Las Vegas Sands tops estimates as Asia outperforms

Adjusted EPS 17 cents vs estimate 9 cents

* Revenue up nearly 51 pct

* To amend $5 billion US credit facility

* Shares up 2.3 percent

By Deena Beasley

LOS ANGELES, July 28 - Las Vegas Sands Corp <LVS.N>, the casino operator run by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday, aided by strong performances at its new Singapore resort and in Macau.

Sands, whose shares rose 2.3 percent in morning trading, earned 17 cents a share in the second quarter after adjusting for one-time items. Analysts on average expected 9 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net revenue rose nearly 51 percent to $1.59 billion.

“They had a monster quarter,” said Sanford Bernstein analyst Janet Brashear, adding that much of the outperformance was driven by better-than-expected profit margins.

Gambling revenue in Macau, the world’s largest gambling center and the only place in China where gambling is legal, has soared this year, most recently rising 65 percent year-over-year in June.

Sands said second-quarter net revenue at its three Macau properties rose 41 percent from a year earlier to $1.03 billion, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased 74 percent to $307 million.

Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands generated $94 million in EBITDA in its first 65 days of operation. The $5.7 billion casino resort began operating in April.

In Las Vegas, where a glut of hotel rooms has led to rate discounting, EBITDA fell to $66 million in the second quarter from $78 million a year earlier.

“With property performance better than our expectations in Macau and Singapore, and with the Las Vegas Strip weaker than expected, we believe Asia will be the key driver of the story, and the report is bullish for the shares,” Jefferies and Co analyst David Katz said in a research note.

HIGH HOPES

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Adelson said during a conference call that he still expects the Singapore resort to bring in $1 billion in EBITDA next year, due in part to a broader-than-expected customer base.

“There are so many people that are coming from different countries in Asia … We have a group of Koreans flying in every week,” he said. “I think that the outer reaches of our marketing radius is wider than what we thought before.”

The company has lined up financing for development of two sites in a section of Macau known as the Cotai Strip, but construction has not yet started due to government requirements for the hiring of local workers.

Company officials said they are confident the Macau government will not let the project continue to stall, but they reported no tangible progress on a construction start date.

Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Kay said highly-leveraged Sands plans to launch later this week an “amend and extend” transaction for its $5 billion U.S. credit facility.

“The transaction contemplates a paydown of our term loans and a reduction of a revolving credit facility commitment in exchange for the extension of maturities and other modifications to the credit agreement intended to increase the company’s financial flexibility,” he said.

After payment of preferred stock dividends, Sands had a second-quarter net loss of $4.7 million, or 1 cent a share, compared with a net loss of $222.2 million, or 34 cents a share, a year earlier.

In addition to Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, Sands owns the Palazzo and Venetian resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, three casinos in Macau and a casino in Pennsylvania. 

In the collection, a half-bottle of the 2001 Chateau d’Yquem – one of the exceedingly few wines that wine critics Robert Parker and the Wine Spectator both rated 100 points. Yquem is a Sauterne, what some people call a dessert wine, though pigeonholing it as such is no more accurate that pigeonholing Wayne Gretzky as a Canadian athlete.

I was, at the end, literally licking the inside of my glass, and running my finger across the bottom of my wife’s glass to get the last precious drops of what is, without question, the finest liquid to ever coat my tongue.

Through Dave, I bought four half-bottles of the stuff at a nice discount. But the current price runs between $275 and $400 for a half-bottle depending on where you find it. Yet, as much as I love this wine, I have no intention of drinking them. (Well, I’ll drink one with my young son when he turns 21.) Instead, they now rest, properly cooled and humidified, in a small cellar I built in my home to house “investment-grade wine”.

I share this story because it speaks to the value of wine – not just the drinkable liquid, but, as the title of Dave’s book announces, the liquid asset (literally) that can juice a portfolio’s returns.

To give you an example of what individual wine prices can do over time, consider the 1961 Chateau Latour. Back in the day, you could have bought a case for £25. Today, 50 years on, that same case fetches, at the low end, £35,000.

A bit of spreadsheet work and you see the return is about 15.6% annually.

Or let’s look at something more recent: the 1990 Cheval Blanc – released at £400 a case and now trading near £9,200 an annualized return of a 37%.

