HDB urges S’poreans to adopt zero-tolerance approach towards killer litter

HDB urges S’poreans to adopt zero-tolerance approach towards killer litter

By S Ramesh

SINGAPORE: The Housing and Development Board (HDB) is embarking on a public education campaign over the next few months to urge residents to adopt a zero-tolerance approach towards potential killer litter.

It will send advisory letters to all HDB households and display posters in HDB estates.

HDB stressed that with more than 80 per cent of Singaporeans living in high-rise HDB flats, it is important that every HDB resident play an active role in building a safe living environment for all.

HDB has been working with town councils, grassroots organisations and religious organisations to educate residents on the danger of killer litter.

The number of warnings served on residents by HDB and Town Councils for placing objects in a dangerous manner has gone down by about 40 per cent, from about 7,800 per month in 2007 to about 4,650 per month last year.

However, in the first eight months of this year, there was a slight increase to 4,900 warnings per month.

HDB said it takes a serious view of any irresponsible or negligent act that would endanger the safety of others in public housing estates.

It also stressed it will not hesitate to take strong action against recalcitrant offenders, including bringing offenders to court, and in serious cases, compulsorily acquiring the flat.

Replying to queries from MediaCorp, HDB said that from 2006 to 2008, it had served warning letters to 12 lessees or tenants for offences relating to killer litter.

HDB compulsorily acquired one flat in 2005 after the owner was convicted of throwing killer litter.

Some potential killer litter items include items hung from bamboo pole holders such as potted plants, brooms and mops, and bird cages hung from the ceiling above the parapet wall.

In a separate statement, three religious organisations have come out in support of HDB’s moves to stop killer litter incidents.

They are the Singapore Buddhist Federation, the Taoist Federation (Singapore) and the Wat Ananda Metyarama.

They have advised residents not to place or hang objects in places where they could easily fall off and pose a danger to public safety.

The organisations stress that it is not in line with religious practices of compassion to place and hang religious items like altars, urns, and incense burners above parapet walls, windows and common properties in a precarious manner.

- CNA/yb

Source : Channel NewsAsia - 18 December 2009

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Number of mortgagee sales at 12-year low

Number of mortgagee sales at 12-year low

By Joyce Teo

MANY expected to see a surge in the number of home loan defaults, what with the worst recession in Singapore’s history and the rising tide of jobless people struggling with mortgage instalments.

Nothing, it turns out, could be further from the truth. The number of properties put up for mortgagee sale fell to a 12-year low this year, said a report by Colliers International yesterday.

Only 195 of the 927 properties put up for auction this year were mortgagee sales or forced sales of repossessed properties. This is a 25 per cent drop from the 260 properties last year, it said.

When banks repossess properties where the homebuyer has defaulted, they invariably choose to sell at auction as that is a fast and transparent mode of sale.

The latest low figures are a far cry from the situation in 1998 when the Asian financial crisis hit home. A total of 452 properties were put up for mortgagee sale that year, it said.

‘The low number of mortgagee sales could be due to the introduction of the Government’s Jobs Credit scheme which stabilised the employment market; which, in turn, provided some home owners with the ability to service their monthly mortgage loans,’ said the firm’s deputy managing director (agency and business services) Grace Ng.

‘Additionally, buoyant sales experienced in the primary market and a steadily improving economy boosted sentiments in the secondary market, hence enabling owners to dispose of their properties and evading the need for banks to foreclose their properties.’

The Colliers report said that 118 properties worth $168.39 million were auctioned off this year, slightly more than double the $83.67 million done last year.

Residential sales at auction this year totalled $88.35 million, up from $25.23 million last year, as upgraders were encouraged by the more positive economic sentiments since March as well as low housing loan rates.

This year, there was competitive bidding for old semi-detached houses with large land areas, noted Ms Ng.

The residential sector was the star performer as usual, but the value of non-residential properties auctioned off this year has more than trebled to $101.8 million to date, said another consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle in a statement yesterday.

Its head of auctions Mok Sze Sze said this can be attributed to the fact that investors are attracted to the higher rental yield from non-residential properties as opposed to a residential one.

Looking ahead, Ms Ng said more high-value properties are expected to be sold next year, possibly bringing the total value of properties sold at auction to more than $200 million.

