Singapore
Wired Daily
Page 2
moderated since Aug-10. Our analyst expects mortgage loan
growth to gradually reduce for the rest of the year but
supported by drawdown from previous mortgage
applications. She forecasts mortgage loans to grow at 10%
for 2012. FY13-14F mortgage loan growth would likely
reduce further as impact of the new measures kick in. UOB
has largest mortgage loan exposure while OCBC’s traction
from Great Eastern and Bank of Singapore clearly
differentiates itself with UOB. Prefer OCBC to UOB.
Global Logistics Properties has sold a 16.7% stake in the
total outstanding equity of GLP Japan Logistics Partners (JV
with CIC) to CBRE Global Multi-Manager for JPY7.6b
(US$98m). The group will hold a remaining 33.3% share in
this fund post sale. This transaction will enable GLP to
monetise part of its investment and to recycle capital. The
group is expected to rake in US$6m from the sale, to be
booked into earnings in the next quarter.
OCBC and CIMB Group could be considering bidding for
General Electric’s US$1.6 bn stake in Thailand's Bank of
Ayudhya, according to a report in Business Times. GE's
finance unit owns 25% of Thailand's fifth-largest lender. GE
sold 7.6% of Bank of Ayudhya to institutional investors last
month, and said at the time that it is reviewing "strategic"
options for its remaining holding.
CapitaCommercial Trust and CapitaMall Trust announced a
S$34.7m asset enhancement initiative (AEI) for Raffles City
Tower, the 42-storey office tower of Raffles City Singapore,
and is expected to achieve a projected return on investment
of 8.6%. The asset enhancement works will start in
November 2012. It will be carried out in phases progressively
until 2Q 2014 so as to minimise inconvenience to existing
occupiers.
It was reported in Newswire that Malaysia's cabinet had
discussed a much-awaited proposal to slash crude palm oil
export taxes to 8-10% from 23%. However the cabinet has
postponed taking any decision on the proposal; as it needed
more time to study the plan, a government official said.
Concurrently, it was also reported that the government will
soon decide on the proposal to lower taxes to between 8 and
10% from 23% currently.
Resale prices of non-landed private homes rose in the third
quarter, even as transaction volumes fell 7.3%. Overall resale
prices gained 3.2% to hit a record $1,156 psf, led by a 2.5%
m-o-m increase in September, data from the latest SRX
Residential Property Flash Report showed. The rest of central
region (RCR) posted the strongest quarterly gain of 7.1% for
resale non-landed in Q3, hitting an historic high of $1,199
psf. This was followed by a smaller gain of 3% in outside of
central region (OCR) to $921 psf, and a muted increase of
0.75% in the core central region (CCR) to $1,738 psf. Resale
transaction volume fell 7.3% to 3,296 transactions from
3,555 transactions in Q2.