Or even more recent: the 2000 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild – released at $300 a bottle, it now fetches between $1,500 and $4,300 a bottle, depending on where you find it. Either way, you’re looking at annualized returns of between 17% and 31%

singapore stock market news,singapore stock market ‘

RPT-Singapore’s NOL places $1.2 bln ship orders from Daewoo

Holland Tower, a freehold residential redevelopment site  located in District 10 has been put up for sale through a public tender by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).

The URA said the redevelopment of the 21,879-sq-ft site, which is zoned for residential use, can maintain its current height and can be redeveloped into a boutique residential development with 52 units of 82 sq ft with no development charge.

Holland Tower is located at 10 Holland Heights and sits in the Holland Park Good Class Bungalow Area. It has a maximum gross floor area of 43,691 sq ft and comprises a single 14-storey tower development with 19 units. It is well served by Holland Road, Queensway and Farrer Road, as well as major expressways including the AYE and the PIE.

The site is only minutes away from Orchard Road and the Botanic Gardens, and is close to the lifestyle facilities at Dempsey Cluster and Holland Village.

“With strong take up rate of residential new launches in the vicinity, this elevated site is expected to draw strong interest due to its locality, proximity to amenities and the potential to be redeveloped into a boutique development offering exclusivity and lush greenery. The site is totally unblocked as its surrounding area is prestigious landed housing under the ‘Good Class Bungalow’ segment,” said Ms. Stella Hoh, National Director and Head of Investments at JLL, which is the sole marketing agent for the property.

The public tender for the site will close on 25 August.

Buying a magic box

Let’s say for the sake of example that you do acquire this mystical item for a tidy $1500, and duly receive a crisp $100 note after 12 months (an initial yield of 6.67% as expected). The second year brings even greater rewards:

Over five years the box has increased its output by 35% paying out $135 in cash in the final year, which is an average increase of just over 6% each year. Based on your purchase price, you have received a total of $579 over the period, which is 39% of the initial purchase price. In regard to the 5th year only, you received a yield of 9% ($135/$1500). Few investors would be disappointed with this outcome.

But surely you would have still done better with a higher yielding, yet safer, investment in a bond. Not necessarily, as the box itself has value and can be sold to other eager investors…

Parkway Life REIT
Company update - Optimising Japanese exposure - by Janice Ding
(PREIT SP / PWLR.SI, OUTPERFORM - Maintained, S$1.39 - Tgt. S$1.57,
Property)

Maintain Outperform and target price of S$1.57 for PLife REIT. PLife REIT
has acquired 11 nursing homes in Japan for S$107.3m at an average net
property yield of 6.6% after withholding tax. With this acquisition,
income contributions from Japan had increased to 38% from 28% in 1Q10. We
maintain our DDM-based target price of S$1.57 (discount rate 7.2%) as we
had earlier factored in S$170m of acquisitions for FY10. Stock catalysts
could include early debt refinancing on lower costs in 2H10 and a change
of the holding structure for its Japanese assets in 1H11 which would lower
the withholding tax for its Japanese assets.

China, the worst-performing stock market
after Greece, looks like a buy by almost any measure, according to
top-ranked analysts of the Asian nation’s shares.
   The Shanghai Composite Index’s 26 percent plunge this year,
including yesterday’s 4.3 percent slump, sent its price-earnings ratio
to 18, the lowest level versus the MSCI Emerging Markets Index in a
decade. The largest owners of yuan-denominated stocks have turned net
buyers for the first time since equities bottomed in 2008, while
international investors are paying the biggest premium in 21 months to
bet on a rally in funds that hold China’s yuan-denominated or A shares,
data compiled by Macquarie Group Ltd. and Bloomberg show.
   Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas SA and Nomura Holdings Inc. say stocks
will rally as China’s June 19 decision to end the yuan’s two-year peg to
the dollar helps curb inflation and asset bubbles. The Shanghai index
rose 62 percent in 12 months after China last allowed a more flexible
exchange rate in July 2005.
   ”We are very bullish,” said Jerry Lou, the Hong Kong- based
strategist at Morgan Stanley, among the top-ranked analysts for China
stocks by Institutional Investor, who predicts the Shanghai Composite
may climb 65 percent to 4,000 by June 2011. “We like valuations and
inflation will peak. All we need is a catalyst such as a change in yuan
policy.”
   Prospects for a stock rebound may be cut as China’s exports face
“strong headwinds” in the second half and loan growth may slow by the
end of 2010, Citigroup Inc. said this week, even as the average of 14
economist estimates in a Bloomberg survey calls for economic growth of
10.2 percent this year and 9.2 percent in 2011.

