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Straits Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Westlite dorm owner Centurion unveils $1.8b portfolio for new accommodation Reit to be listed on SGX
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox SINGAPORE – Accommodation provider Centurion Corp unveiled on July 14 its $1.8 billion portfolio of a new real-estate investment trust which it had earlier applied to be listed on the Singapore Exchange mainboard. In a July 14 bourse filing, mainboard-listed Centurion, which owns and operates the Westlite group of workers' dormitories among other properties, named the Reit as Centurion Accommodation Reit. The new Reit comprises 14 properties: five purpose-built worker accommodation assets in Singapore, eight purpose-built student accommodation assets in the United Kingdom, and one in Australia. It will subsequently acquire one more student property, located in Sydney, Australia, when it is ready for occupation, bringing the total to 15. This property is estimated to be operational in 2026 and its acquisition will raise the portfolio value to $2.1 billion. The Reit will invest in a portfolio of income-producing real estate assets which are primarily used as purpose-built worker accommodation, student accommodation or other longer-stay purposes. Centurion will hold units of the Reit worth around $687 million and intends to disburse some of these units to its shareholder s in dividends after its next annual general meeting in 2026. Centurion called for a trading halt on July 14. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Singapore to train more aviation and maritime officials from around the world Business Singapore's economy sees surprise expansion in Q2 despite US tariff uncertainty: Advance estimate Singapore Same person, but different S'porean Chinese names? How have such naming practices evolved? Singapore Jail for woman who opened bank accounts that received over $640m including scam proceeds Business From wellness zone to neurodivergent room: How companies are creating inviting, inclusive offices Singapore Swift action needed to stop vaping's slide from health risk to drug epidemic Singapore Govt will continue to support families, including growing group of seniors: PM Wong at PCF Family Day Singapore Art by Pathlight students to be displayed along Singapore River It had previously announced on June 10 its Reit listing application to SGX and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The proposed listing is subject to SGX and MAS approval . Centurion Asset Management, which Centurion will wholly own, will be the Reit manager, while Perpetual (Asia) will be the trustee. In the latest announcement, Centurion also outlined various agreements it made to allow the Westlite Mandai, Westlite Juniper and Westlite Ubi dorms to be included in the Reit portfolio. Centurion will divest its 100 per cent interest in Westlite Toh Guan, 100 per cent interest in Westlite Woodlands and 51 per cent interest in Westlite Ubi to the Reit. Lian Beng Group will divest the remaining 49 per cent interest in Westlite Ubi to the Reit too. For Westlite Mandai, Lian Beng-Centurion (Dormitory) will surrender its existing lease to Lian Beng-Centurion (Mandai), which Centurion owns 45 per cent. In turn, Lian Beng-Centurion (Mandai) will grant a 32-year lease to the Reit, with an option to renew for 30 years. For Westlite Juniper, also located in Mandai, the Reit will be granted a 50-year lease. The Reit will also take over the existing tenancy agreements at Westlite Mandai and Westlite Juniper. The Centurion group will divest its 100 per cent stake in East End Adelaide in Australia to the Reit too. Centurion also said that based on a preliminary assessment of its unaudited consolidated management accounts for the half year ended 30 June 2025 and information currently available, it is expected to report a significant profit increase. This increase arises from fair value gain on the group's investment properties compared with the valuations on its books as at 31 December 2024, it said. Centurion's move comes amid a flurry of renewed investor interest in Reits buoyed by soaring property prices and a moderating interest rate environment, spurring large distribution yields. Centurion shares closed flat at $1.46 before the trading halt.
