SG Morning Highlights | Singapore Business Confidence Hits Two-Year Low for Q3 2023

Advancers / Decliners is 77 to 62, with 104.07 million securities worth S$65.22 million changing hands.

Singapore's accounting firms have been heavily recruiting offshore staff in lower-cost countries. But as clients grow used to being served remotely, this could mean fewer opportunities for the Republic's own auditors in the future, warned industry players.

In such offshoring, accounting firms hire staff based overseas to serve Singapore clients. This was necessitated by an acute shortage of accountants when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, industry players told The Business Times (BT).

Many foreign accountants in Singapore – most of whom are Malaysians – left in the early days of the pandemic, and could not return when borders closed.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is monitoring the implications for jobs in Swiss investment banks UBS and Credit Suisse following UBS' legal takeover of its former rival on Monday (Jun 12), and has conveyed its expectation for the banks to "handle this responsibly".

"The banks are working out the details of the manpower implications. MAS will work with relevant stakeholders to proactively address any impact on employment," said the Singapore central bank and financial regulatory authority.

It noted that there will be no interruptions to the day-to-day proceedings of the two banks' Singapore operations, since the banks will continue to operate here under separate licences.

Local business sentiment has hit a two-year low for the third quarter of 2023, amid a worsening outlook for the manufacturing and wholesale sectors.

Data from the Singapore Commercial Credit Bureau (SCCB) released on Monday (Jun 12) showed its quarterly Business Optimism Index falling to +3.98 percentage points for Q3 2023, from +4.60 percentage points in the previous quarter and +5.10 percentage points in Q3 2022.

"The overall sentiment among the business community has been on a gradual downtrend over the past six quarters since Q2 2022," said SCCB chief executive officer Audrey Chia.

The plaintiffs in that High Court case were the Singapore-listed private education provider's wholly-owned subsidiary Raffles Education Investment India (REI), and India-incorporated Raffles Design International India (RDI).

Prakash is the founder and controller of the Educomp group of companies. The group include India-listed Educomp Solutions, of which Prakash is chairman and managing director, as well as wholly-owned subsidiaries Educomp Asia Pacific and Educomp Professional Education.

The Singapore Exchange Securities Trading on Jun 8 said Sheng Siong has not complied with the provision, which is relevant as its chairman is not independent, along with a provision stipulating that non-executive directors have to make up a majority of the board.

Sheng Siong's board currently comprises 10 directors, five of whom are non-executive and independent. Chairman Lim Hock Eng is part of the management team, and is a brother of chief executive officer Lim Hock Chee.