The Conference Board yesterday revised its leading economic index
for China, contributing to the biggest sell-off in Chinese equities in
six weeks. Agricultural Bank of China Ltd., which priced the Shanghai
portion of its $20.1 billion initial share sale, also drove banking
stocks lower.
   The Shanghai Composite fell for a sixth day today, losing
0.8 percent to 2,408.46 at 10:14 a.m. Its slump this year is second only
to the 35 percent plunge in Greece’s ASE Index among the world’s 60
biggest stock markets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Companies on the Shanghai gauge will increase earnings by 40 percent in
12 months, more than double the pace of the ASE, analysts’ estimates by
Bloomberg show.
   Rising profits reduced the Shanghai Composite’s valuation premium
over the MSCI emerging index to 26 percent, down from an average of 140
percent since 1997, based on weekly price- earnings ratios compiled by
Bloomberg. The last time the gap was so small in February 2000, the
Shanghai Composite gained 27 percent in 12 months, while the MSCI
measure sank 26 percent.

                      Lower Valuations

   Lower valuations spurred the biggest Chinese investors to buy last
month. Shareholders who own at least 5 percent of a company’s stock
boosted their holdings by 1.1 billion yuan ($162 million), according to
Macquarie analysts Michael Kurtz and Shirley Zhao in Shanghai, basing
their analysis on data from Wind Information. Similar purchases in
October 2008 signaled the end of the Shanghai Composite’s year-long bear
market, with the gauge rallying 82 percent from its low on Oct. 28,
2008, through October 2009.
   Yuan-denominated shares, restricted almost exclusively to local
investors, fell below Chinese stocks traded in Hong Kong this month for
the first time in almost four years, according to the Hang Seng China AH
Premium Index. When A shares last traded at a discount in November 2006,
the Shanghai Composite tripled in 12 months, outpacing a 156 percent
gain in the Hong Kong benchmark index and a 58 percent rise in the MSCI
gauge.

                      ‘Pay for Exposure’

   ”The premium between A and H shares is disappearing,”
said Hao Hong, Beijing-based global equity strategist at China
International Capital Corp., the top-ranked brokerage for China research
in Asiamoney’s annual survey. That indicates “foreign investors are
willing to pay for exposure to China’s stocks.”
   International investors pushed the price of BlackRock Inc.’s
iShares FTSE/Xinhua A50 China Index exchange-traded fund to 11 percent
above the value of its underlying assets last week, the highest level in
almost two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The fund
trades in Hong Kong and tracks the 50 biggest A-share companies.
   The Shanghai Composite fell 22 percent this quarter, lagging behind
gauges in the other so-called BRIC markets of the largest developing
economies, after China raised banks’ reserve requirements to the highest
level in at least three years and curbed real-estate speculation.
Property prices rose 12.4 percent in May from a year earlier, the
second-fastest pace after April’s 12.8 percent record gain.

                        BRIC Markets

   Brazil’s Bovespa index dropped 8.7 percent during the period and
Russia’s Micex slipped 8 percent, while India’s Bombay Stock Exchange
Sensitive Index advanced 0.2 percent. The MSCI emerging gauge lost 7.6
percent.
   The New York-based Conference Board corrected its April gauge for
the outlook of China’s economy this week, saying its leading index for
the country rose the least since November, rather than registering the
biggest gain in 14 months.
   A flood of new stock may also weigh on the market, according to
Credit Suisse Group AG’s Sakthi Siva. Chinese companies will sell about
320 billion yuan ($47 billion) of new shares in Shanghai and Shenzhen
this year as they fund expansion and banks bolster capital after a
record amount of government- led lending, PricewaterhouseCoopers
predicts.
   Agricultural Bank’s share sale in Shanghai and Hong Kong is the
biggest initial public offering since Industrial & Commercial Bank of
China Ltd.’s $21.9 billion sale almost four years ago.

