Marine groups and property trusts shine - Singapore

Marine groups and property trusts shine - Singapore

Smaller firms also gained from boom in construction, oil & gas industries
By CONRAD TAN

SHIPBUILDERS, property trusts and companies related to the construction and oil and gas industries mostly reported strong earnings growth in the first three months of the year, boosted by strong demand and high property prices.
 
K-Reit Asia’s distributable income of $11.4m for the quarter was almost three times the $4.3m that it earned a year earlier.
 
Among the firms that saw the biggest percentage jump in earnings were Singapore-listed Chinese marine groups Cosco Corp and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding. Both saw their net profit double from a year earlier, buoyed by strong demand for shipbuilding, shiprepair and marine engineering services.

Smaller firms also benefited from the boom in the construction and oil and gas industries.

Beng Kuang Marine, which provides engineering services and equipment to firms in the marine, offshore oil and gas, and construction industries, reported a doubling in net profit for the quarter to $2.35 million, from $1.18 million a year earlier.

And BH Global Marine, which supplies electrical cables and lamps to shipyard operators and ship owners, said its net profit rose 24 per cent to $5 million in the first quarter.

The construction and marine engineering sectors here are likely to stay robust despite the impact of a slowing US economy, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong last Thursday in his May Day rally speech to workers.

Among the construction sector-related firms, cement-maker Jurong Cement saw its first-quarter net profit jump to $1.08 million, from $169,000 a year earlier. Although revenue fell, its gross profit margin improved mainly due to lower raw material costs compared with a year earlier, when material prices rose sharply as a result of the Indonesian ban on sand exports.

But AusGroup, which provides engineering services to oil and gas and mining-related firms, stunned investors when it issued a profit warning on April 25, saying that it would report a loss for its third quarter to end-March. The unexpected loss is due to a provision made ‘arising from uncertainties around the interpretation of the terms of a major contract being performed by a subsidiary in Australia’, the firm said.

In an update three days later, AusGroup said that it expects to release its results by May 15, and that the loss would not exceed A$4 million (S$5 million).

Property trusts that had reported their earnings for the three months to end-March by Friday night all did well. Excluding Ascendas India Trust, which listed only last August, all 13 real estate investment trusts (Reits) which had comparable periods a year earlier said that net profit rose.

Among them, K-Reit Asia saw the largest percentage jump in net profit. Its distributable income of $11.4 million for the quarter was almost three times the $4.3 million that it earned a year earlier. This was mainly due to a $10.9 million income contribution from its one-third interest in One Raffles Quay.
Source : Business Times   - 05 May 2008

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Singapore citizens rate govt services highly

Singapore citizens rate govt services highly

Survey also shows 77% want greater say in how to improve country
By LEE U-WEN

(SINGAPORE) Just over half of Singaporeans surveyed in a recent poll described their country as a ‘good’ place to live and work, while a further 23 per cent rated the Republic ‘world- class’.
In total, 86 per cent said they were at least ’satisfied’ with the services provided by the government, while about a third said the services were ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’.

This was the consensus of a group of 60 Singaporeans who took part in a focus group discussion organised by management consulting firm Accenture last August.

The research findings - which will be made public later today - showed Singapore coming in second, only behind Sydney, in terms of how its citizens perceive the quality of the city they live in.

The other six cities surveyed by Accenture were London, Berlin, New York, Paris, Madrid and Los Angeles. These cities were selected as they are places where Accenture is currently engaged in.

This first-of-its-kind research study was commissioned to solicit views on how effective the government was in its public service delivery, and whether they were doing enough to meet the citizens’ needs and improve their overall quality of life.

The 60 Singaporeans were reflective of the country’s make-up in age, education, income and type of residence, among other areas, said Accenture.
 
Despite a rosy 2007 which saw a record number of jobs created and better-than-expected economic growth, a third of the Singapore participants listed the rising cost of living here as one of their top three concerns.

Coming in second on the list was health - specifically on costs and the restrictive nature of the Medishield and Medifund schemes - while the third concern was employment.

The survey did throw up one key finding: a growing number of Singaporeans want the flexibility of choice in order to take better charge of their own lives.

This was where Singapore stood out from the other seven cities when asked to rank nine different principles of public service value, which included areas such as transparency, efficiency and equality.

‘Choice’ was in the top four options for Singaporeans, but interestingly did not make the lists of any of the other cities.

Explaining this, Accenture Institute for Public Service Value director Greg Parston said this proved that Singaporeans were ‘looking for the government to empower them to make informed choices’.

‘Singaporeans are looking for a greater role to co-create public value, a bigger role in shaping future priorities of their country,’ he told the Singapore media in a conference call from London.