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
South Korea medical students end 17-month class boycott
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Some 8,300 students are expected to return to school, but no specific timeline has been provided. SEOUL - Thousands of South Korean medical students are set to return to classrooms after a 17-month boycott, an industry body told AFP on July 14, ending part of a standoff which also saw junior doctors strike. South Korean healthcare was plunged into chaos early last year when then-president Yoon Suk Yeol moved to sharply increase medical school admissions , citing an urgent need to boost doctor numbers to meet growing demand in a rapidly ageing society. The initiative met fierce protest, prompting junior doctors to walk away from hospitals and medical students to boycott their classrooms, with operations cancelled and service provision disrupted nationwide. The measure was later watered down, and the government eventually offered to scrap it in March 2025, after Yoon was impeached over his disastrous declaration of martial law. 'Students have agreed to return to school,' a spokesperson for the Korean Medical Association told AFP on July 14, adding that it was up to each medical school to decide the schedule for student returns. The Korean Medical Students' Association said in an earlier statement that the students had reached this decision because a continued boycott 'could cause the collapse of the fundamentals of medical systems'. Some 8,300 students are expected to return to school, but no specific timeline has been provided. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Singapore to train more aviation and maritime officials from around the world Business Singapore's economy sees surprise expansion in Q2 despite US tariff uncertainty: Advance estimate Singapore Same person, but different S'porean Chinese names? How have such naming practices evolved? Singapore Jail for woman who opened bank accounts that received over $640m including scam proceeds Business From wellness zone to neurodivergent room: How companies are creating inviting, inclusive offices Singapore Swift action needed to stop vaping's slide from health risk to drug epidemic Singapore Govt will continue to support families, including growing group of seniors: PM Wong at PCF Family Day Singapore Art by Pathlight students to be displayed along Singapore River Prime Minister Kim Min-seok welcomed the decision, calling it a 'big step forward' in a Facebook post on July 13, adding that President Lee Jae-myung was deliberating ways to solve the issue. In addition to the student boycott, some 12,000 junior doctors went on strike last year – with the vast majority of them still declining to return to work. Mr Lee – who took office in June after winning snap elections following Yoon's removal from office – had said on the campaign trail he would seek to resolve the medical strike. The increase in medical school admissions led to a record number of students re-taking the college entrance exam in November in a bid to capitalise on reforms that made it easier to get into coveted majors. AFP
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- Straits Times
After Olympic heartbreak, Singaporean swimmer Chantal Liew turns pain into inspiration
If you want a tale of heartbreak, don't go fumbling in the romance section of a bookshop. Just ask any athlete and they'll tell you. About chances missed, bad breaks, last-minute goals. About emptiness, tears, splintered dreams. About a pain which they can precisely measure for you. In open water swimmer Chantal Liew's case, it's 1.7 seconds. Ask and she'll autopsy her heartbreak for you, just take you back to late 2023 when her form was strong and then sickness hit in Portugal. 'Insane gastro' followed, nausea, inability to eat, waking up weeks later in 2024 for the Olympic qualifier in Doha with a sore throat, mentally accepting her Games dream was done. Then the race began and it 'was the best I've ever swum internationally at the start of the race'. Miracle? Nope. The past, all the diarrhoea she'd had, how sick she'd been, returned to ruin her present. Her strength faded, her charge wilted. She and the Chinese swimmer Xin Xin were fighting for an Olympic place and as the finish line beckoned they both sprinted and after 10km and over two hours the clock told her this story. Xin 2:04:21.10. Liew 2:04:22.80. Just half a stroke short of Paris 2024. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Singapore to train more aviation and maritime officials from around the world Business Singapore's economy sees surprise expansion in Q2 despite US tariff uncertainty: Advance estimate Singapore Same person, but different S'porean Chinese names? How have such naming practices evolved? Singapore Jail for woman who opened bank accounts that received over $640m including scam proceeds Business From wellness zone to neurodivergent room: How companies are creating inviting, inclusive offices Singapore Swift action needed to stop vaping's slide from health risk to drug epidemic Singapore Govt will continue to support families, including growing group of seniors: PM Wong at PCF Family Day Singapore Art by Pathlight students to be displayed along Singapore River Maybe defeat by 15 seconds would have been better because 1.7 seconds was so achingly close. Months later when the Opening Ceremony started in Paris, and she was watching with friends in Australia, she had to leave the room. Weeping, you understand. But now it's 2025 and the world championships are in Singapore and she's repaired herself. In a demanding sport, there's no room to wallow in sadness. There's dirty water being drunk in choppy seas and a heart rate that has to be controlled as the heat rises, fatigue arrives and 'everyone's jumping on top of you'. There's mid-race 'carbo drinks', handed to them via a modified fishing rod, occasionally with Panadol inside because everything's hurting. She swims with one arm and holds the drink with another, never stopping for anything, whether it's seaweed brushing against her in Budapest like ghostly tendrils or stinging jellyfish in Australia. On decent days, at the last kilometre, there's 'delirium'. On tough days, 'the whole body just shuts down, everything is numb'. Anything can happen. Once, she says, 'one of the girls swam so far off course she swam into the shipping lane'. And so yes, 'it's so hard' this pursuit, which is why she wonders every day, and so sometimes do her friends, 'why do we have to choose the least rewarding sport?' There are few fans on the oceans and fewer headlines. 