Market Snapshot

Singapore stocks opened lower on Tuesday. STI fell 0.1%; Yoma Strategic up 1.2%; SATS fell 4%; YZJ Shipbldg fell 3%; Seatrium fell 2%.

Stocks to Watch

Great Eastern: The insurance provider on Tuesday reported a net profit of S$134.8 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, down 14 per cent from S$157.2 million in the previous corresponding period. Total weighted new sales in Q4 fell 16 per cent to S$432.7 million from S$514.1 million, amid lower single premium sales in the Singapore market. The board has proposed a final dividend of S$0.45 per share, which will be payable on May 6, following the record date of Apr 21. Shares of Great Eastern have been suspended from trading since July.

Frasers Cpt Tr: The trust is offering S$80 million in fixed-rate green notes due 2032 at 3.3 per cent. They will be issued on Mar 3 under the real estate investment trust’s S$3 billion multicurrency debt issuance programme. The notes, part of Series 002, will be issued in bearer form and in denominations of S$250,000 each. Units of FCT closed up 0.48 per cent or S$0.01 at S$2.08 on Monday.

YZJ Fin Hldg: The investment management firm Yangzijiang Financial reported a net profit of S$197.3 million in the second half ended Dec 31, 2024, an increase of about four times from S$39.3 million a year ago. Its second-half revenue came in at S$164.9 million, up 16 per cent from S$142.3 million and earnings per share stood at S$0.0562, compared with S$0.0108 in the year-ago period. The group’s topline growth came from higher contributions from its fund investment and cash management businesses. Shares of Yangzijiang Financial closed flat at S$0.565 on Monday.

PropNex: The real estate agency reported a 14.9 per cent fall in net profit for its second half ended Dec 31, 2024, to S$21.9 million from S$25.8 million in the previous corresponding period. Its revenue was down 7.7 per cent at S$437.4 million from S$473.8 million previously, the company said in its Tuesday financials results release. The board proposed a final dividend of S$0.03 per share alongside a special dividend of S$0.025 per share, payable on May 8 after book closure on Apr 28. Shares of PropNex closed Monday flat at S$1.13 before the results were announced.

EC World Reit: The trust’s net property income for the fourth quarter of financial year 2024 more than halved to S$11.2 million, from S$22.7 million in the same period last year. Revenue was down 36.6 per cent to S$15.9 million, from S$25.1 million and no distribution has been declared for the period from July 2024 to December 2024. The trading of units in EC World Reit has been suspended from since Aug 31, 2023.

SG Local News

SoftBank, Temasek Among eFishery Investors Facing Near Wipeout

Investigators hired by the board of eFishery Pte. have determined the Indonesian startup is in far worse shape than they previously thought, and that investors are likely to get back less than 10 cents for every dollar they invested, according to documents seen by Bloomberg News.

The company, which deploys feeders to fish and shrimp farmers in Indonesia, incurred several hundred million dollars in losses between 2018 and 2024 and misrepresented its financial figures for years, according to the documents and a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

“eFishery is not commercially viable in its current form,” said a presentation prepared for the firm’s investors by FTI Consulting Singapore Pte., the adviser hired to review the business and take over management of the company.

The fallen startup, whose financial backers include SoftBank Group Corp. and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte., had been a star of Indonesia’s startup scene. eFishery was valued at $1.4 billion in 2023 after it raised $200 million from Abu Dhabi’s 42XFund and some of its earlier investors.

DBS Expects to Shrink Contract and Temp Jobs by 4,000 over Next 3 Years as AI Replaces Roles

DBS Group Holdings expects to reduce its contract and temporary staff by around 4,000 over the next three years as artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly takes on roles carried out by human beings, outgoing chief executive officer Piyush Gupta said.

“The reduction in workforce will come from natural attrition as temporary and contract roles roll off over the next few years,” a DBS spokesperson said in response to queries from The Straits Times, without sharing more details such as how many Singapore workers are affected and what roles they are in.