The poll found that 77 per cent of Singaporeans wanted to have a greater say in how to improve their country.

Citizens should be free to voice their opinions, and the government should take these into consideration before imposing new policies or regulations on key issues such as one’s Central Provident Fund (CPF) account, said the Accenture report.

It added that while Singaporeans wanted to be responsible for their well-being and that of their families too, they did not want government handouts or seek to be guided in every aspect of their lives.

As one participant explained during the forum, citizens want the government to ‘educate and assist, but not restrict’.

Another strong message that arose from the Singapore forum was the expectation that the government should deliver better value for money and be accountable for all public spending - especially when, in some areas, it has imposed additional user charges, said the report.

‘This, despite a generally prosperous economy, left many with less disposable household income,’ it said.

Overall, however, those in the Singapore forum agreed that citizens should be proud of the country’s success since independence, with the Republic having done well economically and put together an education system that is among the best in the world.
Source : Business Times   - 05 May 2008

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Microsoft withdraws proposal to buy Yahoo - SAN FRANCISCO

Microsoft withdraws proposal to buy Yahoo - SAN FRANCISCO

Internet firm may announce deal with Google this week

(SAN FRANCISCO) Microsoft Corp walked away from its bid to buy Yahoo Inc on Saturday after the Internet company turned down its offer to raise the price by US$5 billion to US$47.5 billion.
 
Mr Ballmer: Cites Yahoo’s Google plans as one reason Microsoft was not mounting a hostile offer 
Microsoft’s offer was for US$33 a share but Yahoo would not lower its demand below US$37, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said. The software company initially bid US$31 per share for Yahoo more than three months ago.

‘We believe the economics demanded by Yahoo do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal,’ Mr Ballmer said in a statement.

Analysts say Yahoo has overplayed its hand and they expect the Web pioneer’s shares to fall as much as 30 per cent to US$20 levels when Nasdaq trading resumes today. The stock rose nearly 7 per cent to US$28.67 last Friday on hopes of an agreement between Microsoft and Yahoo.

Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock said in a statement the company believed from the beginning that Microsoft’s offer undervalued it, and the board was ‘pleased that so many of our shareholders joined us in expressing that view’. He said Yahoo was pursuing ’strategic opportunities’ but gave no details.
‘Yahoo management and board overplayed its hand. Shareholders were cheated out of a victory.’
 
- Jordan Rohan at media advisory firm Clearmeadow Partners 
 
 
 
 
Yahoo has courted possible deals with Time Warner Inc’s AOL Internet division or News Corp’s MySpace online social network, and tested a search advertising partnership with Google Inc. A partnership with Google may be announced as early as this week, a person with knowledge of discussions told Reuters.

‘With the distraction of Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus all of our energies on executing the most important transition in our history so that we can maximise our potential to the benefit of our shareholders, employees, partners and users,’ Yahoo co-founder and chief executive Jerry Yang said in a statement.

Jordan Rohan, founder of digital media advisory firm Clearmeadow Partners, said Yahoo could name Time Warner as a partner or buy AOL to put a positive spin on the situation, but neither option would give as good a payoff to shareholders.

‘Yahoo management and board overplayed its hand. Shareholders were cheated out of a victory,’ Mr Rohan said. ‘I think Yahoo forgot what it felt like to have a share price under US$20. They may be reminded soon.’

Mr Ballmer cited Yahoo’s Google plans as one reason Microsoft was walking away rather than mounting a hostile offer.

‘We regard with particular concern your apparent planning to respond to a ‘hostile’ bid by pursuing a new arrangement that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo today,’ Mr Ballmer said in a letter to Mr Yang, made public on Saturday. ‘In our view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an acquisition of Yahoo undesirable to us.’

Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo to gain a stronger foothold in its battle with Google, which is expanding rapidly into the software maker’s own turf with new Web-based applications.

Although Microsoft has not succeeded in sealing a deal, tough talk by Mr Ballmer has already brought Yahoo to the negotiating table.

According to a person familiar with Microsoft’s thinking, Yahoo’s advisers said initially it would not negotiate with Microsoft for anything less than US$40 a share. But amid threats by Microsoft to launch a hostile takeover, Mr Yang suggested a price of US$38 a share, the person said.

On Saturday, Mr Yang and Yahoo co-founder David Filo met Mr Ballmer and Microsoft’s Platforms & Services Division president Kevin Johnson in Seattle, where they communicated that Yahoo’s board was willing to cut a deal at US$37 a share, although the two co-founders remained committed to a dollar more per share, the source said.

