Market Snapshot

Singapore stocks opened lower on Thursday. STI fell 0.4%; Keppel, YZJ Shipbldg fell 1%; OCBC fell 0.7%; DBS, SIA fell 0.6%; UOB, SGX fell 0.4%.

Stocks in Focus

DBS: The bank on Thursday said it has appointed Gautam Banerjee to the boards of DBS Group Holdings and DBS Bank, with immediate effect. Banerjee is currently chairman and senior managing director of Blackstone Singapore. He also serves on the boards of Singtel and GIC. Shares of DBS fell 1.1 per cent or S$0.88 to close at S$77.50 on Wednesday.

DFI Retail: The group is set to take over the Starbucks business in Asia from Maxim’s Caterers, it said on Wednesday. DFI indirectly holds a 50 per cent stake in Maxim’s, which will be bought back by the latter. The consideration for the share repurchase will be the equity interest in the Starbucks-licensed business, as well as a cash consideration of about US$340 million. Shares of DFI fell 1.5 per cent or US$0.05 to close at US$3.19 on Wednesday, before the news.

Frasers Property: Mitsubishi Estate and Frasers Property will jointly redevelop Valley Point and Frasers Suites Singapore – both on River Valley Road – into a freehold, mixed-use development, they said on Wednesday. Frasers Property will take a 51 per cent stake in a joint venture, with Mitsubishi Estate having a 49 per cent stake, for the development. The development will comprise 407 luxury residential units and sky villas, 184 units of Frasers Suites serviced residences and dining, retail and lifestyle outlets. The shares of Frasers Property closed unchanged at S$0.97 on Wednesday, before the news.

CapitaLand India Trust (Clint): Pallavi Gopinath Aney, a partner at international law firm Allen Overy Shearman Sterling, has been appointed by the Clint manager as a non-executive independent director. Aney was previously a partner at Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow. Non-executive independent director Vishnu Shahaney was separately appointed a member of the investment committee. Units of Clint rose 1.1 per cent or S$0.01 to close at S$0.92 on Wednesday, before the news.

ESR-Reit: The real estate investment trust (Reit) has entered into a sale and purchase agreement to divest its property at 30 Pioneer Road for S$32 million to GKE, said its manager on Wednedsay. The property is a four-storey warehouse with a seven-storey ancillary office within the Jurong Industrial Estate, and has a gross floor area of 26,114 square metres (sq m). Net proceeds will be put towards outstanding loans, potential acquisitions, asset enhancement initiatives and general working capital requirements. Units of ESR-Reit closed 0.5 per cent or S$0.01 lower at S$2.08 on Wednesday, before the divestment was announced.

Centurion: The real estate company is set to buy six parcels of land in Adelaide, which it plans to develop into a mixed-use accommodation – including purpose-built student accommodation – for about S$22.3 million, it said on Wednesday. The 3,300 sq m property, situated at 199-200 North Terrace and 12-20 Gawler Place, comprises the plots of land and the building, plant, equipment and other assets. Shares of Centurion fell 1.4 per cent or S$0.02 to close at S$1.40 on Wednesday, before the news.

Coliwoo: The co-living and serviced apartment operator has entered into two put and call option agreements with Qing Feng Construction to sell privately held real estate management units Coliwoo RV1 and RV2 for S$14 million and S$31.5 million, respectively. Coliwoo will also lease back the properties held under RV1 and RV2. The proposed sale will help the group to realise its investment in the two units, said Coliwoo on Thursday. Shares of Coliwoo fell 3.5 per cent or S$0.015 to close at S$0.42 on Wednesday.

SG Local News

Singapore Power Rates to Fall From Record After Fuel Price Drop

Power rates for Singapore households will decline from a record high as lower fuel costs provide some relief from inflation.

The charge will fall 10% to 28.59 Singapore cents ($0.22) per kilowatt-hour for the three months from October, grid operator SP Group said in a statement. Singapore relies largely on imports of natural gas to generate electricity, and the authorities adjust tariffs each quarter based on prices over the first two-and-a-half months of the prior period.

While global oil and gas prices have been increasing over the last few weeks, they were generally lower during the July to mid-September period compared to when the Iran war began. Singapore’s liquefied natural gas imports are typically priced against oil for medium- and long-term contracts, or against spot LNG benchmarks.

World-First Green Flight Levy in Singapore Adds to Rising Costs of Air Travel

Singapore will add to already rising costs of air travel as it introduces a world-first green levy on flights departing the city-state.

Passenger fares booked starting Thursday for services departing after Jan. 1 will be subject to the additional charge of between S$1 (78 cents) to S$41.60 per ticket, dependent on the class and destination of travel. The fees are intended to fund measures to boost adoption of sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, and help reduce the industry’s climate impact.

While the extra charge — which won’t apply to transit passengers — is minimal, the levy is being introduced as the airline sector grapples with higher prices of jet fuel as a result of the impact of the Iran war. Ticket prices will “inevitably have to rise,” the International Air Transport Association industry group said in a June report.

Singapore Sees First Data Breach Linked to AI Use, ST Reports

Singapore received its first notification of an AI-related data breach after a food company accidentally disclosed customers’ email addresses to other recipients of a bulk email, the Straits Times reported, citing the country’s Personal Data Protection Commission.

Bee Cheng Hiang, a well-known local producer of Chinese-style pork jerky, told the commission the incident occurred in April after an employee used a generative AI tool to create a program for sending emails in batches to a local mailing list. The employee, however, failed to instruct the program to hide each recipient’s email address from other customers. It was the first time the company had used an AI tool in its business operations, the newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The breach, which was reported to the commission two days after the incident, exposed the email addresses of more than 95,000 customers. No other personal data was affected, and the exposed information wasn’t managed, processed or generated by any AI-powered operation or process, the commission told the Straits Times.

Bee Cheng Hiang has since introduced a requirement for at least two staff members to verify all bulk email communications before they are sent, the newspaper reported.