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Business Times
7 days ago
- Business
- Business Times
Stocks to watch: CapitaLand Ascendas Reit, Seatrium, Sembcorp, mm2 Asia, Singapore Paincare
[SINGAPORE] The following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Thursday (May 29). CapitaLand Ascendas Reit (CLAR) : The company reported that it has raised S$500 million from a private placement of 202.4 million units priced at S$2.47 each, on Thursday. The issue price is a 5.2 per cent discount to the volume weighted average price of S$2.6059 on May 27 when it last traded. The private placement was about 4.1 times subscribed. The company has also requested for shares to continue trading on Thursday. Shares of CLAR last closed on Tuesday at S$2.61. Seatrium : Its net orderbook wins stood at S$21.3 billion as of March, the company announced on Thursday. This comprised 26 projects with deliveries extending to 2031. Projects related to renewables and green or cleaner solutions amounted to S$7.1 billion of its net order book. The counter ended on Wednesday 0.5 per cent or S$0.01 higher at S$2.06. Sembcorp : Its wholly owned renewables subsidiary Sembcorp Green Infra secured a solar energy storage hybrid project in India, the group said on Thursday. Under the project, it will supply solar power and support electricity demand for four hours per day through a 300 megawatt-hour battery energy storage system. The counter ended on Wednesday 1 per cent or S$0.07 lower at S$6.64 mm2 Asia : The media company on Wednesday entered into a sale and purchase agreement with private equity fund Hildrics Asia Growth Fund VCC to dispose of 21.02 per cent of its stake in subsidiary Vividthree Holdings for S$1.7 million. Mainboard-listed mm2 Asia currently holds about 29.9 per cent of the total issued and paid-up share capital of Vividthree. Following the proposed disposal, the company will hold about 8.9 per cent of Vividthree's total issued and paid-up share capital. Shares of mm2 Asia ended flat at S$0.009 on Wednesday. Singapore Paincare : The medical-services company has received an acquisition bid for S$0.16 a share from Advance Bridge Healthcare, a management consultancy for healthcare services. This values the company at US$25.7 million, comprising 171 million shares, and represents a premium of 27 per cent over Singapore Paincare's last traded price of S$0.126 on Monday. The company requested a trading halt on Tuesday, almost three months after it first announced via a bourse filing in March. Shares of Singapore Paincare closed flat at S$0.14 on Tuesday before the trading halt was requested.
Business Times
28-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
mm2 Asia to sell 21.02% of its stake in subsidiary Vividthree to PE fund for S$1.7 million
[SINGAPORE] Mainboard-listed media company mm2 Asia on Wednesday (May 28) entered into a sale and purchase agreement with private equity fund Hildrics Asia Growth Fund VCC to dispose of 21.02 per cent of its stake in subsidiary Vividthree Holdings for S$1.7 million. mm2 Asia currently holds about 29.9 per cent of the total issued and paid-up share capital of Vividthree. Following the proposed disposal, the company will hold about 8.9 per cent of Vividthree's total issued and paid-up share capital, and Vividthree will cease to be an associated company of the group. Vividthree was established in 2006 and is listed on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange (SGX). It is principally involved in the business of digital content production specialising in virtual reality, visual effects and computer-generated imagery. The buyer Hildrics Asia Growth Fund VCC is a private equity fund that provides growth capital to mid-tier South-east Asian enterprises with established track records and growth potential. It is managed by Hildrics Capital, a Singapore-based fund management company specialising in originating proprietary deals across all industries in Singapore and South-east Asia. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up The firm focuses on long-term capital appreciation through equity and equity-related investments and has a long-term interest aligned with the management of its portfolio companies, said mm2 Asia in a bourse filing. mm2 Asia noted that the proposed disposal 'is in the best interests' of the group, as it gives the company an opportunity to realise the value of the sale shares, enhance the group's liquidity and improve its overall financial position and flexibility. The proceeds from the proposed disposal will be used to repay the group's outstanding liabilities. Based on the latest announced unaudited consolidated financial statements of mm2 Asia for the financial period ended Sep 30, 2024, the book value of the sale shares is an estimated S$2,048,641. Meanwhile, the net tangible asset value of the sale shares, excluding non-controlling interests, is an estimated S$1,890,856. The net loss attributable to the sale shares is about S$176,812. mm2 Asia said it did not conduct an independent valuation on the sale shares. Based on the volume-weighted average price of Vividthree's S$0.0197 per share for trades transacted on the Catalist of the SGX on May 28, which was the last full market day preceding the date of the sales and purchase agreement, the open market value of the sale shares is approximately S$1,921,798.55. The consideration for the proposed disposal is S$0.01734 per sale share, which amounts to an estimated S$1.7 million. Hildrics Asia Growth Fund VCC will pay this in cash. Based on the book value of the sale shares, there is a deficit of approximately S$357,068.06 of the consideration, mm2 Asia noted. Based on mm2 Asia's financial statements for the period ended Sep 30, the loss on disposal of the sale shares amounts to approximately S$2,824,403. The proposed disposal is expected to be completed on May 30, 2025, upon fulfilment of all conditions. Assuming the proposed disposal was completed on Mar 31, 2024, the group's net tangible assets per share would be 0.016 cent, compared with 0.017 cent before the disposal. Meanwhile, assuming the proposal disposal was completed on Apr 1, 2024, its loss per share would be 0.003 cent, against a loss of 0.002 cent before the disposal. Shares of mm2 Asia last closed at S$0.009 on Tuesday.