Price was not the only stumbling block, another person familiar with the discussions said. Microsoft had also failed to respond adequately to antitrust regulatory concerns that Yahoo raised at several meetings, said the source who was not authorised to speak on the record.

Yahoo also wanted ‘value-certainty’ assurances that the value of Microsoft’s offer would remain the same when the deal, if it did get done, closed, the person said. — Reuters
Source : Business Times   - 05 May 2008

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Singapore En-bloc system needs relook, as Bayshore shows

Singapore En-bloc system needs relook, as Bayshore shows 

IF THE Government still thinks the current laws under the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act and the Land Titles (Strata) Act (Amendment) are sufficient to regulate the issues of collective property sales, this tale of two condos may provide food for thought, especially as the Government has invited feedback on these laws.
On April 27, Bayshore Park and Mandarin Gardens both held annual general meetings. These two estates, with more than 1,000 units each, sit on 1 million sq ft of land next to the sea.

Both have got a collective sale initiative off the ground, with sale committees elected. With the support of pro-sale residents, voting powers are then used to control the rest of the estate, even though the votes represent only a minority of residents. Let me illustrate:

In Bayshore Park, the pro-sale group outvoted other residents on crucial issues and in selection of council members. Averaging 60 per cent of votes cast at the AGM, this roughly 20 per cent of residents (as only 30 per cent of owners were represented at the AGM) voted down a proposed increase in maintenance charges in line with current inflation, voted for a lower increase in the sinking fund, voted down crucial replacement of copper pipes in the common corridors and voted down any exploration of corridor upgrading. In addition, they voted for a reduction in council seats to nine, making sure four sale committee members were voted into the council, and ensured that four of the five previous council members retained had exhibited pro-sale inclinations. They made sure two previous council members who did not favour sale were not re-elected. I was one of the two.

At Mandarin Gardens, in a similar vein, the pro-sale camp mustered enough proxy forms to control 65 per cent of the votes in the AGM. They defeated a motion to reduce water ponding of walkways and lift lobbies to improve safety, and passed a resolution to reduce management council (MC) expenditure limits from $300,000 to $50,000 making it almost impossible for the MC to function. Consequently, the incumbent council refused to stand for re-election. Even more devastating, the pro-sale camp fielded no candidates for council. Hence, no council was elected.

The law was not broken at either AGM. However, many of us affected are sure the law was not designed to produce such outcomes.
Augustine Cheah
 

Source : Straits Times   - 05 May 2008

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Middle East investors ‘looking to S-E Asia’ - Singapore

Middle East investors ‘looking to S-E Asia’ - Singapore
 
By Nicholas Fang 
 
MIDDLE Eastern investors are increasingly looking to Singapore and other South-east Asian nations for deals as financial ties grow between the two regions.
So says Standard Chartered (Stanchart) Bank’s group head for origination and client coverage, Mr V. Shankar.

Stanchart is well-positioned to become a leading player in this area. In the past year, it has advised on more than 40 per cent of the deal flow from Middle East to this region, which totalled US$8 billion (S$10.9 billion).

The figure was up from the US$987 million in the 12 months preceding, and Mr Shankar believes it will continue to rise in the years ahead.

‘The financial ties between the Middle East and Asia are strengthening by the day and we are seeing more East-East relationships being formed,’ he said in a recent interview.

‘Oil and natural gas from the Middle East are vital for China, Japan and all the fast-growing markets in the Asia-Pacific region, which are fast ramping up their infrastructure.

‘And the oil-generated capital and liquidity in the Middle East are fuelling a search for investments with high returns.’

Mr Shankar added that a recent report by McKinsey estimated that Gulf countries would have US$9 trillion to invest by 2020.

Stanchart began boosting its presence in the Middle East three years ago and now has a team of 50 corporate advisers there.

Mr Shankar, who is also a member of Stanchart’s group management committee, said this put the bank in an enviable position as Singapore’s business with the Gulf looks set to soar.

‘Between 2004 and 2006, total trade between Singapore and the Middle East shot up from US$20.9 billion to US$30.8 billion, an increase of 47 per cent.

‘Currently, Singapore companies are working on more than $6 billion worth of projects in the Middle East.’

Stanchart is no stranger to deals between the Republic and Gulf countries. It recently advised the Al-Futtaim group in its successful bid for Singapore’s oldest retailer, Robinson & Co.

Looking ahead, Mr Shankar said the bank would leverage on its experience and capabilities in the region to shore up its position as a major player.

‘Stanchart is well-placed to seize future opportunities, thanks to our growing geographical reach and the scale and breadth of our products and capabilities.

