Singapore SingPost appoints CBRE as consultant for HQ building

Singapore SingPost appoints CBRE as consultant for HQ building

By KALPANA RASHIWALA
SINGAPORE Post is understood to have appointed property firm CB Richard Ellis to advise it on exploring options for the listed group’s headquarters building next to Paya Lebar MRT Station.
CBRE’s appointment followed a beauty parade that SingPost is understood to have conducted late last year to select a property consultant, as reported by BT yesterday.

Property industry sources told BT yesterday that the job was clinched by CBRE, which, however, has declined to comment on its appointment.

In its third-quarter results statement last month, SingPost said that it is ‘continuing to review its non- core businesses, and is also exploring opportunities in respect of SingPost Centre, including unlocking the value of SingPost Centre’.

Analysts have estimated the building’s value at around $1,000 to $1,300 per square foot of existing net lettable area, assuming full-commercial use, which would reflect a total quantum of between $1 billion and $1.3 billion. The 14-storey building is on a 352,389 sq ft site, with a remaining lease of about 73 years. It has a total net lettable area of about 1 million sq ft, of which about half is currently occupied by SingPost for its corporate office and operations including the mail processing centre.

The rest of the property is leased to a mix of office and retail tenants including HSBC Insurance, NorthWest Airlines, Symantec Corporation, Prudential (whose lease expires this year), This Fashion, Barang Barang, NTUC FairPrice and Kopitiam.
Source : Straits Times  - 07 Feb 2008

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NOL sale to German group in the works, says FT report - Singapore

NOL sale to German group in the works, says FT report  - Singapore

By Nicholas Fang 

A NEW force in global shipping is set to emerge if a reported deal involving Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) proves correct.
The deal would see NOL sold to German shipping and travel giant TUI, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Tuesday.

The paper quoted unnamed sources close to the companies as saying that Temasek Holdings, which owns 68 per cent of NOL, could sell that stake to TUI-owned shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd.

In exchange, the Singapore state investment company could take a share in TUI which, at current valuations, could amount to as much as 23 per cent of the enlarged group, the report said.

TUI is the world’s fifth-largest container shipping group. It also controls TUI Travel, Europe’s biggest tourism company.

NOL currently ranks as the world’s eighth-largest container shipping group.

A merger of Hapag-Lloyd and NOL would combine the United States and African routes of the German group with the Asian routes of its Singaporean counterpart.

A Temasek spokesman said Temasek would not comment on market speculation.

In recent months, Temasek has been active in overseas deals. Last month, it upped its stake in British bank Standard Chartered to 19 per cent.

At the end of last year, it was lead investor in a deal to recapitalise troubled Wall Street bank Merrill Lynch, injecting US$4.4 billion (S$6.2 billion) for a 9 per cent stake.

Rumours of a deal to sell NOL to TUI had emerged earlier this year, but TUI had previously denied being in talks with Temasek and NOL.

An NOL spokesman yesterday reiterated the group’s earlier stance of ‘not commenting on market speculation’.

A TUI spokesman, quoted in the FT report, said that no negotiations are taking place.

The report suggested that, for TUI, pooling shipping assets with Temasek would confirm a change of strategy that had once envisaged a divestment of Hapag-Lloyd.

The move might also take pressure off TUI chief executive Michael Frenzel, who has been criticised by investors about poor returns from his strategy to balance tourism and shipping business cycles.

The report quoted sources as saying that reaching a global scale in shipping as a complement to tourism would allow TUI’s shareholders to decide whether to split the operations or stick with the current strategy.

Mr Frenzel is said to favour putting NOL’s president and chief executive, Mr Thomas Held, a German, in charge of the merged container-shipping service, the report added.

People familiar with contacts between TUI and Temasek with regard to a Hapag-Lloyd-NOL merger were quoted as saying that talks were at an ‘early stage’ and had been going on for several weeks, with the possibility of ‘important hurdles’ being overcome as early as next month
 

Source : Straits Times  - 07 Feb 2008

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Longer you stay on busy roads, the more you pay - Singapore

Longer you stay on busy roads, the more you pay  - Singapore

LTA has tested out such a scheme and may implement it as early as 2010

By Christopher Tan, Senior Correspondent 
DRAWBACK OF GANTRIES: The current gantry system does not differentiate between, say, a vehicle that enters the CBD and is parked in an office building all day, and one that stays on the road for hours and increases congestion. 
A SATELLITE-TRACKED electronic road-pricing system that could charge drivers for using congested roads anywhere in Singapore may be ready as early as 2010.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has just completed a series of field tests spanning over a year to determine the reliability of such infrastructure, which operates without gantries and is based on the Global Positioning System (GPS).

While many details, including pricing, have yet to be worked out, the LTA indicated that Singapore is poised to be one of the first cities in the world to use such a system.

It will rely on GPS-enabled in-vehicle units (IUs) to track where drivers go, as well as the distance they clock.

Drivers are likely to be charged based on how long they stay on the road, to better reflect their actual contribution to congestion.

It is understood that one advantage of the new system is that it can determine quickly when and where congestion is occurring, and levy charges accordingly. Motorists will also benefit: The IU can notify them that they are approaching a priced road.
Dr Chin Kian Keong, the LTA’s transportation chief engineer, called the satellite-tracking system ‘a sharper tool’ for controlling congestion than the current fixed gantry system.

He told The Straits Times on Monday that system trials were completed last December, and participants were from 10 companies, five of which were local. Each fielded between four and 10 vehicles equipped with GPS hardware and software.

Using such a system, which The Straits Times learns could be ready by 2010 or 2011, could mean that ERP rates would be more commensurate with a road user’s actual contribution to congestion.

The current gantry system does not differentiate between, say, a vehicle that enters the CBD and is parked in an office building all day, and one that stays on the road for hours - a taxi or delivery truck, for example - and increases congestion.

One of the main aims of the recent field tests was to determine if a gantry-less system could be as reliable as the current decade-old scheme.

LTA chief engineer Leong Kwok Weng said results showed that accuracy was ‘well over’ 90 per cent in open areas such as expressways, and 30 per cent in the city.

The reason for the low accuracy rate in the city is what engineers call the ‘urban canyon effect’, where satellite signals are reflected off high-rises, causing distorted readings.

But Dr Chin said that there are ways of working around this, including setting up signal beacons on curbs or buildings.

Using such a system will also benefit motorists, he added.

For instance, it could help drivers navigate in unfamiliar areas and alert them to congested roads and suggest alternatives.

Dr Chin said that Singapore hopes to be the first in the world to use the new system, adding that the LTA ‘hopes to proceed without having to have another trial’.

London is another city which has been looking at implementing a similar scheme.

Although Germany uses a GPS-based toll system, it is only for billing heavy trucks on the autobahn.

 Doing away with gantries?
UNDER the satellite-based system, which may be ready as early as 2010:
Drivers can be tracked through GPS-enabled in-vehicle units.

They are likely to be charged based on how long they stay on the road.

One advantage is that the system can determine when and where congestion is occurring, and levy charges accordingly.

Source : Straits Times  - 07 Feb 2008

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