Singapore's CDL to Sell $2.1 Billion Office Complex to Cut Debt
City Developments Ltd. agreed to sell its majority stake in one of Singapore's most iconic office complexes, according to a person familiar with the matter, as the developer seeks to reduce debt and regain investor confidence after a family feud rocked the firm.
CDL will sell its 50.1% stake in South Beach to minority owner IOI Properties Group Bhd, the person said, requesting not to be identified because the information is private. Malaysian developer IOI will have full ownership following the deal. The deal values the complex at about S$2.75 billion ($2.1 billion), the person said.
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Bloomberg
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Asia Sees Trump's 5%-of-GDP Defense Spending Goal as Unrealistic
US President Donald Trump's push for Indo-Pacific allies to ramp up military spending to counter growing threats from the likes of China and North Korea is running into the hard reality of fiscal limits and jittery bond markets. As with Europe, many economies in Asia have invested at much lower levels on defense than the US, expecting the support of Washington's military might. While regional powers like India and Australia acknowledge this must change to address the new geopolitical reality of China's ascent, few see the Trump administration's target of 5% of gross domestic product as economically or even politically viable.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
ASEAN Power Grid Integration Seeks Energy Security, Sustainable Growth
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - MAY 26: Petronas Twin Towers are illuminated in the colors of Malaysian ... More Flag during the 46th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit on May 26, 2025 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The 46th ASEAN Summit kicked off on May 26 in the capital of Malaysia, with greater regional integration and resilience against trade and economic disruptions high on the agenda. (Photo by He Guowei/VCG via Getty Images) At the 46th Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on May 26, 2025, national leaders adopted a bold plan to interconnect and harmonize regional power grids. The plan for ASEAN power grid integration is designed to create an advanced network of electric transmission lines, generators and utilities across Southeast Asia. Under the plan, the area of nearly 700 million people is poised to meet surging energy demand, boost energy security, and achieve affordable, sustainable growth through deeper regional connections and more coordinated energy markets. A long-awaited plan for the ASEAN Power Grid has mostly languished on the shelf since ASEAN member states adopted it in 1997. Currently, the ASEAN member states are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, with Timor-Leste expected to join soon. Now, with Malaysia holding the rotating Chairmanship of ASEAN, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has forged a consensus among the ASEAN member states to move forward with an updated plan to regionally integrate Southeast Asia's power grid. Ibrahim stated at the summit, '[T] Energy security is the main impetus to integrate the power systems of the various Southeast Asian countries through new cross-border interconnections, harmonized grid operational rules, and a regionally integrated energy market and transmission system. Regional grid integration across Southeast Asia presents a timely opportunity to boost economic growth that is more reliable, affordable and equitable for a lower-carbon future. Leaders of ASEAN member states openly endorsed the plan at the summit. The ASEAN Secretariat has mandated the ASEAN Centre for Energy to lead the effort. Most likely, the member states will sign an enhanced memorandum of understanding on grid integration at their next summit in October. At the May 26 summit, the nations endorsed a vision statement: 'ASEAN 2045: Our Shared Future.' The statement covers myriad areas of cooperation. With respect to energy, among other objectives, the member states agreed on Objective 5.2: "Build resilient energy supply and infrastructure and establish coordinated action in safeguarding energy security." To implement this goal, the countries intend to '[e]nhance renewable energy infrastructure and its interconnection to facilitate seamless integration for ASEAN's infrastructure.' They also pledged to '[a]dvance future ASEAN's energy interconnectivity, including in land transmission and sub-sea cables' and to '[p]ool investment to build energy security supporting the development of relevant infrastructure, enhance the power grid, improve cross-border connectivity, and address critical energy demand.' Additional provisions call for improving regional cooperation in other energy areas, particularly natural gas and LNG supply and transportation. First off, the new plan for ASEAN power grid integration will highlight eighteen priority interconnection projects identified in The ASEAN Interconnection Masterplan Study - AIMS III released in 2020 and advanced by ACE last year following the directive of the 41st ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting in Bali, Indonesia in August 2023. These priority interconnection projects, once completed, will achieve greater power grid interconnectivity within the region as a basis to expand multilateral power trading efforts. Eight of the interconnection projects have been implemented so far. The eighteen priority projects under APG are meant to move beyond the one-off, private bilateral cross-border arrangements previously built to create a truly integrated, multilateral power system. Major new transmission corridors considered priorities under the AIMS study