric Power.

Excluding discontinued operation, net profit for the half-year period would have been S$480 million, a 17 per cent increase from S$412 million in the previous corresponding period. That pointed to earnings per share of S$0.2691, up from S$0.2312 in H2 FY2023.

Singapore Billionaire’s Son Denies Board Coup, Blames Aide

The scion of Singapore’s richest family denied his father’s claim that he was leading a boardroom coup, saying the primary reason for the family dispute lies with a key adviser to the billionaire patriarch.

“There has been no attempt by us to oust the chairman,” Sherman Kwek, chief executive officer of CityDev, said in a statement late Thursday referring to his father. “The chairman’s claim that there is an ‘attempted coup’ by the majority directors to consolidate control of CDL’s board is not only incorrect, it distracts from the nub of the issue.”

Sherman Kwek’s response escalates the feud that’s roiled the family after his father Kwek Leng Beng filed a lawsuit claiming his son and other directors were leading a boardroom coup and accused them of serious lapses in corporate governance.

Singapore Charges Three With Fraud That Media Link To Nvidia Chips

Singapore charged three men with fraud in a case domestic media have linked to the movement of Nvidia's advanced chips from the city state to Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek.

The United States is investigating if DeepSeek, the Chinese company whose AI model's performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using U.S. chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China, Reuters reported earlier.

The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation of 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation, amid concerns that organised AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of nations such as Singapore.