‘We have an established history in Singapore, having been in the market for 150 years, and we have been operating in the Middle East for more than 50 years. We feel we can act as a strong local bank in all the different markets for our clients.’
Source : Straits Times   - 05 May 2008

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Copyright breach: Clients of Virtual Map switch providers - SIngapore

Copyright breach: Clients of Virtual Map switch providers  - SIngapore

Ban on firm from using govt-owned material also applies to its customers
By Chua Hian Hou 
LOOKING FOR DIRECTIONS: Users of streetdirectory.com can no longer access Virtual Map’s online maps. Instead, they are greeted by a tongue-in-cheek notice saying the maps ‘have escaped out the window’. — MUGILAN RAJASEGERAN
 
COMPANIES still using Virtual Map’s online maps on their websites are starting to look for alternative providers.
This is because a court order banning Virtual Map from using copyrighted material owned by the Government also applies to the maps it supplies to customers.

While Virtual Map did not say how many of these have switched map providers, there are signs that some are deserting it.

Yellow Pages’ website, for instance, switched its map provider just two weeks ago, said the directory service’s marketing communications manager, Ms Sharon Liew.

Meanwhile, competing online map providers like V3 Teletech have reported an increase in business.

After the High Court ruled against Virtual Map in late March, V3 has been getting ‘three to four inquiries every week’, said the firm’s general manager, Mr Adrian Long.

About the case
In 2004, the Singapore Land Authority sued Virtual Map for using copyrighted SLA materials after it no longer had permission to do so.
Virtual Map lost the case in the District Court. It appealed, but was turned down in late March this year by the High Court, which ordered it to remove the materials that infringed SLA’s copyright. It later removed the maps on streetdirectory.com
… more
Not bad, considering it had to go knocking on doors to get just one to two deals a month previously, he added.

While few of its 30 or so customers explicitly said they were switching providers because of the lawsuit, Mr Long believes the Singapore Land Authority-Virtual Map spat is one of the main reasons they did so.

Virtual Map is the company behind what used to be Singapore’s most popular map website, streetdirectory.com

It also sells digital map images to companies, typically for use on their websites to provide directions to customers.

According to Virtual Map’s website, it has more than 500 customers.

In 2004, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) sued Virtual Map for using copyrighted SLA materials after it no longer had permission to do so.

Virtual Map lost the case in the District Court. It appealed but was turned down in late March this year by the High Court, which ordered it to remove the materials that infringed SLA’s copyright.

Virtual Map subsequently removed the maps on streetdirectory.com

According to an SLA spokesman, the High Court order currently in force also applies to Virtual Map’s customers, so ‘individuals and organisations using street directory maps supplied to them by Virtual Map should remove them as soon as possible as these are infringing maps’.

So far though, The Straits Times understands that SLA has not taken action against any Virtual Map customers.

A Virtual Map spokesman would say only that the firm is currently notifying its clients of the situation. The firm is also making an application to the Court of Appeal, Singapore’s highest court, to seek to reverse the High Court’s decision.

If Virtual Map gets its maps back online, as it had previously told The Straits Times it was trying to do, it may yet win back some old customers.

Ms Liew said Yellow Pages ‘will evaluate Virtual Map’s merits against those of other service providers and decide on the vendor most suited to our product strategy…when we need to consider a change in vendor or product direction’.
Source : Straits Times   - 05 May 2008

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Singapore En bloc uproar at Bayshore Park, Mandarin Gardens

Singapore En bloc uproar at Bayshore Park, Mandarin Gardens 

Sales committees rein in estate councils, irking owners who want to upkeep homes

By Jessica Cheam 
TALL ORDER: With $2 billion each needed to buy Mandarin Gardens (above) or Bayshore Park, analysts say their collective sales are unlikely in the current market. — ST FILE PHOTOS
 
THE market for en bloc sales may have gone dead quiet, but the issue is still raising a ruckus at two of Singapore’s most iconic condominium developments in the East.
Sales committees pushing for the collective sales of Mandarin Gardens and Bayshore Park have been accused of trying to control the management councils running these estates and voting down proposals to upgrade estate facilities.

The committees, made up of residents who are pro-en bloc, have denied the charges.

Still, things came to a head last Sunday at both condos’ respective annual general meetings (AGM), which lasted up to 10 hours each.

Sales committees are ad hoc committees formed by residents to explore the potential of an en bloc sale. They are different from the management council, which is appointed at the AGM by residents to run the estate and look into the upgrading of facilities.

Residents against en bloc sales at both condos claim that the sales committees had gone round collecting proxy votes from residents so as to control the outcome of the AGMs.