include expanded cross-border connections to Singapore from Malaysia and Indonesia, to Thailand from Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, to Malaysia from Indonesia and the Philippines, to Penninsular Malaysia from Sarawak, and within Indonesia to Java from Sumatra and Kalimantan. ASEAN countries are heterogenous in many ways and at divergent levels of economic development. Regional integration can be an efficient way to create regional balance, scaled integration and optimization of the power grid for greater energy security, efficiency and shared prosperity. The Southeast Asian power grid is highly fragmented, with little existing interconnectivity between nations. Even within national borders, grids are not fully integrated. Peninsular Malaysia is separate from Sarawak and Sabah, the Malaysian provinces on Borneo. The Java-Madura-Bali grid in Indonesia would benefit from connections to the grids on Sumatra, Kalimantan (Borneo) and other Indonesian islands. The Philippines Luzon-Visayas system is only minimally connected to islands in southern parts of the nation. Binational connections exist, particularly for exports (especially of hydropower) from Lao PDR to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, but they mainly facilitate direct sales to utilities from private power plants and not multilateral power trading or coordinated utility-to-utility power pools. Malaysia and Thailand lie at the epicenter of a potentially large regional power network, fueled by domestic supply, robust demand, economic growth and geographic proximity to other ASEAN countries. The so-called LTMS link—Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore—would form the basis for a proposed power pool that could subsequently be expanded to Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia. New regional connections to Singapore would also drive the development of power generation and transmission facilities in neighboring Java (Indonesia) and Malaysia and in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, plus proposed subsea connections to Singapore through Peninsular Malaysia or Java from the Malaysian and Indonesian portions of Borneo, and ultimately to the Philippines. A potential subsea cable to import solar power from Australia to Singapore remains on the drawing boards but is outside the scope of the ASEAN Power Grid plan. LUANG PRABANG, LAOS - APRIL 11: Chinese tourists take part in an alms giving ceremony to Buddhist ... More monks on April 11, 2024 in Luang Prabang, Laos. (Photo by) Singapore and Laos illustrate the disparate benefits that regional power grid integration could provide. Singapore relies on imported natural gas to generate electricity (and for its growing LNG trading hub), resulting in power prices significantly higher than in other ASEAN countries. Access to imported power could reduce Singapore's exposure to supply chain risks and volatile gas prices for electricity. Singapore is a wealthy, densely populated city state and net importer of energy with a nominal GDP per capita twenty times higher than the GDP of Laos. Laos has abundant energy resources (for wind and hydropower, in addition to coal) but a relatively sparse population that could benefit from development of a stronger domestic power grid and more exports of energy to neighboring countries. Existing bilateral connections serve to export power from privately-owned power plants in Laos, largely bypassing the local utility. Two Lao power projects show how much has changed over the past decade. They are emblematic of the trend away from coal toward renewables for power generation. In 2016, the Thai-owned and financed Hongsa power plant commenced commercial operations in Laos after more than five years of development and construction. The 1,878 MW coal-fired power plant (co-located with a new lignite mine and dam) was the first utility-scale coal-fired power plant in the country. It exports almost all its power to Thailand, keeping only a small portion for domestic consumption. Total cost of the Hongsa power project (including the dedicated lignite mine and associated infrastructure) was about $4 billion. Like other coal-fired power plants, the Hongsa project has faced criticism for its adverse environmental and health impacts on the local community. This year, almost ten years after Hongsa came online, the first wind farm in Laos and largest wind farm in Southeast Asia—the 600 MW Monsoon Wind Power Project—is about to enter commercial operation to sell power from Laos to EVN, Vietnam's state-owned utility. The project's cross-border double-circuit 500kV transmission line was completed and energized in February 2025, spanning 27 km in Laos and 44 km in Vietnam. Indicative of the trend toward blended finance, the $950 million Monsoon Wind project was financed by loans from the Asian Development Bank alongside the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Export-Import Bank of Thailand, other multilateral development banks and export credit agencies, and a syndicate of commercial banks, partly in reliance on government undertakings from Vietnam and Lao PDR. These two independent power projects a decade apart highlight major transitions in technology and project economics. The cost per kilowatt of installed generating capacity has fallen dramatically with the shift from coal to wind energy in line with global averages. Cross-border power sales under long-term power purchase agreements can attract financing, given sufficient credit support. Sources of financing are becoming more diverse. Yet, the benefits of the Lao power projects like Hongsa and Monsoon with dedicated bilateral transmission lines still largely accrue only to the private owners of the power plants and the Thai or Vietnamese recipients of the power. With true multilateral grid integration in the future, Laos and other host countries could develop projects that are integral to an improved domestic grid, with utility-to-utility export power sales into a regional power pool that aggregates demand over many countries, optimizes power deliveries for grid stability and reliability, and provides economies of scale to lower costs and increase efficiency while spurring domestic growth and equitable development across Southeast Asia. This trend away from new coal-fired power generation is region-wide. Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are pursuing domestic policies that would increase renewable energy and transition away from coal-fired power plants over the next thirty years. Indonesia has revised its near-term goals for renewable energy multiple times since 2019 and remains committed to net-zero power generation by 2060, though it continues to rely on fossil fuels for most of its energy. Vietnam and the Philippines are modernizing their energy systems while completing rural electrification plans and increasing per capita energy use. Vietnam derived more than half of its electricity from hydropower, solar, wind and other renewables as early as 2022. The Philippines has advanced hydropower, geothermal, solar and other renewables ever since pioneering successes with geothermal energy in the 1990s. But the country remains heavily reliant on coal and natural gas for power production. It remains to be seen the degree to which the Philippines, an island chain to the east of most ASEAN countries, could be interconnected with Indonesia, Malaysia or the rest of Southeast Asia. Floating solar panels on water lake in sun light under hazy sky, contributing to the energy ... More transition. If successful, this transition is a big deal for ASEAN nations and a big deal for the world. According to the IEA's Southeast Asia Energy Outlook 2024, the ASEAN region's approximately 4% share of global energy consumption 'is expected to grow significantly, with ASEAN projected to contribute over 25% of global energy demand growth between now and 2035.' The ASEAN member states comprise just under 10% of world population, more than Europe, and today account for 6% of the world's GDP. The International Energy Agency predicts the population of the region will increase from today's 685 million to 745 million by 2035 and then to almost 790 million by 2050. Economic expansion, population growth, and the region's role as a global manufacturing hub will continue to drive electricity demand growth. That explosive economic growth will be energy-intensive and outpace population growth, resulting in higher per capita energy consumption as wealth increases. Typically, energy use per capita rises alongside the rise in GDP. Air conditioning, manufacturing, digital infrastructure (including investments in artificial intelligence, data centers and semi-conductor fabrication), urbanization and EVs drive demand growth in Southeast Asia that outpaces growth in other areas of the world. Regional integration of renewable energy sources and battery energy storage systems would lower the marginal cost of electricity and enhance grid flexibility. It would also help protect manufacturers and electric utilities from commodity price spikes and fuel supply interruptions due to shifting geopolitics, resource depletion or natural disasters. Affordable, secure power can keep the lights on and the skies blue. If the countries of Southeast Asia achieve their plan for ASEAN power grid integration alongside cleaner energy production and increased energy efficiency, the future remains bright.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Trump Says He Spoke To Xi For 90 Minutes Thursday In Trade-Focused Call--Though Outcome Is Unclear
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke over the phone for more than an hour Thursday, Trump said on Truth Social, offering vague details of the call's conclusion but striking an optimistic tone about the progress of the superpowers' relationship. President Donald Trump walks to board Marine One at the White House in Washington, D.C. on May 30, ... More 2025. (Photo by Hu Yousong/Xinhua via Getty Images) Trump mostly described the approximately 90-minute call in general terms, writing that it was 'very good' and 'resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries.' Addressing his administration's main sticking point about the state of economic relations between the two countries, Trump said 'there should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products,' though it's unclear what the resolution might be. The Trump administration has expressed concerns China could be deliberately violating the agreement reached in Geneva to reduce their tariffs on each other by continuing to impose export controls on seven types of rare earth minerals, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent telling CBS on Sunday 'maybe it's a glitch in the Chinese system, maybe it's intentional . . . we'll see after the president speaks with the party chairman.' The Chinese Embassy said earlier Thursday Trump initiated the call, which comes weeks after after Trump sharply reduced the tariff rate he imposed on China earlier this year, but has taken other actions targeting China, including revoking visas for Chinese students in the U.S. Trump has been angling for a phone call with Xi for months and the White House said earlier in week the talks were 'likely' to happen in the coming days. Trump expressed his frustration with Beijing on Wednesday, writing on Truth Social that Xi 'is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!' though it's unclear what exactly Trump might have been referring to. This is a developing story and will be udpated.