                      ‘Quite Cautious’

   ”I’m still quite cautious,” Siva, the Singapore-based top-ranked
Asia strategist in Institutional Investor’s 2010 poll, said in an
interview. “There’s quite a lot of supply.”
   Ending the fixed 6.83 yuan peg to the dollar should help “contain
inflation and asset bubbles,” China’s central bank said in a June 20
statement. Inflation will probably peak at 3.7 percent toward the end of
the third quarter then “level off”
the rest of the year, according to CICC’s Hong.
   Chinese authorities had prevented the currency from strengthening
against the dollar since July 2008 to help exporters cope with the
global financial crisis.
   The yuan appreciated 21 percent in the three years after a managed
float against a basket of currencies was introduced in 2005.
Twelve-month non-deliverable forwards yesterday indicate investors are
betting the yuan will strengthen 1.6 percent. A yuan revaluation won’t
happen quickly or fix all of the global economy’s imbalances,
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn
said this week.

                    Vanke, China Merchants

   China Vanke Co., the Shenzhen-based property developer that sank 37
percent this year, trades for 13 times reported profits, down from 35
times a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Earnings
growth of 29 percent this year will help lift the stock 42 percent,
according to analyst estimates on Bloomberg.
   China Merchants Bank Co.’s 2.7 price-to-book ratio is near a record
low relative to the MSCI Emerging Markets Financials Index after the
Shenzhen-based company declined 24 percent this year. The stock is
poised to surge 49 percent in 12 months, according to analysts, who have
35 “buy” ratings and one “sell,” according to data compiled by
Bloomberg.
   Consumer-related shares will benefit from a shift in the economy to
increase domestic spending, said Leo Gao, who helps oversee about $600
million at APS Asset Management Ltd. in Shanghai, whose APS China Alpha
Fund has beaten 87 percent of peers in the past year, according to
Bloomberg data.
   ”Stocks will end the year higher,” Gao said.

Singapore’s factory output sees record rise in May

Singapore said Friday that manufacturing output surged a record 58.6 percent year on year in May as factories raced to meet robust foreign orders for electronics and pharmaceuticals.

Last month’s factory production, which eclipsed the previous record high of 49.7 percent posted in April, was almost double the 32.1 percent forecast in a Dow Jones Newswires’ poll of analysts.

The monthly data from the Economic Development Board (EDB) said factory production in May was boosted by electronics and biomedical which includes pharmaceuticals.

Electronics output rose an annual 51.8 percent while biomedical manufacturing expanded 117 percent with the main boost coming from a 121.8 percent jump in pharmaceuticals, the EDB said.

For the other sectors, chemicals surged 19.6 percent, precision engineering rose 40.5 percent and transport engineering increased 0.3 percent.

Overall manufacturing output was up 45.1 percent in the January-May period, the EDB said.

Economists said the latest data suggested the government may have to revise its 2010 growth targets of 7.0-9.0 percent amid signs the economy is recovering strongly from last year’s slump.

“Another revision is on the cards despite the uncertainties in Europe and whether the US enters into a period of jobless recovery,” said Song Seng Wun, a regional economist with CIMB equity research house.

“The lion (Singapore economy) is charging ahead… Nine percent will be an underachievement with the kind of numbers we have got,” he told AFP.

Singapore’s monthly factory data is a barometer of how its economy is doing as the bulk of output from the sector is shipped out either as final goods or as components to foreign factories.

The economy shrank 1.3 percent last year as exports declined sharply amid the global downturn, which hit Singapore’s major markets, particularly the US, hard.

The deal of the year fell through in a week when global markets look to be
recovering. On Wednesday, Prudential pulled out of the deal to buy the Asian arm of US insurer AIG after failing to negotiate a lower price. British newspapers pointed out
that several major shareholders had welcomed the collapse of the deal,
unconvinced that the US$35.5 billion ($50 billion) takeover would have
been a success. Prudential’s secondary listing on the Singapore Exchange is intact, but it remains to be seen whether the market makers have
provided sufficient liquidity.