'You get less attention, you get less funding'. But like judokas or fencers they're infected by a love of a game which is so personal and deep it's impossible to explain, love for a challenge, love for discovering who they are under pressure, love for the wonderful expanse of water in which they are transformed. 'We're all just a little bit unhinged,' laughs Liew, 'and at the end of the day we love the pain. It feels so satisfying and it feels so rewarding in such a specific way that nothing else comes close to that feeling.' She remembers training with Chelsea Gubecka in 2023 and doing seven race simulations but with a painful twist. Their race distance was 10km but they did 12km sessions. They were 'the hardest things ever' but when it was done 'we would just be so euphoric'. Open water, an art both strategic and severe, involves skills 'you can only pick up from racing'. There are 'decisions you need to know how to make under pressure... like whether or not you want to get on this person's feet or the other person's feet? (Like drafting in cycling). Which line do you want to take? Where do you want to position yourself in the pack? How do you want to position yourself going into the turn?' Her tone is rich with enthusiasm and it's a triumphant reversal from 2024 when disappointment encased her. 'It was really hard for me to get back into the water... Even when I was in the pool I didn't feel like swimming. I hated it. The only thing that kept replaying in my head was that 1.7 seconds.' But this is the appeal of athletes, the way they acknowledge defeat, conquer distress, grow new skins and turn hurt into inspiration. And so now when she's tired at the end of a practice session, her coach Eugene Chia will use that 1.7 seconds as fuel. 'He's like '1.7 seconds, go, get it, 1.7 seconds, don't give up'. I think that 1.7 seconds, it's so painful, but it's reached a point where it kind of motivates me. It lights that fire where I don't want a repeat of that ever again.' And so as Liew, and her open-water gang, ready for races which are 3km, 5km, 10km, one thought persists. We know precisely the distances they will swim, but never how immeasurably far they have come.
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Health
- Straits Times
Italy's abortion taboos challenged by new law in Sicily
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: People demonstrate outside the Ministry of Health to demand the right to free, safe and free abortion as Non Una di Meno (Not One Less) movement and feminist collectives take part in a protest to mark the International Safe Abortion Day, in Rome, Italy September 28, 2024. REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo CATANIA, Italy - Monia, a Sicilian woman in her early forties, was overjoyed when she discovered in October 2022 she was expecting her first child. Her doctor, however, recommended a genetic test due to her age, and the result was one no parent wants to receive. The foetus had a genetic syndrome. Monia, who declined to give her surname, asked her gynaecologist what she could do. "Nothing. You don't want to terminate, do you?" the doctor asked her, she said. He was a conscientious objector, Monia said, one of hundreds on the southern Italian island. More than 80% of gynaecologists in Sicily refuse to perform abortions for moral or religious reasons, according to the latest health ministry data, which dates to 2022, even though the procedure has been a legal right for women in Italy since 1978. To address that situation, in late May Sicily's regional council - run by a centre-right coalition - passed a law in a secret ballot requiring all public hospitals to create dedicated abortion wards and to hire staff willing to provide the service. Under the national rules, abortion is permitted within the first 90 days of a pregnancy, or later if there are risks to the mother's health or foetal abnormalities. The latter circumstance applied to Monia, who went to the Sant'Antonio Abate hospital in the city of Trapani, in western Sicily, to terminate her pregnancy. "All the gynaecologists were objectors," she said. "An obstetrician gave me a bed with only a mattress cover and said they would administer a pill every three hours until I went into labour." She was told she would receive no further assistance. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Singapore to train more aviation and maritime officials from around the world Business Singapore's economy sees surprise expansion in Q2 despite US tariff uncertainty: Advance estimate Singapore Same person, but different S'porean Chinese names? How have such naming practices evolved? Singapore Jail for woman who opened bank accounts that received over $640m including scam proceeds Business From wellness zone to neurodivergent room: How companies are creating inviting, inclusive offices Singapore Swift action needed to stop vaping's slide from health risk to drug epidemic Singapore Govt will continue to support families, including growing group of seniors: PM Wong at PCF Family Day Singapore Art by Pathlight students to be displayed along Singapore River Her story is far from unique in southern Italy, where cultural traditions are more conservative than in the Catholic country's richer north and centre. At first, Monia's pills were ineffective, but after five days and a change of treatment she finally miscarried, attended to by a doctor and a midwife. Hospital staff referred to her as "Article 6," she said, after the provision in the law that allows abortions beyond 90 days. In response to a request for comment, the Sant'Antonio Abate hospital said it was sorry for Monia's "difficult experience". However, the hospital said it was unable to verify the facts because both the hospital manager and the head of the gynaecology department at that time had left. The hospital said it now has three non-objecting doctors and was able to provide abortion services. Abortions are only available in around half of Sicily's hospitals, health ministry data shows, a figure much lower than in central and northern Italy, where rates are around 70%. Like most of his colleagues, Fabio Guardala, a 60-year-old doctor, refuses to perform abortions. He operates at the Cannizzaro hospital in the Sicilian city of Catania, on the east coast of the island. "A doctor's job is to heal," said Guardala, who is also deputy head of a healthcare unit at his local Catholic church. "Abortion is not treatment but killing. Nobody can force a doctor to kill." Silvia Vaccari, president of the Italian federation of midwives, FNOPO, said health outcomes can be grim in areas where legal abortions are hard to access. "The absence of facilities sometimes leads people to turn to non-professionals, putting them at risk of death, or to continue with pregnancies and give birth to babies who are abandoned in places where they may never be found alive," she said. CATHOLIC INFLUENCE Most other European Union countries allow health workers to refuse to perform abortions on ethical grounds, according to a 2022 study published in the Acta Biomedica journal. But the right is generally exercised far less commonly than in southern Italy. One exception is deeply Catholic Poland, where abortion is only legal in cases of rape or incest or when a woman's health or life is at risk. The Acta study said many Polish women have been forced to travel abroad to terminate their pregnancies. Abortion has always been contentious in Italy, a Catholic country that hosts the Vatican. Right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni passed legislation last year to try to deter women from terminating pregnancies. Pro-life groups have been allowed into abortion advice clinics, in a move Meloni's party said was aimed at giving women an opportunity for reflection before making a final decision. Nationally, the number of abortions dropped to 65,000 in 2022, according to the latest health ministry data, against 110,000 in 2011. More than 60% of gynaecologists are conscientious objectors. On the island of Sardinia, the region's ruling, left-leaning 5-Star Movement last month presented a law proposal similar to the one adopted in Sicily, suggesting that other southern regions may soon follow its example. Dario Safina, a centre-left Democratic Party lawmaker in Sicily and the promoter of the new law, said many Sicilian women seeking an abortion feel forced to resort to the private sector. "Access to abortion is not a problem for those who can afford it, because they can go to a private clinic. But healthcare based on wealth is the end of democracy," he said. Some doctors argue Sicily's high objection rates are not only due to ethics but also to staff shortages and poor working conditions that make it harder for gynaecologists to provide abortions on top of their regular duties. Data from the GIMBE Foundation, a health sector think-tank, shows Sicily had nine healthcare workers per 1,000 residents in 2022, compared with a national average of 11.6 and far below the northern and central Emilia Romagna and Tuscany regions with 15. "Hospitals always try to exploit doctors' work without paying them properly, so sometimes professionals are reluctant to perform abortions," said Salvatore Incandela, head of the Sicilian arm of AOGOI, Italy's gynaecologists' association. Italian anti-abortion group Pro-Life Together rejects this, saying non-objectors in Sicily were only required to perform 1.5 abortions a week on average in 2022 - still above a national average of 0.9. LEGAL CHALLENGES? Six Sicilian hospital managers and health professionals contacted by Reuters said the new legislation could strengthen the service, but it was still important to ensure doctors could opt out as allowed under 1978 national law that sanctioned the right to abortion. Under the law, health workers are exempted from abortion procedures if they declare an ethical or religious objection, so long as the woman's life is not in immediate danger. Gaetano Sirna, the director general of Catania's Policlinico-San Marco hospital, one of the city's largest, said even with just six non-objecting gynaecologists out of a total of 39, he could still ensure abortions for those who needed them. "We have no problems guaranteeing the availability (of doctors) ... gynaecologists are free to declare themselves as objectors; we do not discriminate," he told Reuters. Abortion is not the only case in which conscientious objection is permitted in Italy. It used to be grounds for avoiding compulsory military service, which was abolished in the early 2000s, and an opt-out for scientists from conducting animal experiments was introduced in the early 1990s. Giorgia Landolfo, a pro-abortion activist in Catania, called the new law in Sicily a "landmark," but said she feared it would be hard to enforce. Some anti-abortion groups say it will be challenged in court on the ground that job postings reserved for non-objectors discriminate against the others. "Many measures in the past aimed at hiring non-objectors have been challenged and ultimately came to nothing," said Vito Trojano, the head of SIGO, the Italian Obstetrics and Gynaecology Society. Some Sicilian politicians who strongly oppose the new rules believe the region should instead bolster its healthcare and support facilities for pregnant women, who often feel abandoned and see no alternative to abortion. "Life is life from the moment of conception," said Margherita La Rocca, a Sicilian lawmaker from the centre-right Forza Italia party. "The foetus cannot just be considered a clump of cells when it's convenient." REUTERS
