Reports » Singapore

Singapore stock market and companies daily report (SingTel, Yuexiu, Raffles Education) (September 20, 2012)

Contributed by Shares Investment

SingTel Acquires Photo Aggregation Firm For US$26.5m
Singapore Telecommunications announced that it has inked an agreement to acquire US firm, Pixable Inc. for US$26.5 million. Founded in 2009, Pixable is known for its smartphone application that prioritises photos on social networks for customers. Pixable provides users with a personalised photo experience using predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to analyse users’ interactions and consumption habits. Through this use of technology, Pixable has won multiple awards and significant recognition. Allen Lew, chief executive officer of SingTel’s Digital Life arm said that Pixable’s “expertise and customer engagement gives us a foundation to go beyond viewing photos to using photos as a way to stimulate simple immersive communication.” Lew went further and said that the acquisition of Pixable will enable SingTel to “provide a distinctive value-added service to all mobile customers, allowing them to discover and store content, images and their communication history.”
Significance: SingTel’s strategy of introducing “compelling and differentiated” digital services to its 462 million customers underlines Pixable’s acquisition. Together with its other recent purchases, SingTel hopes to further enrich content and connections for customers.

Yuexiu Acquires Land Parcel For Rmb530m
Yuexiu Property Company announced an acquisition of a land parcel located at the Yantai City Economic and Technology Development Zone in Shangdong Province, China. The acquisition was made through open auction for Rmb530 million (approximately $102.6 million). The acquisition price translates into an average land cost per square metre of approximately Rmb1,100. The land parcel covers a site area of approximately 200,000 square metres and a permissible gross floor area of approximately 480,000 square metres. The site has been approved for residential and commercial use. Yuexiu believes that the Yantai City Economic and Technology Development Zone has huge economic development potential for the automobile, information technology and equipment manufacturing, with two leading industries of machinery manufacturing and electronic information.
Significance: Prior to the land acquisition Yuexiu’s total land bank amounted to approximately 12.01 million square metres. The Yantai land parcel acquisition is seen to further enhance Yuexiu’s land bank in the Bohai region.

Raffles Edu Invests RM75m In Malaysia’s Iskandar Site
Raffles Education is ploughing more dough into Malaysia’s Iskandar site, this time, to mark its foray into pre-tertiary education. Raffles will fork out about RM75 million ($30 million) for an 18.5 hectare site in EduCity in Nusajaya, Iskandar Malaysia. Raffles intends to construct the Raffles American School (RAS) which will offer an American curriculum from kindergarten through to Grade 12, or the equivalent of the second year of junior college in Singapore.RAS will prepare students for admission to US and Western universities, and is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleagues, USA. Raffles said the facilities at RAS will include an indoor athletic complex, a performing arts centre and various other indoor and outdoor facilities. RAS has already started classes for Grades 1 through 8 last month at a temporary campus in Anjung Neighbourhood Centre in Nusajaya. Construction will be done in two phases with phase one estimated to be completed in the 2014-15 school year.
Significance: The acquisition and investment is in line with Raffles’ expansion plans and strategic directions to expand into the international school business. Perhaps it is noteworthy that this development also comes after Oei Hong Leong’s share accumulation in the counter.