SG Morning Highlights | Singapore, Germany sign framework for sustainability and innovation

Advancers / Decliners is 89 to 56, with 106.91 million securities worth S$83.9 million changing hands.

Singapore on Sunday (Nov 13) deepened its economic cooperation with Germany, its largest goods trading partner and fourth-largest services trading partner in the European Union (EU).

The Germany-Singapore Framework for Sustainability and Innovation (FSI) was signed by Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations S Iswaran and Germany Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck.

The signing was held at the evening reception for participants of the 17th Asia-Pacific Conference (APK) for German Business, held in Singapore.

Democrats celebrated on Sunday a stunning victory to hold the US Senate, leaving Republicans in disarray and providing a critical base of political and legislative support for the remainder of Joe Biden's presidency.

Although the fate of the lower House of Representatives is still up in the air, retaining control of the upper chamber in a midterm election many predicted they would lose by a wide margin is, in itself, a major triumph.

"I feel good and I'm looking forward to the next couple years," said Biden, who was attending a summit of Southeast Asian leaders in Cambodia.

In the recent bi-annual macroeconomic review published by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), outlook for Singapore's 2022 full-year gross domestic product (GDP) growth was kept unchanged at 3 to 4 per cent with broad-based contributions from the trade-related, domestic-oriented, travel-related and modern services clusters.

However, MAS noted that Singapore's economic growth is expected to slow to a pace that is below trend next year, weighed down by key external-facing sectors such as manufacturing and financial services.

All eight of Singapore's industrial S-Reits have reported their respective Q3 financial results or business updates. Average portfolio occupancy rate across the eight S-Reits was held steady at 95.4 per cent while average gearing ratio was at 37.2 per cent.

Revenue fell 26 per cent to S$42.5 million after revenue contribution from the medical laboratory and dental equipment and supplies business decreased 82 per cent to $3.3 million.

The group's medical laboratory business weakened after the demand for Covid-19 testing in Singapore fell following the economy's reopening, as well as the reduction on test prices to maintain competitiveness in the market.

Sembcorp's wholly owned subsidiary Sembcorp Green Infra signed an agreement with India Infrastructure Fund II, a fund managed by Global Infrastructure Partners India.

With the acquisition, Sembcorp's gross renewable energy capacity will increase to 8.5 GW, including the proposed acquisition of 795 MW of solar assets in China that was announced on Nov 11. The company has a 2025 target of 10 GW of gross installed renewable capacity.

Utilities giant Sembcorp Industries on Friday (Nov 11) said it is acquiring three solar projects in northern China through a joint venture (JV) with Beijing Energy International Investment.

Beijing Energy Sembcorp (Hainan) International Renewables, which is 49 per cent owned by Sembcorp, entered into share purchase agreements with BEI Energy Development (Beijing) to acquire the entire equity interest in the projects, Sembcorp said in an exchange filing.

The initial equity consideration is about 15 million yuan (S$3 million), with future capital injection of up to 1,148 million yuan, the mainboard-listed company said. The acquisition is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2023, subject to regulatory approvals, and will be accretive to earnings upon completion.

Net profit for the three months ended Sep 30, 2022, rose to S$42.5 million from S$15.1 million in the year-ago period. On a per share basis, earnings rose to S$0.0635 in Q3 FY2022 from S$0.0284 a year earlier.

An interim dividend of S$0.01 per share was declared, unchanged from the previous year.