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Jail for woman who opened bank accounts that received over $640m including scam proceeds
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Singaporean Zin Nwe Nyunt, 58, had admitted that she did not know where the money came from. SINGAPORE – A woman who incorporated a wholesale trading firm before its bank accounts received over US$500 million (S$640 million) including scam proceeds was sentenced to a year and six months' jail on July 14. Singaporean Zin Nwe Nyunt, 58, had admitted that she did not know where the money came from. In earlier proceedings, the court heard that in August 2021, police received information that an Australian investment scam victim had transferred US$1.8 million to several bank accounts maintained by companies in Singapore. Three of the companies later transferred more than $480,000 to a bank account belonging to a firm called Unione, which Zin Nwe Nyunt had incorporated. In March, she pleaded guilty to two counts of working together with a male Myanmar national, who was her husband's childhood friend, to carry out a business of providing a payment service in Singapore without a licence. She had earned 'commissions' totalling more than $170,000, while Nyan Win, the man she worked with, received over $110,000. The latter, who is a 61-year-old Singapore permanent resident, had earlier pleaded guilty to similar charges and is expected to be sentenced on July 30. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Singapore to train more aviation and maritime officials from around the world Business Singapore's economy sees surprise expansion in Q2 despite US tariff uncertainty: Advance estimate Singapore Same person, but different S'porean Chinese names? How have such naming practices evolved? Business From wellness zone to neurodivergent room: How companies are creating inviting, inclusive offices Singapore Swift action needed to stop vaping's slide from health risk to drug epidemic Singapore Govt will continue to support families, including growing group of seniors: PM Wong at PCF Family Day Singapore Art by Pathlight students to be displayed along Singapore River Sport Jannik Sinner dethrones Carlos Alcaraz to capture maiden Wimbledon crown It all started in 2019 when a Myanmar national known as Ko Phillip, who purportedly operated a commodities trading business, told Nyan Win that he was looking for someone to incorporate a company in Singapore to assist him in his business. The company in Singapore would then open corporate bank accounts which would be used to receive and transfer funds on Ko Phillip's instructions. Under this arrangement, he offered Nyan Win a commission of 0.5 Myanmar kyat (S$0.0003) for every US$1 received. Nyan Win was interested in this opportunity. However, he was uncertain whether he could set up a corporate bank account through Piyar International, a company that dealt with motor vehicles where he was a director. Without revealing details, Deputy Public Prosecutor Ryan Lim told the court in March this was because banks had previously closed Piyar's corporate bank accounts. Nyan Win then approached Zin Nwe Nyunt's husband and told him about this potential business opportunity with Ko Phillip. Court documents stated that the two men were childhood friends. As the husband was holding a full-time job, he suggested that Zin Nwe Nyunt assist in the new firm's incorporation instead. It was later agreed between Zin Nwe Nyunt and Nyan Win that the corporate bank accounts would be controlled by Nyan Win. Commissions would then be split between the pair. Zin Nwe Nyunt incorporated Unione and, at different times, opened one corporate account each with three banks. She then handed over items including the internet banking details to Nyan Win. DPP Lim had said that from 2020 to 2021, Nyan Win liaised with Ko Phillip to make arrangements for money to be received into Unione's corporate bank accounts. Zin Nwe Nyunt and Nyan Win did not know where the funds came from. However, the pair also did not perform any checks to ascertain the nature of the funds received or the legitimacy of Ko Phillip's claims that he was operating a 'commodities business'. Between January and July 2020, Nyan Win used one of Unione's bank accounts to receive more than US$150 million before the money was transferred out. On July 21, 2020, the bank closed the account due to many suspicious transactions. Following the closure of this account, Zin Nwe Nyunt took instructions from Nyan Win and opened a corporate account with another bank. Between July 2020 and April 2021, Nyan Win used this new account to receive more than US$250 million before the money was transferred out. DPP Lim said that between August 18, 2020, and March 24, 2021, a third bank account was used to receive more than US$127 million and over US$119 million was transferred out. On July 14, Zin Nwe Nyunt's bail was set at $20,000, and she is expected to begin serving her sentence on Aug 15.