CNA
18-05-2025
- Business
- CNA
Nostalgia in Singapore: Why do we always long for the past and what does that say about us?
When Isetan announced it would close its Tampines Mall outlet in November 2025 after almost three decades in operation, it wasn't just a regular business winding up. It signalled to me the death of the Singaporean shopping mall template I have a love-hate relationship with, where a department store is the anchor tenant. This wasn't the only change in the past few years to the Singapore I grew up with. Each loss was made more pronounced against the post-pandemic landscape, where practically nothing was familiar anymore. Several longtime or heritage businesses shuttered too, with a string of notable closures in expatriate enclave Holland Village, like the 80-year institution Thambi magazine store, party shop Khiam Teck and furniture business Lim's Holland Village. Then there was the slow death of cinemagoing, once a classic Singaporean pastime. Filmgarde Cineplexes exited the market in March after 18 years, while Cathay's operator mm2 Asia in the same month continued its slew of closures, shutting down its sixth theatre in three years. No matter the change, public reactions, perhaps predictably, centred around nostalgia. But this prevailing sentiment isn't mere romanticism of the past. I've found it masks deeper, unspoken anxieties about our shifting identity. Do we miss the physical entity that's vanishing, or do we really miss the time and people we used to be that it represents? Plus, what does it even mean to be Singaporean? OUR NATIONAL IDENTITY Some might say that it's our penchant for 'chope-ing' (reserving) seats at hawker centres with tissue packets. Others might highlight our world class airport and Singlish – two hallmarks of Singaporean efficiency. There's also our multiculturalism, 'kiasu' mentality (being afraid to lose), cookie-cutter shopping malls, grouchy taxi uncles, standardised Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats, and a peculiar belief that our food is better than Malaysia's. The way I see it, however, the crux of our national identity is less about these tangible anchors than our existential need for them. This desire is most evident in nostalgia – increasingly common and inevitable in a country where change and progress are synonyms. As a millennial digital native, I recognise that social media makes nostalgia more contagious too, creating an algorithm-aggravated collective pining for a past we never knew. It's captured in one popular Facebook group, for starters: Heritage SG Memories. Pictures of Wisma Atria's iconic giant aquarium, for example, tend to see many members reminiscing about the days it was the standard meeting spot. The aquarium, demolished in 2008, only featured occasionally as a gathering point in my memory – but I can't be certain. Like plenty on social media, nostalgia also gets reduced to the most relatable anecdote, and I end up inheriting and remembering experiences I didn't quite live through. And this cultural yearning is only likely to increase, with rapid urban evolution the norm in a land scarce nation. Hobbyist photographer Jonathan Tan noticed a similar sentiment when he started Lepak Downstairs – a photo series of old-school stools and tables found at HDB void decks. Some people told him they appreciated his effort to 'capture history in photos', the 36-year-old said. Without such quaint designs anymore, newer Build-to-Order (BTO) flats 'don't have character'. 'I think people get emotional when these things disappear because there isn't really a replacement. It feels like the disappearance isn't justified. You're taking a piece of their childhood … their memories away, but there's nothing put in place for it,' he added. THE 'TENSION' IN NOSTALGIA So, it seems to many that being Singaporean – or at least having a sense of belonging to this country – lies in constantly navigating the gap between preservation and progress. It's a process often steeped in nostalgia. The creator behind the Instagram account @hdb_mrt, whose film photos reflect a familiar overtone of longing, said he started the account almost a decade ago partly because he was 'searching for this idea of home'. Syafiq, who requested to only use his first name, said he didn't just want to capture the older parts of Singapore that may soon disappear, but to 'remember what we have now and to contemplate what it means to live in this country, to live as Singaporeans, to experience the world as we do'. 'Within that is also a sense of nostalgia,' the 36-year-old said. 