SG Market (15 Jan 15)

Singapore shares are expected to see a lacklustre opening as Wall Street enters into its fourth straight day of decline, after the World Bank raised concerns about the global economic weakness. Energy shares could however see some respite, following the late session rebound in oil, which surged more than 5%, posting its biggest jump in 2½ years, fuelled by options expiry. From a chart perspective, technical indicators are appearing to reverse downwards, as confirmed by both the RSI and Stochastic. Near-term support is tipped at its 20-dma at 3,320, while the recent high of 3,370 would be the key resistance level. Stocks to watch: *Popular: Received a voluntary cash offer from Grand Apex, which is jointly-owned by its CEO and his wife, to acquire all the shares of the group at $0.32, representing a 39.1% premium over its last traded price. The offer will become unconditional upon minimum acceptance of 90%. The offeror currently holds 61.3% of the group’s outstanding shares, and does not intend to maintain Popular’s listing status. *DBS: Entered into a JV with Postal Savings Bank of China and five other Chinese corporates to set up a China Post Consumer Finance Company in China. DBS will be investing Rmb120m for a 12% ownership. The China Banking Regulatory Commission has approved the preparatory work to set up the JV. *SingPost: Acquired a 90% stake in Famous Pacific Shipping (FPSNZ) for an initial consideration of NZD3.6m. A potential earn-out consideration of up to NZD4.4m based on the adjusted actual net profit of FPSNZ may also become payable, potentially bringing the total consideration up to NZD8.0m. FPSNZ is a New Zealand based freight forwarder, and the acquisition will allow SingPost to broaden its freight network and establish an entry point into the New Zealand freight market. *Tigerair: Provided updates regarding its collaboration with Scoot. From beginning Jan ’15, the two airlines have begun joint operations for the routes from Singapore to Hong Kong and Bangkok, while in Feb, Scoot will increase the frequency of its Singapore – Perth route to daily as Tiger redeploys its aircraft to other markets. Both carriers are working towards allowing each other’s flights to be booked on their respective websites by the later part of 2015. *ISDN: Acquiring 49% of the share capital of PT Punggawa Datara Energy (PTPDE) for US$563,000. No valuation was conducted by both parties as PTPDE has not commenced business, and as such there is no earnings on which valuations can based on. *Chuan Hup: In regards to Falcon Energy Group’s cash offer for CH Offshore, Chuan Hup announced that it will reject the offer. Chuan Hup owns 23.76% of CH Offshore as at 10 Sep ’14. *LCD Global: Will cancel its rights issue, following the recent voluntary conditional cash offer by Aspial and Fragrance to acquire all the shares of LCD Global for $0.33/share. *Sakae Holdings: Enters into MOU with Religare Capital Markets to cooperate in the areas of corporate and advisory services. *Cosco: 51% owned Cosco Nantong delivered a semi-submersible accommodation vessel to COTEMAR S.A De C.V