The bidding war for the tin-smelting and property firm, Straits Trading Company, continues to escalate. Tecity Group, controlled by the family of the late Tan Chin Tuan, has again raised its offer for Straits Trading. It is now offering to pay S$6.70 a share to take over the company. This is S$0.20 higher than its last revised offer. The latest bid values Straits Trading at S$2.18 billion. Tecity's...
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The red-light area of Geylang is ‘ring-fenced’ through vigilant enforcement to control vice activities. National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said the Police has and will continue to undertake regular enforcement action in both the odd and even streets (Lorongs) of Geylang. Mr Mah was responding to questions by Marine Parade GRC MP Fatimah Lateef on strategies to ‘ring-fence’ Lorongs 22 to...
The number of transactions in the property market has gone down due to uncertainty over the US economy. National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said this is to be expected but added that property prices have not shown any signs of correcting. He was speaking to reporters at the sidelines of a community event on Sunday evening. He said: "There is a slowdown in the market as reflected in the level of...
The inaugural Formula One Grand Prix in Singapore will give the island's economy a significant boost. F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone is convinced the first night race on a downtown street circuit is where multi-billion-dollar business deals will be sealed from September. Apart from an estimated 40,000 tourists visiting the island during the race, the 77-year-old told TODAY in an exclusive interview from...
By 2012, Singapore will have an additional 1.4 million sq m of office space. Some 150,000 sq m of additional space will also be added near term. But that is small consolation to businesses facing a rapid rise in rentals on a surge in the growth in business and financial sectors. To ease the squeeze in office space further, the government will move some government agencies out of the central area. “We...
Latest housing and retail sales data both show increased cautiousness led to a pullback in buying. But while sales of cars and other big-ticket items are likely to pick up in the coming months on the back of rising incomes, the slow take-up rates in property sales will likely continue to bleed into the next two to three months. According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority, the number of new private...
There are more signs that Singapore's property market is slowing down. Latest numbers from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) show that developers launched just 410 new housing units in January – that is 16 percent less than the number of units launched in December, which was also a quieter month. Industry watchers said market sentiments have cooled due to the sub-prime crisis and global economic...
OCBC says it intends to reject an improved takeover offer for one of its listed subsidiaries, Straits Trading. This could effectively end a tussle for the listed commodities and property company between two of the Singapore's prominent banking families. On one side is the Lee family, who are OCBC's main shareholders. They have offered to pay S$6.55 a share for Straits Trading, valuing it at S$2.1...
Parkway Holdings has put in a top bid to buy land to develop a new hospital at the junction of Novena Terrace and Irrawaddy Road. It has offered S$1.25 billion for the site, which is double its nearest rival and five times more than the third-placed bidder. Parkway's bid works out at around $185,000 per square foot of gross floor area. This is the first private hospital site made available by the...
Shares of investment holding company Straits Trading Co resumed trading on the Singapore Exchange at 2pm on Friday after a temporary suspension. The shares were suspended from trading after the Lee family, the main shareholder of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, improved its offer for Straits Trading to S$6.55 a share from S$5.76, bettering the S$6.50 offered by investment firm Tecity. Tecity had raised its...