'Because the search for home is nostalgic in nature.' To him, nostalgia is a 'longing for a place, time, event or feeling that we cannot go back to'. It's an emotion that 'only exists when we have loss' and has to do with 'how things have changed so much so quickly within our lifetime', such as realising our childhood neighbourhoods are no longer the same. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Suburban Singapore (@hdb_mrt) Heritage educator and millennial Ho Yong Min has similarly observed that his generation is starting to wonder: 'Are the places that I'm growing up in starting to be lost?' The 'trade-offs' create a 'tension in our hearts', believes the 41-year-old founder of The Urbanist Singapore, a content platform dedicated to heritage storytelling amid urban design. 'In Singapore where every square metre is optimised, it tightens the sense of how spaces are so precious. I think it becomes psychological angst for folks who are growing up and witnessing change, (knowing) that obviously has to be balanced out with the need for change. So it's very complex.' There is 'a bit of a paradox' to negotiate living in Singapore, added Dr Felicity Chan from the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). 'To enjoy Singapore, you must be very adaptable to change, but we also know that people like stability,' said the deputy director for the Master of Science in Urban Science, Policy and Planning. Perhaps then, as Syafiq suggested, our nostalgia is also an 'inability to be satisfied with what we have now' and a 'reckoning of the present'. His photography, although it may resemble vignettes of a simpler Singapore, thus compels viewers to reflect on what it means to 'be in the now'. HOW WE CAN EMBRACE NOSTALGIA'S INFLUENCE Some may argue the cure for nostalgia is not to get overly attached to anything – a neighbourhood shop, a local business, a daily path you take to work – in the first place. SUTD's Dr Chan noted that it has become "quintessential Singaporean to rationalise and not hold onto things too tightly". "We've learnt to accept that one cannot expect things to stay the same way for a long time … And because things change so quickly, you don't even realise that you haven't had enough time to develop the depth of emotions before (a place) is gone.' Yet, forming attachment is only human nature. To deny ourselves that experience in exchange for an easier time letting go in future isn't pragmatism, just cynicism. And despite our best efforts, nostalgia resurfaces time and again. Even youth may start experiencing nostalgia at a much younger age too, being exposed to increasing online content about urban change in Singapore. As a full-time educator, Syafiq said his students, most in their mid-teens, aren't often 'given credit' for the nostalgic feelings they have for their childhood. But he believes this nostalgia will inadvertently mould their Singaporean identity as they grow up. Seeing nostalgia as integral to nation-building may hence better reveal what anchors our sense of belonging from an earlier age. After all, as Dr Chan observed, the search for identity among youths is a lot more "acute" than in someone older, when there is more identity "stability". View this post on Instagram A post shared by Yong | The Urbanist Singapore (@ With physical symbols of heritage, Ho from The Urbanist Singapore believes it's important to take a 'more nuanced view' to get people thinking about what heritage means to them. He focuses on how to respect and pay homage to our heritage rather than the 'total loss' whenever a building or business disappears. 'Because heritage actually comes from the word 'inheritance'. It's something that we can steward from generation to generation,' he said. 'So while there is a feeling of loss, there's also a recognition that there are government agencies like HDB and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) that do what they can to try to infuse heritage and history into urban planning or a new estate that's being developed. 'The question isn't whether to develop, but how to integrate memory into progress. I feel that is the more constructive way forward – and obviously the 'how' to integrate is important. It should not be something cursory.' Ultimately, things don't have to last forever to leave a mark, even if that runs counter to the Singaporean instinct for stability. While knowing this may not dull the weight of our perennial nostalgia, it just means nostalgia is as baked into our DNA as a desire for economic progress. For in a country where change is the only constant, loss is too.