Source : Straits Times - 18 December 2009

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HDB wages killer litter campaign

HDB wages killer litter campaign

Target: Dangerously-placed items on high-rise buildings

By Sujin Thomas & Yen Feng

THE Housing Board is on a mission to stamp out killer litter - again.

Over the next few months, the public housing agency will send out letters to about 900,000 HDB residents urging them to remove dangerously placed items at high-rise buildings, and to report neighbours who fail to do so.

Posters will also be displayed throughout residential estates. The message it wants to send out: ‘Adopt a zero-tolerance approach towards potential killer litter.’

The latest national drive to eradicate killer litter follows an incident last Saturday in which a man was hit on the head by a flower pot thrown from the 16th floor of a Sengkang block of HDB flats.

The alleged culprit was charged in court on Tuesday with committing a rash act - a charge under which killer litter falls when someone is hurt.

The maximum punishment for residents convicted of an offence relating to the throwing of killer litter is a $1,000 fine and two years’ jail.

HDB has also reported a spike in the number of warnings it issues to residents.

Last year, 4,650 warning letters per month were sent out to residents for placing objects ‘in a dangerous manner’, down 40per cent from the number of letters sent out in 2007.

However, in the first eight months of this year, the monthly average has crept up to about 5,000.

In a statement released yesterday, HDB said it would not hesitate to take action against residents who do not comply with its regulations, adding that such actions may include bringing offenders to court, and ‘in serious cases, compulsorily acquiring the flat’.

Killer litter has been a public safety issue for over four decades.

The authorities began public awareness campaigns to deter residents from discarding unwanted items out of their windows in the late 1970s, after a two-year-old girl was killed by a falling tricycle wheel in 1976.

In 2005, enforcement measures were ramped up following a new spate of killer litter incidents in Bukit Batok, Sengkang and Tanjong Pagar.

The board adopted a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy: Residents who repeatedly refused to heed requests to remove potentially harmful items would be served with a summons, either by the HDB or the town council, and fined up to $2,000.

One flat was repossessed in 2005 under these circumstances, said HDB.

The Housing Board’s hardline stance is an acknowledgment of how difficult it can be to stop bad habits.

More than 80 per cent of Singaporeans live in high-rise public flats. So a wide range of household items are potential killer litter.

These include items such as flower pots, incense burners and religious urns placed on bamboo pole holders, on parapet walls, or on window ledges, and hung from corridor ceilings.

Town councils and MPs said it was common for residents to throw everyday items, like tissue paper, food packets, and even sanitary pads, out of windows.

A few proposed tougher measures.

Mr Yatiman Yusof, 63, a former MP for Tampines GRC who said he was nearly killed 25 years ago by a falling dumbbell, said ‘culprits should be named and shamed to highlight the problem.’

Yesterday’s HDB statement was issued along with a joint release from three Buddhist and Taoist groups.

Spokesmen for the Singapore Buddhist Federation, Taoist Federation and Wat Ananda Metyarama Thai Buddhist temple cautioned devotees over the potential dangers of items for religious worship placed dangerously.

It added that such carelessness was ‘not in line with our religious practices of compassion’.

Buddhists and Taoists often place or hang incense burners or urns either on parapet walls or from the corridor ceilings of their HDB flats. Devotees use these items for their daily prayers.

The three groups, which oversee the majority of Singapore’s Buddhist and Taoist communities, also send out reminders via their monthly newsletters, said the spokesmen.

‘Regrettably, public education is a long-term process,’ said Master Wei Yi, a Taoist priest and administrator of the Taoist Federation.

Source : Business Times - 18 December 2009

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Property auction sales double to $168.4m

Property auction sales double to $168.4m
Number of mortgagee properties put up for auction falls 25%

By KALPANA RASHIWALA

THE property auction scene is expected to continue sparkling next year, spurred by interest in the high-end residential market, says Colliers International. It says that the total value of properties sold at auctions may exceed $200 million in 2010, after the figure doubled this year to about $168.4 million from last year’s $83.7 million.

A total of 118 properties were sold at auctions in 2009, again up from last year’s 72.

The residential property was the star performer, accounting for about 52 per cent of total auction sales value.

Contrary to earlier expectations in some quarters, the number of mortgagee properties put on the auction block fell 25 per cent to 195. The figure includes other forced sales, for instance, by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore and management corporations.