Mandarin Gardens’ emotional AGM has left the 25-year-old estate with no management council at all. The existing council quit and refused to be re-elected because of some resolutions passed at the AGM. At the centre of the dispute was a controversial proposal by the sales committee, which was formed last year, to reduce the management council’s current limit of $300,000 for expenses on urgent matters to $50,000. This was successful as the sales committee had enough proxy votes to form the majority. Council chairman Neoh Chin Chee said in a letter to residents last week that the resolutions passed made it ‘untenable or difficult to carry on as a council member’. Proposals to upgrade the condo’s rainshields and swimming pool tiles were also not approved.

The AGM was eventually adjourned when not enough candidates were nominated.

One resident Jeannette Aruldoss, 44, a lawyer, told The Straits Times that the $50,000 limit restricted the role of the council to run the estate. In emergencies, this fund may not be enough to address safety issues, she said.

But sales committee chairman Mr Tan Kok Khoon said some residents had felt the $300,000 limit was too high.

Over at the 21-year-old Bayshore Park estate, the sales committee proposed and pushed through a resolution to reduce the council members from 14 to nine.

Of the nine, four are also on the sales committee, so some residents are upset about the change.

Bayshore resident Mr S.K. Cheah, 40, a sales director, feels there could be a conflict of interest since sales committee members are likely to act in the interest of a sale, above that of the estate.

He noted that at the AGM, some resolutions for maintenance and upgrading were also voted down.

Another Bayshore Park resident, who declined to be named, commented that one common tactic used by many sales committees is to ‘run the estate down’ or keep maintenance to a minimum, so residents have little choice but to vote for a sale later.

But Bayshore’s sales committee member Alan Chua told The Straits Times that they had no intention of doing that.

‘We’ve lived here for many years and love this place, why would we do that?’ he said.

On the en bloc sale potential, Savills Singapore director (marketing and business development) Ku Swee Yong noted that at least $2 billion each would be needed to buy each estate - a tall order even when the market is good. ‘With the current market, the sale is impossible,’ he said.
Source : Straits Times   - 05 May 2008

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Refuelling in Malaysia? You may have to show IC first - KUALA LUMPUR

Refuelling in Malaysia? You may have to show IC first  - KUALA LUMPUR

By Hazlin Hassan, Malaysia Correspondent 

KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA is mulling over steps to bar visitors from Singapore and Thailand from topping up their tanks with subsidised fuel at petrol stations nationwide.
Subsidised fuel in the future will likely be available only to Malaysians carrying their microchip-based national identity cards known as the MyKad, said Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Shahrir Samad.

Singaporeans and Thais can still top up their tanks at the same stations, but they will have to pay the full market rate, he said.

‘The technical features are there on the MyKad and can be integrated with fuel pumps so they can be used to identify the person,’ he told news agency Agence France-Presse yesterday.

‘We are looking to see if we can use it on the fuel pumps so that only Malaysian citizens get the subsidy,’ he added.

Penalties would likely be introduced to punish non-Malaysians who borrowed the IC of their friends to refuel, he said.

The government spent RM35 billion (S$15 billion) on fuel subsidies last year, an amount that could rise to RM43 billion this year. It has sought to gradually reduce fuel subsidies amid soaring global oil prices.

But to remove subsidies entirely would be unpopular as many Malaysians rely on cars instead of the unreliable public transport.

‘We should not be subsidising fuel and goods for foreigners like Singaporeans and Thais. Those without MyKad can continue to buy the fuel at the pumps but at unsubsidised prices,’ he said.

Malaysia subsidises petrol, diesel and gas as well as 21 food items, but the controls have triggered smuggling across its long border and coastline.

Petrol is sold at RM1.92 per litre (82 Singapore cents) at the pump. Without the subsidies it could jump to between RM2.48 and RM2.93.

Last month, Datuk Shahrir said subsidies on diesel would be removed, with subsidised diesel given directly to those entitled to them, such as schoolbus owners and fishermen.

Diesel is sold at stations for RM1.58 a litre. Unsubsidised diesel would cost more than RM2 a litre.

Singapore vehicles are subject to the three-quarter tank rule when crossing into Malaysia, which limits their refuelling capacity.

Datuk Shahrir told The Straits Times that the ministry was also looking at introducing a new card for Malaysians which could be used to purchase petrol.

‘It could be an identification tool tied to the car you use,’ he said. The card would identify its holder as well as the registration of the vehicle, preventing it from being used by others to top up their tanks.

The minister hopes to have the system in place by the year-end at all fuel stations in Malaysia.

The ban would likely not differentiate between Singaporeans making short trips to Malaysia and those on a longer stay, he added. ‘It’s the same when you go to Indonesia or Europe, you have to adjust to their system,’ he said.
Source : Straits Times   - 05 May 2008

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