Australia, South Korea, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh already operate without a lunch interval. Singapore’s trading day now runs from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. local time, followed by a 90 minute break and an afternoon session between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Singapore Exchange, operator of the city’s derivatives and securities market, will scrap its midday trading break from March as it seeks to increase its regional role.
Australia, South Korea, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh already operate without a lunch interval. Singapore’s trading day now runs from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., followed by a 90 minute break and an afternoon session between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
La Nina proves as disruptive as her better-known brother
EL NINO, a periodic sloshing of warm water from west to east across the Pacific, gets its name—“the boy child”—because it is around Christmas that it warms the water off Peru. It is now understood to have far wider effects, leading to characteristic patterns of temperature, rainfall and drought around much of the world. El Nino’s female counterpart, La Nina—a cooler sloshing from east to west—is less well known, and less frequent. But it too can impose a distinctive pattern of weather worldwide.
A moderately strong La Nina began around the middle of 2010 and is now at its peak; it is very likely to last another couple of months, and conceivably into the middle of this year. It can be blamed for floods in Australia, which are typical of La Nina in their location, if not their intensity, and in the Philippines, where ten people had died as of January 4th. But these are far from the first symptoms. The torrential rains which killed hundreds in Venezuela and Colombia in November and December had the little girl’s fingerprints on them, too. The spectacular inundation in Pakistan last August also fits the pattern. …
Shares of palm oil refiner Mewah International <MEWI.SI> fell as much as 13% on their debut on jittery global markets, marking one of the weakest IPO performances in Singapore in recent months.
Mewah’s $277 million listing comes as an IPO boom sweeps across Asia, with more than two-thirds of the global volume in 2010 raised in the region, powered by strong economic growth.
Singapore expects a string of issues including a $1.3 billion listing of Mapletree Investments’s commercial trust and analysts said Mewah’s poor debut was unlikely to derail the rush of IPOs.
“Mewah’s IPO tanked. I think it’s somewhat sentiment-driven and also the fundamentals do play a part in it,” Terence Wong, co-head of research at DMG & Partners, said on Wednesday.
“I don’t see any broader impact on IPOs now but in times of either protracted weakness or bullishness, that would have an impact on the IPO,” Wong said.
IFR reported on Wednesday that Amtek Engineering had slashed the size of its Singapore IPO and will now raise a maximum of $299 million.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index <.FTSTI> has been a big underperformer in Southeast Asia this year, rising only about 8% versus a 45% surge in Indonesia <.JKSE> and a 34% jump in the Philippines market <.PSI>.
Asian shares fell on Wednesday and the euro hovered near a two-month low to the dollar as regional stocks caught up with a sharp sell-off after North Korea’s deadly shelling of a South Korean island and investors sought safety in the US currency.
By 9:50 a.m., Mewah shares traded at $1.0, 9.0% below their initial public offering price of S$1.10 in a market <.FTSTI> up 0.4%. More than 33 million shares were traded, making Mewah the fourth-most actively traded stock by volume on the Singapore exchange.
Mewah, which produces vegetable oil products for sale to wholesalers, retailers, and supermarkets such as Carrefour <CARR.PA>, plans to expand its refining capacities and boost its revenue by tapping fast-growing markets including China, where demand for edible oils and fats products is growing.
Shares in Wilmar <WLIL.SI>, the world’s biggest listed palm oil firm, and Golden Agri-Resources <GAGR.SI>, among the number of large palm oil firms listed in Singapore, traded higher.
With operations in Singapore and Malaysia, Mewa had priced its IPO below its indicative range of $1.25–$1.55.
“The subscription for the IPO wasn’t really fantastic and it was priced below its indicative range, which could also have acted against the stock too,” said Carey Wong, an investment analyst at OCBC Investment Research.
Shares of STX Offshore and Specialised Vessels (STX OSV) <STXO.SI>, a shipbuilder that is part of South Korea’s STX group, rose in its trading debut this month after raising $296 million.
Mewah says it is one of Asia’s biggest edible oils processing firms with a total refining capacity of 8,000 tonnes per day. The IPO was 1.9 times subscribed.
The palm oil processor, unlike plantation owners such as Golden Agri, may also see their margins squeezed by rising palm oil and input prices, Wong added. Mewah does not own plantations.
Credit Suisse was the sole global coordinator, bookrunner, underwriter and issue manager for Mewah’s IPO.
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Tiger Airways Holdings and South East Asian Airlines have formed a partnership under which the company known as SEAir will lease aircraft from Tiger Air.
Using an initial fleet of two Airbus aircraft, SEAir will start flights from Clark in the Philippines to Singapore from Dec 16.
Seats will be marketed and distributed through tigerairways.com
Tiger Air says additional routes operated by SEAir using these new jets will be added to the programme over the coming months.
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From November 2009 to October 2010, a total of 5.6 million passengers chose to fly with Tiger Airways, an increase of 39% over the 4.0 million passengers in the preceding 12 months. Average load factor for the 12-month period to October 2010 was 86%, an increase of 3 percentage points year-on- year.