‘The low number of mortgagee sales could be due to the introduction of the government’s Jobs Credit scheme, which stabilised the employment market. This, in turn, provided some home owners with the ability to service their monthly mortgage loans,’ says Grace Ng, Colliers deputy managing director (agency and business services) and auctioneer.

The number of properties put up for auction by their owners (including trustee sales) rose 10 per cent to 732, further testament to growing acceptance of auctions as a mode of selling property.

Mok Sze Sze, Jones Lang LaSalle head of auctions, says: ‘Owners are attracted by the competitive nature of the auction environment and the high chance of attaining an optimum price for their property.’

She expects to see more owners putting their properties on the auction block next year and, as the economy continues to improve, a further decrease in the number of mortgagee sales.

Colliers highlighted a more than 200 per cent jump in the sales value of residential and industrial properties sold at auction this year to $88.4 million and $20 million respectively. Older residential properties with large areas were popular for both landed and non-landed segments.

The sales value of retail properties transacted at auction rose from $34.6 million last year to $43.4 million.

This year’s auction tally of $168.4 million is about 59 per cent below the peak figures $409.46 million in 1999 and $407.43 million set in 2007.

Back in 1999, when the private residential property market staged a spectacular recovery after the Asian crisis, 27 per cent of 1,210 properties that went under the hammer were sold at auctions, according to Colliers’ analysis. This year, the 118 properties sold made up just 13 per cent of the total 927 properties put on the auction block.

Colliers’ definition of total number of properties put up for auction includes those withdrawn before auction or sold before/after the auction. However, the number sold refers only to those transacted at auction.

Source : Business Times - 18 December 2009

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GIC’s stake in Citi diluted to 4%

GIC’s stake in Citi diluted to 4%

But it is confident of bank’s long-term prospects; not in hurry to sell shares

By CONRAD TAN

(SINGAPORE) The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation’s (GIC) shareholding in Citigroup will be diluted by a fifth after the US bank priced its new share issue at such a steep discount that the US government chose to delay selling its own shares in the firm.

Price of exiting TARP: The low price at which Citi offered its shares - at US$3.15 a share - is a sign that investors demand a big discount in return for injecting money into the firm
But GIC said that it would retain its investment in Citi, and was confident of the bank’s long-term prospects.

‘GIC’s holdings in Citigroup will be reduced to approximately 4 per cent with the latest round of capital raising,’ a GIC spokesman said yesterday, in response to BT’s questions.

That’s down from 4.9 per cent in mid-September, when GIC pared its stake in the bank from 9.4 per cent after exchanging its US$6.88 billion worth of preferred shares in Citi for common shares.

An analysis by BT shows that it is likely GIC did not invest in any of the new shares sold by Citi, though GIC declined to confirm this.

Citi said on Wednesday that it had priced its US$17 billion common-stock offer at US$3.15 a share. That’s 20 per cent below its closing share price of US$3.95 last Friday, before Citi announced its plan to repay US$20 billion in funds that it received under the Troubled Asset Relief Program and end its loss-sharing agreement with the US government.

As part of the deal, Citi had to raise US$20.5 billion in new capital, comprising US$17 billion in common stock and US$3.5 billion in ‘tangible equity units’, of which US$2.8 billion are stock purchase contracts that will convert automatically into as many as 900 million shares after three years.

The low price at which Citi offered its shares - a sign that investors demanded a big discount in return for injecting money into the firm - means that Citi has to issue some 5.4 billion new shares immediately to raise the US$17 billion that it needs.

That will boost the number of Citi common shares outstanding to 28.26 billion, from 22.86 billion at the end of September, and reduce the ownership stakes of existing common shareholders, including GIC, by 19 per cent.

That doesn’t include Citi’s plans to issue US$1.7 billion of ‘common stock equivalents’ to staff next month in lieu of cash, which will be converted to common shares if shareholders approve the measure at the bank’s annual general meeting in April. That would further dilute existing shareholders.

Citi’s share price ended 3.1 per cent lower at US$3.45 on Wednesday after it revealed the cost to existing shareholders of its capital raising. Since it announced the deal to repay the government’s bailout money at the start of the week, its share price has slumped 13 per cent.

But GIC is in no hurry to sell its remaining Citi shares.

‘GIC will continue its investment in Citi as we are confident of its long-term prospects,’ a GIC spokesman said yesterday. ‘As a shareholder, GIC views Citi’s plan to repay the US government as a positive development in the company’s recovery.’

