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Singapore stock market and companies daily report (Golden Agri-Resources,Keppel Land,Wing Tai ) (September 06, 2010)

Contributed by Shares Investment

By Shares Investment

Golden Agri To Invest US$1.6b Liberia Project

Golden Agri-Resources (GAR)’s supplementary Golden VerOleum (GVL), and The Government of Liberia have announced a partnership for the cultivation of sustainable palm oil by the company and by Liberian smallholders and farmers, mill processing and value-added manufacturing. The investment is expected to total US$1.6b, creating more than 35,000 direct jobs and building a whole new economic sector in Liberia’s southeastern counties. The 20-year concession, believed to be one of the biggest investments in Liberian agriculture, will cultivate oil palm in Sinoe, Grand Kru, Maryland, Rivercess and River Gee counties.

Significance: This investment is in line with Golden Agri’s strategy to continually explore investment opportunities worldwide and is also well-timed as Indonesia recently announced plans to impose a 2-year moratorium on new permit to clear forest for oil palm plantations from 2011.

Keppel Land To Unlock Value of Its Jakarta Office Complex

Keppel Land is set to redevelop Tower 2 of its Barclays House complex in Jakarta’s central business district. The estimated amount to be ploughed into the redevelopment will be Rp636b ($95m). The company said it hopes to unlock value from this property by redeveloping one of the two buildings in the complex, which is expected to take three years. The existing 10-storey building, first completed in 1985, can be redeveloped into a 40-storey tower with a maximum potential gross floor area of about 56K square metres (about 600K sq ft). ‘The increased confidence in Indonesia’s economy has generated an upward trend in office demand as foreign and domestic investments continue to strengthen,’ said Ang Wee Gee, executive director and CEO of Keppel Land International.

Significance: Jakarta’s CBD has seen a healthy net take-up since 2Q09. Coupled with strong expectations of Indonesia’s growth prospects, the redevelopment is expected to be earnings accretive.

Wing Tai Remains Positive On Property Sales

The measures announced by the government on last Monday to cool the property market were timely as prices had gone up to unsustainable levels, according to real estate developer Wing Tai Holdings. As such, Wing Tai Holdings will relaunch the remaining apartments in its Oxley Walk luxury Belle Vue Residences at prices between $2,300 and $2,800 per square foot. However, Wing Tai remains positive about sales. “The measures, I think, address the upgraders’ market more. Most of our properties are all high-end, upper-middle and super high-end, so the impact is not much,” said Edmund Cheng, Wing Tai’s deputy chairman. Currently, about 62% of the 176-unit Belle Vue Residences have been sold, with slightly more than half of the apartments snapped up by foreigners.

Significance: While the cooling measures come timely, the impact of the measures on Wing Tai will not be great as the company’s exposure to the Singapore residential sector is mostly in the high-end and luxury segments.

This article is contributed by Shares Investment. Visit Sharesinv.com for the latest Singapore, Malaysia and China stock market news and reports.