SG Morning Highlights | SIA to Launch S$30 Million Foundation to Support Communities

Singapore shares opened higher on Tuesday. The $FTSE Singapore Straits Time Index (.STI.SG)$ dropped 0.11 percent to 3310.27 as at 9:11 am.

$SIA (C6L.SG)$: The Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group is launching the Singapore Airlines Foundation with an endowment of SGD 30m ($22m) to support individuals and communities in need within Singapore and contribute to the growth of the country's aviation industry. The foundation will offer financial assistance to eligible students at Singapore’s Institute of Technical Education colleges, polytechnics, or universities through the Youth Uplift Programme, which also includes a three- to six-month traineeship with the SIA Group, courses from the Singapore Airlines Academy, and mentorship from SIA employees. The Youth Outreach Programme is designed to ignite a passion in the aviation industry among upper secondary school and junior college students. The five-day hands-on, behind-the-scenes experience will provide students with an exclusive look at the Group’s operations and insights from the teams behind its success.

$CapLand Ascendas REIT (A17U.SG)$: CapitaLand Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) has issued a SGD 300m ($221m) 10-year green bond through its trustee, HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Singapore) Limited. The senior unsecured fixed rate green notes will bear a coupon of 3.73% per annum, or 66.1 basis points over the 10-year Singapore Overnight Rate Average. DBS and OCBC are joint lead managers and joint bookrunners for the bond. The net proceeds will be used for financing or refinancing eligible projects undertaken by CapitaLand Ascendas Reit in accordance with its green finance framework. The notes will be issued in denominations of SGD 250,000.

$TSH Resources (TSH.SG)$: TSH Resources, a plantation company, has reported a 32% decrease in net profit for Q1 2024 due to a lower revenue and the absence of disposal gains. Net profit for the quarter fell to MYR 20.1m ($4.8m) from MYR 29.4m in the year-ago period. Revenue was down 3% YoY to MYR 242.4m, primarily due to lower revenue from its wood division as a result of poor demand from the export market. The revenue contribution from the palm products segment slipped marginally by 1% to MYR 231.8m. However, TSH Resources is confident that global population and per capita income growth and the push for the expansion of biodiesel programmes will drive greater demand for oil palm products in the longer term.

$OUE (LJ3.SG)$: OUE is making an off-market equal access offer for shareholders to sell 10% of their shares at SGD 1.25 ($0.92) each, which is a premium of around 19% over the last traded price of SGD 1.05. The buyback will be open for acceptance until May 30, and OUE will buy back up to 84,038,036 shares, or 10% of the total share base as at April 26. If the total number of shares tendered exceeds OUE's maximum buyback amount, the number of shares accepted will be scaled down on a pro-rata basis. Shareholders who tender their shares will still receive OUE's FY2023 dividends, which will be paid on May 24 provided that they own the shares as at May 9.

$Cordlife (P8A.SG)$: A group of 157 Cordlife customers has engaged law firm Peter Low Chambers to advise them in a case against the private cord-blood bank after seven of Cordlife’s 22 storage tanks were exposed to temperatures above acceptable limits at different periods since November 2020. The lapses were uncovered by the Ministry of Health, which suspended the cord-blood bank from collecting or processing new cord blood for six months. MOH’s expert panel has found that around 7,500 cord-blood units stored by Cordlife in two tanks and a dry shipper have been damaged or deemed at “high risk of being adversely affected by the temperature excursions”.