During the week, the STI rose 67 points. First quarter net earnings were
in line with expectations, notes DBS Group Research in a report on June 4.
But risk of earnings downgrades is rising as visibility deteriorates with
the sovereign debt crisis in Europe clouding the outlook for the second
half, the report adds. “Indeed, we note that earnings upgrade momentum for
FY10 has been tapering off, from +5% in the previous 4Q09 results season
to +1% in the recent 1Q10 results,” DBS states.

According to the report, the industrial and tech sectors could be affected
by lower demand and order cancellations. Meanwhile, the combination of
domestic policy tightening and weak global sentiment could also have a
knock-on impact on property prices.
Sectors that could face potential downgrades on a deteriorating global
outlook include technology and shipping companies. The yards could also be
hit if contracts fail to come through by 4Q10 due to tightening credit in
the EU, affecting capital expenditure plans of oil majors.

Locally, the property sector would be vulnerable to a slowdown in volume
sales or the decline in average selling prices. The government land sales
programme will release a significant number of new units ? more than
13,000 ? into the market.

Plantation earnings could be cut if harvest is low leading to lower volume
sales in the next two quarters.

As a result, DBS is recommending stocks where downside is protected by
dividend yields, or exposed to Asian consumption as opposed to the global
economy. These include M1, Tiger Airways, Singapore Press Holdings, Singapore Airlines, SIA Engineering, and Raffles Medical Group. Among the REITs, DBS prefers CapitaMall Trust, Frasers Centrepoint Trust, Mapletree Logistics and ParkwayLife.

Back in London, Prudential’s board will face its shareholders on Monday at
an AGM. The plan was to ask investors to approve a dilutive 14.5 billion
pounds rights issue to fund the AIA deal. Now, market pundits reckon
management could be facing angry shareholders demanding a shakeup of the
board. Prudential’s share price traded at 565p, up 24p on Friday, and in
Singapore, the stock ended the week at US$8.45, up 65 cents, for a gain of
8.3%.

Chart View
The STI (2,806) closed comfortably above the 200-day moving average and a
resistance level at the 200-day moving average at 2,781. Since prices have
been able to end the week above an important resistance at the 200-day
moving average, support should be raised to 2,750. Resistance is initially
at the 100-day moving average which shows signs of flattening at 2,849.
The declining 50-day moving average is at 2,886. ? Goola Warden

Wilmar International Limited (Wilmar) has make an offer to Benso Oil Palm
Plantation Ltd (BOPP) (listed in Ghana Stock Exchange) acquire at least
58.45% of the entire issued ordinary share capital. Unilever Ghana
Limited, which holds in aggregate 58.45% of the issued share capital of
BOPP, has provided the Company with a written irrevocable undertaking to
accept the Proposed Offer in respect of its BOPP shares.

Wilmar Africa has also entered into an agreement with Unilever Ghana
Limited to acquire the “Frytol” cooking oil brand and its oil processing
activities in Ghana.

Impact on Stock

The offer price for the stakes in BOPP is at GHS0.83/share or for a total
consideration of US$20.3m assuming 100% stakes in BOPP. The offer price is
5.1% above BOPP’s last closing price of GHS0.79/share (up from GHS0.66 @
21 May 10).  No information on purchase price disclosed with regards to
the acquisition of “Frytol” cooking oil brand and oil processing from
Unilever Ghana. Financial data for BOPP was not available for comment on
valuation.

BOPP is involved in growing of oil palm and other agricultural products,
processors of oil palm fruits to produce palm oil and palm kernels and
dealers and traders in palm oil, palm kernels and other agricultural
products.  BOPP is in the Mpohor Wassa East District in the Western Region
of Ghana where the plantation is 42km from Takoradi.

These acquisitions of BOPP, cooking brand and oil processing activities in
Ghana are consistent with the Wilmar’s plans to develop a fully integrated
oil palm business in the emerging markets.  Wilmar also owns other oil
palm plantations in Africa through its joint ventures in Uganda and Ivory
Coast. Thus the downstream acquisition would be able to complement its
upstream investment in Uganda and Ivory Coast.

