Market Snapshot

Singapore stocks opened flat on Wednesday. STI up 0.08%; OCBC up 0.3%; FCT down 1.4%.

Stocks to Watch

Frasers Centrepoint Trust (FCT) : Its upsized private placement, at S$2.09 per new unit, was around four times covered and raised gross proceeds of around S$220 million, said the manager on Wednesday. Alongside its preferential offering, its equity fundraising exercise raised a sum of S$421.3 million, which will be used partly to repay debts and fund the proposed acquisition of all the units in North Gem Trust – which holds interests in the South Wing of Northpoint City. FCT called for its trading halt to be lifted on Wednesday morning. The counter ended Monday flat at S$2.21, before it called for a trading halt on Tuesday morning.

Digital Core Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) : The Reit acquired a 20 per cent stake in an Osaka data centre for about US$86.7 million, its manager said on Wednesday. The facility, which is freehold and fully occupied, is predominantly leased to global cloud providers. The acquisition is expected to be about 1.8 per cent accretive to the Reit’s distribution per unit, and raise Osaka’s rent contribution to 11 per cent. The counter ended Tuesday at US$0.54, down US$0.015 or 2.7 per cent.

Nanofilm Technologies : Nanofilm Vacuum Coating (Shanghai), a wholly owned subsidiary of mainboard-listed Nanofilm Technologies, obtained a 50 million yuan (S$9.2 million) loan to fund working capital purposes – the subsidiary’s second loan in less than two years. On Tuesday, the company said the latest loan facility will be secured by the mortgage over two plants in Shanghai, owned by Nanofilm Renewable Energy Technology (Shanghai). The three-year loan will be secured by a corporate guarantee from Nanofilm, and two utility patents owned by Nanofilm Vacuum Coating. Shares of Nanofilm closed flat at S$0.655 on Tuesday, before the news.

SG Local News

OCBC group chief executive Helen Wong’s pay in FY2024 up 5.8% to S$12.8 million

OCBC group chief executive officer Helen Wong received S$12.8 million in total remuneration for the financial year ended December, up 5.8 per cent from S$12.1 million in the prior year.

This comprised a base salary of S$1.2 million, a bonus of S$6.8 million, deferred shares amounting to S$4.5 million, as well as payment in the form of other benefits worth S$332,207, according to the bank’s annual report released on Wednesday (Mar 26).

Some benefits that she enjoys, which are paid for by the bank, include club and car benefits.

Singapore companies risk exposure amid poor AI readiness

Only 13% of Singaporean organisations are fully prepared for AI adoption, according to the Cisco AI Readiness Index.

At the same time, 91% have reported identity-related breaches, many of them linked to multi-cloud environments and emerging generative AI (GenAI) tools.

A new white paper released by the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), titled “Charting the Course of AI: Practical Considerations for Financial Services Leaders,” urges firms to adopt an “all-hazards” approach to GenAI—prioritising risk governance as they integrate AI into core operations.