Meanwhile, the US Treasury has decided not to sell any of its own Citi shares for now, reversing the government’s plan earlier this week to sell as much as US$5 billion of the shares together with the bank’s latest equity offering.

Instead, it agreed to extend the lock-up period on the sale of its 7.7 billion Citi shares to 90 days after the completion of Citi’s offering, from 45 days previously.

The government put off the sale of its Citi shares because the price of US$3.15 a share was too low, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the situation.

That means the Treasury will still own a 27 per cent stake in Citi, even after the dilution caused by Citi’s latest share sale. The Treasury still plans to sell its stake in Citi over the next six to 12 months, Reuters reported.

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a major investor in Citi since 1991, said on Monday that he had no plans to sell his shares in the bank. But its troubles are far from over. On Tuesday, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the biggest of the emirate’s sovereign wealth funds, filed an arbitration claim against Citi in New York, demanding to unwind an earlier agreement that would soon require the fund to convert its US$7.5 billion investment in Citi into common shares at a price of over US$30 apiece - more than seven times its current share price. Citi has said that the claim is ‘without merit’.

Source : Business Times - 18 December 2009

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It’s payback time with AIA set for HK listing

It’s payback time with AIA set for HK listing

IPO may raise up to US$20b; proceeds will help parent AIG clear some of its dues

By JOYCE HOOI

(SINGAPORE) Troubled insurance giant American International Group (AIG) is listing its Asian life assurance unit - American International Assurance (AIA) Group - including AIA’s Singapore operations, on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in what might be one of the world’s largest initial public offerings.

Spoilt image: In a November corporate reputation ranking, AIA toppled from first to fourth place on a life insurers’ ranking, continuing to pay dearly for its AIG link
AIA Group was reported to have submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong bourse, in a move that is expected to raise between US$10 billion and US$20 billion through the IPO. Hong Kong is AIA’s regional headquarters in the Asia-Pacific.

The US$20 billion figure is based on a float of approximately 45 per cent of AIA.

Robert Benmosche, AIG’s chief executive officer, said earlier this month that the listing was in the best interests of policyholders, distribution partners, AIG shareholders and United States taxpayers.

Sources quoted by the Wall Street Journal yesterday said the actual size of the AIA IPO had yet to be set and would be determined by the final valuation of the company, the percentage of AIA that AIG wants to sell, and the market conditions at the time of the IPO.

The IPO is expected to be finalised in the second quarter of 2010.

The proceeds will go towards repaying the US$80 billion that AIG owes the US government, post-bailout.

According to the Financial Times, the first US$16 billion raised from spinning off AIA will go to the Federal Reserve - which has lent the insurer US$42 billion - as part of a deal with the US authorities. To date, the US Treasury has given AIG about US$45 billion.

AIA, long regarded the crown jewel of AIG, has 20 million policyholders across 13 countries, employs 250,000 tied agents and made an aggregate operating profit of about US$2 billion last year.

This listing move follows AIG’s aborted attempt to sell AIA to various parties this year.

Other parties will soon benefit from this listing, however. Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank were appointed in June as joint global coordinators of a deal expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in fees.

It remains unknown how this listing will affect AIA’s Singapore operations and its headcount. Earlier this year, however, AIA had expected to recruit more than 1,000 new agents this year.

An equally uncertain quantity is whether or not this listing will make the divestment of individual country units more or less likely.

The financial crisis has not been kind to AIA’s reputation in Singapore.

Last September, the insurer made headlines here when thousands of AIA policyholders rushed to AIA Singapore offices to surrender their plans as news of the imminent collapse of its parent company emerged.

More than a year later, it remains dogged by the panic of 2008.

In a November corporate reputation ranking done by Reputation Management Associates (RMA), AIA toppled from first to fourth place on the life insurers’ reputation rankings, continuing to pay dearly for its AIG association.

Not helping matters, a policyholder in Singapore sued AIA in September, claiming that AIA had asked for additional premium payments over a period well beyond the initial guaranteed payment period.

AIA had then counter-claimed for defamation, alleging that a blog created by the policyholder contained comments that were false and with the intent of causing AIA ‘maximum embarrassment . . . and loss of business’.

Source : Business Times - 18 December 2009

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