Wilmar investment in Africa is to capture the domestic market, which is
not new to palm oil market. Oil palm was originated from West Africa and
palm oil is widely used as cooking oil in West Africa due to its cost
competitiveness and its availability domestically.

Earnings Impact
No major earnings impact to Wilmar as this is a small acquisitions vs its
current operation in Asia.

Recommendation
We reiterate our BUY call with a lower target price of S$7.40 based on sum-of-the-parts valuation to value its palm-base business at
16x 2011F PE and 20x for its China operations.  We still like Wilmar for
(1) market leader in China consumer cooking oil with pricing power (2)
wide marketing and distribution network enable quick response to take
market opportunity (3) Experience management team.

Well-established in SE Asian markets, a pioneer in 3-in-1 coffee. According to Euromonitor, instant coffee consumption is expected to experience a 2009-11 CAGR of 6.6 and 10.9% in Malaysia and Thailand respectively.

Super Group (Super) is one of the leading brands in the instant coffee-mix market and is in the position to benefit from this growing trend in SE Asia. The company has also moved upstream and entered the ingredient market, which products are mainly sold to industrial customers in China and Taiwan.

• Ingredient – the sales growth driver. Super’s branded consumer segment (ie.coffee and cereal) provides steady recurring income, and we expect FY10 sales from this segment to reach S$246.8m, up 9% yoy.

Meanwhile, ingredient sales are expected to be the growth driver, with sales growth of 39% yoy to S$43m in FY10. Driven by robust demand, Super is doubling its productioncapacity in China by 2010.

• Undemanding valuations, potential upside of 38%. Super’s plan of a TDR issue will add some speculative appeal to the company. It is currently trading at core FY10 earnings of 9.5x, lowest among its peers.

We set our target valuation at FY10 core PER of 13.2x, which is close to the average valuation of its peers. This implies a target price of S$1.28/share, and a potential upside of 38.4% from the current price level.

Singaporeans opt for pricey homes, says report

singapore stock market ,singapore stock market news,austraklia stock market ,australia stock market news

ADB asks Sri Lanka to reduce size of budget

The Asian Development Bank on Friday asked Sri Lanka to prune the size of its budget to sustain economic stability as the island emerges from decades of ethnic conflict.

The Manila-based bank’s President Haruhiko Kuroda said Sri Lanka’s top priority now is to rebuild infrastructure in the island’s war-ravaged north and east; and ensure economic stability reaches everyone in the country.

“For that, macro-economic stability, particularly a sustainable budget deficit, is crucial for sustained economic growth,” Kuroda told reporters in Colombo at the end of his three-day visit to the island.

Sri Lanka’s fiscal deficit shot up to 9.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2009, above a seven percent target set by the International Monetary Fund when they released a 2.6 billion dollar bailout package last July.

“Fiscal deficit close to 10 percent of GDP is too large and must be reduced over the medium term,” Kuroda said urging the government to widen its tax net and increase government revenue.

ADB forecasts Sri Lanka’s economy to expand strongly by 6.0 percent this year from 3.5 percent last year, but Kuroda warned the Indian Ocean Island needed to trim its expenses.

“You may be able to increase growth in the short run by increasing spending and reducing taxes. But in the medium to long run if there is no prudent and sound fiscal policy, you cannot have sustained growth,” he said.

ADB Sri Lanka country director Richard Vokes said about 450 million to 500 million dollars has been earmarked to disburse in the tropical island between end 2009 and 2010.

Kuroda said about 50 percent of the project loans will be disbursed in the island’s war-ravaged north and east for reconstruction work and livelihood support.

Sri Lanka is emerging from a 37-year ethnic conflict after government forces last May, crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels who were fighting for an independent homeland for minority Tamils from the majority Sinhalese community.

The United Nations estimates some 100,000 people died in the conflict, while tens of thousands are unable to return to their villages and still live in makeshift homes.

The 588 million dollar Indian offering of Standard Chartered Bank was more than twice oversubscribed by its close Friday, as bids from investors came in just hours before the deadline.

The issue, which opened on Tuesday despite volatile global market conditions, is being viewed by bankers as a success, with investors confident of the bank’s growth strategy, which focuses on emerging markets.

