SINGAPORE (July 15): Towards end-June, a long-term United Engineers shareholder who has held his shares for more than 15 years, lamented the condition of UE BizHub City, the former UE Square, on Clemenceau Avenue.
“UE has great assets. But even prime assets need to be enhanced to keep up with the times. UE Square is really looking sad in the post-MRT landscape. It doesn’t have that shine and relevance anymore,” the shareholder says. Despite its moniker, United Engineers’ real value lies in its investment properties (see Table 1).
SINGAPORE (June 24): Aspen Group Holdings, the Malaysian property developer, is partnering Oxley Holdings to develop a mixed-use integrated project on Penang Island.
Spanning across 29.05 acres (1.27 million sf), the project comprises residential towers with communal facilities, service apartments, lifestyle retail facilities and a private clubhouse.
SINGAPORE (June 14): Barry Stowe, the former chairman and chief executive of Prudential’s North American Business unit who retired in December 2018, was the highest paid manager among Singapore listed companies in 2018.
Besides being listed in London, Prudential has a secondary listing on the Singapore Exchange since May 2010.
For lifting the international financial services group’s earnings by 26%, Stowe was given a 7.8% hike in compensation to $16.5 million.
SINGAPORE (June 17): US President Donald Trump is not letting up on his threats to hit China with a new set of tariffs as talks between the two economic giants show scant signs of progress. China, on the other hand, did not give a clear indication if President Xi Jinping will meet Trump at the G20 meeting on June 28 and 29 in Osaka, Japan.
Trump added further uncertainties to the trade talks. At a press conference on June 12, he declared that there was no deadline on when the talks should resume, other than “what’s up here”, pointing to his head.
SINGAPORE (June 13): RHB Research is initiating coverage on property developer Oxley Holdings with a “buy” recommendation and a target price of 41 cents.
The target price is pegged to a 45% discount to its revalued net asset value (RNAV) of 74 cents, and represents an upside of 32% from its current trading price.
“Concerns over its gearing level are overdone, as it should be lowered by key asset sales – especially from Chevron House and its hotels along Stevens Road,” says lead analyst Jarick Seet in a report on Thursday.
SINGAPORE (May 13): Oxley Holdings saw it earnings jump 121% to $67.4 million for the 3Q19 ended March, from $30.6 million a year ago.
Earnings per share (EPS) grew to 1.64 cents for 3Q19, compared to 0.78 cent in 3Q18.
The increase was largely attributable to a one-off fair value gain on the commercial building at 30 Raffles Place, formerly known as Chevron House. As a result, other gains for 3Q19 increased to $101.5 million, compared with $33.1 million in 3Q18.
3Q19 revenue fell 75% to $59.9 million, from $238.8 million a year ago.
(May 6): The US central bank is keeping rates steady, with Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell saying he sees no immediate need to move interest rates either higher or lower, and that the Fed is watching for a rebound in persistently sluggish inflation.
On May 1, it kept the target range for the benchmark federal funds rate unchanged at 2.25% to 2.5%, which is where the rate has been since December. It made a “technical tweak” to one of its key rates to ensure borrowing costs remain where it wants them to stay.
(Apr 26): The collapse of Singapore’s water treatment firm Hyflux has increased investor scrutiny over other debt-laden companies that have sold bonds in the local currency.
More defaults could occur as earnings may worsen in a sputtering economy and riskier borrowers that creditors lent to amid low interest rates now struggle, according to S&P Global Ratings. Growth in Singapore’s export-reliant economy has been cooling in the past year and is projected to slow further.
SINGAPORE (Mar 20): Oxley Gem, a subsidiary of Oxley Holdings, has terminated the letter of intent (LOI) it received from Gracious Land in Jan for the $950 million purchase of its Mercure and Novotel hotels, after not receiving a subsequent deposit of $38 million when it was due.
In a late night filing on Tuesday, the group says Gracious Land has requested for a refund of the initial $9.5 million deposit it paid for the two hotels on Stevens Road to Oxley Gem.
SINGAPORE (Mar 14): Mainboard-listed property group Oxley Holdings could be selling Chevron House in Singapore’s central business district for $1.025 billion – just 15 months after acquiring the property for $660 million in December 2017.
In a filing to SGX on Thursday, Oxley says its wholly-owned subsidiary, Oxley Beryl, has accepted an expression of interest from a US-based real estate fund to acquire the company.
Oxley Beryl owns Chevron House, the 32-storey commercial building located at 30 Raffles Place.