For the month of October 2010, Tiger Airways carried 455,000 passengers, an 8% increase compared to October 2009. The average load factor across both airlines in Asia and Australia for the month was at 87%.
Tony Davis, President and Group CEO of Tiger Airways Holdings, says, “We are pleased to report continued passenger growth for the Group in October. Having launched our biggest ever flying programme for the northern winter season, we look forward to further growth in the second half of the financial year. Tiger Airways Singapore has launched new services to Manila in the Philippines and to Trichy and Trivandrum in India, and Tiger Airways Australia has launched its new base at Avalon Airport, with new services complementing existing flights from Adelaide and Melbourne (Tullamarine). With new aircraft coming into the fleet, Tiger Airways Singapore will start services to Taipei in January 2011 and will continue to add frequencies to existing routes. Tiger Airways Australia will launch flights between Brisbane and Sydney in February 2011, allowing us to complete the coveted ‘Golden Triangle’ in Australia.”
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Christine Syquia contacted my about starting a column on Entrepreneurs-Journey. I asked what business experience she brought to the table and she quickly impressed me with her story of starting a million dollar accessories business with her sister, with distribution in some of the largest fashion stores in the USA. I know you’re going to [...]
Mainboard-listed Del Monte Pacific today announced a third quarter net profit of US$3.3 million ($4.27 million), reversing a net loss of US$1.7 million in the same period last year. Sales rose 16% to US$88.4 million from US$76.3 million due to higher turnover in the Philippines and export markets, both in processed and fresh business segments.
Sales in the Philippines improved 19% with increased sales in all major product categories on higher volume, prices and better sales mix. The group recently launched the Del Monte Fit ‘n Right tea in two flavours – peach and lemon. This extends the popular Fit ‘n Right brand from juice drinks to tea, a new beverage category for the company.
Former member of British pop band Hear’Say, Myleene Klass, who is now pregnant with her second child, has revealed that she gets her inspiration for life from her mother. Klass, 32, who had grown up in Norfolk with parents Magdalena and Oscar, sister Jessie and brother Don, said that her mother taught her many things [...]
A powerful family accused of being behind the worst political massacre in the Philippines plotted the killings over dinner, a court has heard. The witness, a former house servant, said the family had discussed killing their political rivals six days before the ambush in which 57 people died.
Genting Hong Kong (S21.SG) +11.7% at new 52-week high of US$0.355 ($0.478) on strong volume as players turn attention from sister company Genting Singapore (G13.SG) to cruise operator, hopeful it could also enjoy latter’s gaming success given its 50% stake in Resorts World Manila, says Dow Jones.
“Since RWM’s entry (in 2009), the overall Philippines gaming market has more than doubled year to date. This is another example of new properties growing gaming markets rather than cannibalising the existing pie,” says a broker.
Thousands of people rallied in Hong Kong Sunday, demanding justice for eight locals killed in a bus hijacking in the Philippines. Demonstrators voiced their anger over the Philippine government’s handling of the siege in the heart of Manila Monday.
Tiger Airways (J7X.SG) off 1.1% at 5-week low of $1.88, extending largely steady decline since reaching all-time high of $2.25 earlier this month, due to ongoing concerns over rising costs tied to aggressive expansion, recent sale of shares by several substantial shareholders, says Dow Jones.
Budget carrier’s decision to lease 2 planes to Southeast Asian Airlines of the Philippines, disclosed yesterday, possibly also deemed negative. Royal Bank of Scotland estimates move could lower expected increase in Tiger’s seat capacity to 26% from 37%, average seat kilometer to 27.5% from 33% for FY ending March 2011.
Meet Miss Universe 2010: Miss Mexico Jimena Navarrete was crowned Miss Universe 2010 during the Miss Universe pageant at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Monday night.The stunning brunette from Guadalajara inherited the title from Venezuela’s Stefania Fernandez and beat out 83 beauty queens from all over the globe — including Miss [...]
In the northern Philippines, at least 41 people have died after a bus lost control and plunged into a 50 metre ravine. It’s believed the vehicle had mechanical problems with the driver unable to change gear. Some 47 people were on board.
Mainboard-listed Del Monte Pacific (Bloomberg: DELM SP, Reuters: DMPL.SI) today announced a net loss of US$1.3 million ($1.76 million) for the second quarter of 2010 compared to a net profit of US$5.1 million in the same period last year. The loss was due primarily to higher raw material costs and inventory obsolescence, despite an 8% improvement in sales.
Sales grew to US$85.1 million from US$78.9 million in the prior year quarter due to higher turnover in the Philippines and fresh exports.
Thursday Comment Sept 9: Casinos and cruises
Opened in Aug 2009, Resorts World Manila is a 50:50 joint venture between Genting Hong Kong and Alliance Global and is only 55% completed. Home to five-star Marriott Hotel Manila and the 172-suite Maxims Hotel, RWM is a five-minute drive away from the soon-to-be-open Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s Terminal 3. Another Remington Hotel is targeted to open in the first quarter of 2011. Upon completion, the total number of hotel rooms in RWM is expected to hit 1,300. A retail mall was completed in June and is likely to be operational by the end of the year.