Data at the Mumbai and the National stock exchanges showed the London-based lender’s Indian Depository Receipts (IDR) issue had received about 446 million bids out of 204 million on offer — a 2.19 times oversusbcription.

The issue closed Friday but data is still being collated, the bank said, so the final bid figure could be even higher.

The “high-net worth individual” category was oversubscribed 1.7 times; qualified institutional buyers about three times; and retail investors 0.7 times, a source familiar with the matter told AFP on Friday.

“We are very happy. Initially the markets were nervous due to volatile global conditions and a slow start for the offering,” a banker said, also on condition of anonymity.

The late surge came after Standard Chartered received bids covering just 16 percent of the issue between Tuesday and Thursday.

Foreign companies are not allowed to list shares directly in the country and Standard Chartered, which makes most of its profits in Asia, will become the first foreign company to list in India through the IDR route.

IDRs are rupee-denominated certificates similar to US Depository Receipts that show ownership of shares in an overseas firm.

The issue was open to retail, institutional and overseas investors and corporates, with every 10 IDRs representing one share.

Standard Chartered will now seek to list its IDRs on India’s two leading stock exchanges, the Mumbai and the National stock exchange, in June.

The funds raised will be repatriated to the bank’s London headquarters as capital reserve to be used for growth and expansion plans.

India is the bank’s second largest and fastest-growing market after Hong Kong, with profit in excess of one billion dollars in 2009.

The price band for the offering was 100-115 rupees per IDR. The stock exchange data showed that most bids were at the lower end of the bracket.

The bank is aiming to boost its brand and visibility in India, where it opened its first branch more than 150 years ago.

The bank has hired investment banks including Goldman Sachs, UBS Securities and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch to manage the offering.

Singapore ranks as world’s 17th most expensive location for retail rents

singapore stock market , singapore market news

Singapore has climbed up one spot in the latest survey conducted by CB Richard Ellis for the world’s most expensive retail locations.

CBRE’s Global MarketView report on the retail sector showed that prime retail rents in the country ranked 17th worldwide as the most expensive location during the first quarter of this year, up from 18th spot in the fourth quarter last year.

According to the report, the average prime retail rent in the country at end-Q1 was US$436 psf per year, down from US$444 psf at the end of last year.

“Singapore has been successful in attracting a sizeable number of global brands and new-to-market concepts due to an abundant choice of prime pipeline supply in the Orchard Road and the Marina Bay areas. That in turn has put some pressure on prime retail rents,” said Letty Lee, director of retail services at CBRE Singapore.

New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, London and Paris kept their positions as the top five most expensive retail markets in the world.

Despite insufficient retail sale growth in most markets, prime retail rents in most of the world’s leading shopping destinations have stabilized and even improved in some major cities during the first quarter.

“Retailers still face uncertain trading conditions and continue to put pressure on landlords to offer incentive packages,” said Ray Torto, global chief economist of CBRE.

“However, market pressures have not stopped retailers from expanding, and demand for prime retail space remains strong in many markets,” he added.

While most of the prime office space appears to be in demand, secondary units around the world are typically experiencing falling rents, lower retailer demand and higher vacancy rates, CBRE said.

Peter Gold, the group’s head of cross-border retail for Middle East, Europe and Africa, said it is too early to predict that the gap will narrow during this year.

Among all regions, Asia seems to appear to be leading in the recovery, with retail markets generally strengthening in the first quarter.

“Thus far, Asia is the only region of the world where economic growth is starting to feed through into retail sales increases, and this is now starting to impact real estate markets,” said CBRE.

Crude Oil: Crude oil declined, falling below $70 a barrel in New York, after the
seizure of a Spanish bank fueled concern the fallout from Europe’s debt
crisis isn’t over.

Crude oil dropped 37 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $69.84 a barrel, in
electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 8:44 a.m. Sydney
time. Yesterday, the contract rose 17 cents to settle at $70.21.
(Bloomberg)

Counter
Analyst Firm
Closing Px
Old Target
New Target
S’pore A’port Ter (SATS SP)
Deutsche
S$2.59
-
S$3.20
First Resources (FR SP)
RHB
S$0.97
-
S$1.55
Genting (GENS SP)
UBS
S$0.93
S$0.99
S$1.23